You wouldn’t know it for the weather, but spring has sprung because pigskins are spinning through the sky. And when Cochrane Lions quarterback Des Catellier is pitching, the ball is easier to spot for the vapor trails.
Catellier’s opening salvo of the Calgary Area Midget Football Association (CAMFA) preseason was a 40-yard missile fired right into the waiting, gloved hands of receiver Evan Perrault who skipped untouched into the endzone on the Lions’ first offensive play at the CAMFA jamboree against Calgary Broncos. That the March 27 exhibition event, where teams played half-field scrimmages without keeping score, went off in near-Arctic conditions at Calgary’s Shouldice Park made the textbook execution of the deep fly route that much more improbable, and impressive.
Head coach Jud Graham has given notice the Lions will be as creative and daring on offence as quarterbacks/receivers coach Levi Jackson was as Springbank Community High School’s cardiac QB two seasons ago.
“We’ll air the ball out,” said Graham of his offensive game plan, which borrows from schemes at National Collegiate Athletic Association schools Nevada, Texas Tech and Washington State. “But we’ll pound it up the middle, too. We can do both.”
It’s one thing to have the X’s and O’s in the playbook. It’s another having them move cohesively on the field. In Catellier, the Lions have a top-flight pivot who won the Calgary Senior High School Athletic Association Div. 1 junior-varsity city title in November with undefeated St. Francis. QB coach Jackson, a productive performer under centre in 2012 as a Springbank Phoenix senior, understands this. The Lions are deep at the position with Springbank chuckers Egan Hamill and Liam Manns also on the Cochrane roster.
“We’re going to be putting in a lot of pass-oriented stuff. We’ll do a lot of the same stuff we did at Springbank with throwing the ball and making quick reads,” Jackson said following the scrimmage against Broncos. “We’ve got some weapons.”
With Bow Valley Bobcats Grade 11 feature running back Scott Haigh and Springbank’s “Flyin‘ Hawaiian” Makani Clapson in the backfield, Catellier has superior ground support. Haigh (upper body) missed the jamboree, but is on target for either April 7 opening night or Week 2.
Clapson, who hails from Oahu, was dangerous every time he touched the ball against Broncos, rarely going down on the first tackle. When he wasn’t toting the rock he was protecting the quarterback, punching gaps at the point of attack and sealing off seams – his goal-line block key to Kane Boklaschuk’s five-yard TD scamper against Broncos.
There is definitely a Phoenix flavour to this year’s Lions, starting at the top with coach Graham, who was a position coach with Springbank in the fall.
“The kids come back from spring-league ball more coachable,” said Phoenix head coach Tony Lucas, who watched his troops play for the Lions at the CAMFA jamboree. “They get more reps, more game time. It works out well.”
The Lions kick off the regular season April 7 against Wildcats at Calgary’s Shouldice Park, Stampeder Field, 8:30 p.m.
