Former Cochrane Lions quarterback Des Catellier has been selected to play in the USports 2019 East-West Bowl on May 11 at Carleton’s MNP Park in Ottawa.
The young 21-year-old signal caller is one of the 90 players chosen to take part in the game with the West team is mostly made up of USports football players from Canada West and Ontario University Athletics (OUA) schools, except Carleton, Ottawa and Queen’s, which play for the East squad. The rest of the East team features players from AUS and Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) schools.
The game is used as a way for players eligible for the 2020 Canadian Football League (CFL) draft to showcase their skills in front of professional teams scouts and general managers. The event consists of a week-long football showcase that includes four days of practice, a CFL free agent combine, and of course, the game itself on May 11.
“All of our teams will be in attendance during the week,” says Ryan Janzen, the CFL’s senior director of football in an interview on the USports writer Matthew Coyte. “These are the top guys for next year's draft, so to get the first set of eyes on them is beneficial for us.
"The coaches are getting the chance to spend a week with these players. Come draft time next year, they already know them a little. Throughout the week, they can kind of get a benchmark of where the players are strength and speed wise, see what their practice habits are and how well they do in the game. Our teams love it – it's a huge benefit to them.”
Richard MacLean, the director of football at USports, has seen how this game has helped continue to reinforce the relationship between Canadian university players and the CFL.
“The CFL realizes that USports has a wealth of talent and this gives them a chance to see them in a different setting for a week,” said Maclean to Coyte. “CFL scouts will go watch the events, see what happens, talk to the players and get a feeling for who these athletes are. That access to players has really helped our partnership with the CFL."
Catellier will enter his second year as Manitoba's starting pivot in 2019. He made huge strides in 2018, throwing for 2,012 yards and 16 touchdowns, the latter of which tied him for second in the Canada West conference. Over the Calgary native's last two seasons, he's thrown for 3,154 yards and 23 scores while also holding the best completion percentage in program history (minimum 500 yards passing per year), at 62.6 helping the Bisons to a 3-6 record with several of their losses coming within 10 points or less. He also finished the season with 21 rushing attempts for 137 yards.
The year prior, Catellier finished the season completing just under 60 per cent of his passes for 1,142 yards and five touchdowns. His best game came against the University of Saskatchewan where he completed 24 of his throws on 32 attempts for 277 yards and three touchdowns.
Catellier said this is a huge opportunity for him to prove to the rest of the country that he's an elite quarterback at the USports level.
“For the past two or three years, I've watched the game and have definitely wanted to play in it,” says Catellier, who will back up reigning Hec Crighton Trophy winner and USports Male Athlete of the Year finalist Adam Sinagara of the Calgary Dinos for the West Team. “This is a chance for you to separate yourself as either an elite U SPORTS player of just a good USports player.”
“It's a week of hard work and football. You’ve just got to go in with a work mentality. This isn’t just a fun trip to Ottawa, this is a business trip. That's how I’m preparing going into it."
Last year Cochranite and University of Regina receiver Kyle Moortgat and Team West defeated the East team by a score of 15-14.
