This is an exert of a document presented to the Football Alberta Board of Directors by Football Alberta technical director & team world development squad coach Tim Enger.
Temperatures below zero. Wind whipping across the football field. Alberta born and raised players making big play after big play in big game. High School Provincials, right? No. How ‘bout Junior or CIS playoffs? Nope. So what the heck were six Alberta kids doing on an abnormally frosty night on February 2nd at Westlake Stadium in Austin, Texas. Well, they were leading the charge for a team of the best 19 year old players in the World taking on the best high school graduates from the USA. Huh, how did that happen?
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What’s IFAF, you ask? Well, in short its footballs version of the IOC or FIFA or any other international sport organization you can think of. Since 1991, the International Federation of American Football has been growing at a steady rate to the point where they count 59 countries as member organizations. They are now in a position of offering World Championships in flag and tackle for both genders as well as special events such as Team USA vs. Team World.
Not a bad gig indeed as I would be part of selecting 45 players from 16 countries, including Canada, to take on the big bad USA and responsible for another 30 players from around the planet who would serve on the Development Team in hopes of cracking the roster next year. Skipping to the end we came, we did pretty good, but still lost 21-14 on that frigid night in Austin to the Americans. Now, I could write this off as another great experience for me but it was so much more than that and mainly because of the athletes from our province.
To make the World Team is not as easy as you might think. One must have a good highlight film because there are no tryout camps for the World Team. IFAF is really coming into its own but the prospect of regional selection camps for this event go way beyond expensive. We’re talking about the whole world here. Senior Bowl camps are expensive enough within our borders. How would we run a camp for Canada, Mexico, and American Samoa combined? At this time, you can’t – so the coaches relied on video. As tough as that was when the smoke cleared several Canadians were picked including six Albertans.
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ALBERTA PLAYERS
Some of the names you know and some may be new to you. It’s hard to process that less than six years ago they were all padding along for their respective bantam teams in Alberta, but here they were, Alberta’s best selected from hundreds of nominated players from around the world.
First up was runningback Steven Lumbala. The current U of C Dino came from a proud history of runningbacks not only from St. Francis High School in Calgary but from his family as well as his brother Rolly graduated from the Browns as well and went on to star at the University of Idaho, spend some time with the Miami Dolphins and currently plays for the B.C. Lions. Quite the history to live up to but Steven was well on his way helping lead the Dinos to two straight Vanier Cup appearances.
Next was receiver Jake Harty from the Calgary Colts. He was a tough sell to the IFAF group as his stats were pretty average for a receiver in the Prairie Junior League, but when you added all of his yards from rushing and special teams as well it was clear that the former whirling dervish from Henry Wise Wood High School in Calgary was a difference maker and it wouldn’t take him long to prove that to the rest of the world.
The Calgary connection also included the U of C’s Lyndon Gaydosh, a brick wall of a defensive lineman who originally hails from Peace River and spent his Grade 12 year at Ross Sheppard High School in Edmonton. The perpetually scowling defensive tackle, who was nicknamed “Grumpy” by the World Team staff, had already earned his chops at the next level winning the Rookie of the Year Award in the CIS for 2009 had also been a big part of the Dino’s streak to the Vanier Cups.
From the Edmonton area were three players as well. First up was offensive lineman Kyle Brow. The quiet giant out of Archbishop Jordan High School in Sherwood Park had resisted the pull from the east that seems to suck all of the top graduating Sherwood Park linemen to Saskatchewan and stayed home to become a two year starter for the U of Alberta Golden Bears right out of high school.
Joining him were two ex-patriots who had not been so lucky in resisting the pull to the east and both currently were playing for the University of Saskatchewan. Up first was Jahlani Gilbert-Knorren. Jahlani is well known for his years leading the Edmonton Chargers to championships at Pee-Wee and Bantam and for contributing greatly to the re-birth of Harry Ainlay’s football program. The reason I didn’t list a position for him is that he plays so many it’s hard to nail him down to one. Quarterback, runningback, receiver, defensive back, and return man. The kid could do it all. That problem continued onto the World Team as they simply listed him as “Athlete”.
Finally came Joel Seutter. The defensive end and fiercely proud graduate of Salisbury High School in Sherwood Park was a veteran of sorts having played in this game, along with Steven Lumbala, the year before. Joel, with his mischievous smile and constantly running motor, spent most of his time hanging out with his other U of Saskatchewan teammates Luke Thiel and Levi Steinhauer who collectively became known as the “Bad Hair Club for Men” with their constant sporting of bed-head ‘dos.
Not a bad representation. Nice to think that we in Alberta could send quality players to such an event, but as a small part of a big world it would be unrealistic to expect a big contribution from us rural hicks. However, a funny thing happened on the way to benchwarmer status for our kids.
Let’s keep in mind that this American Team was the real deal. There had been American teams before in Global Championships or World Cups before. However, they were usually regional teams made up of players from a particular State or also rans from failed College players. Not this group. The morning of the game, while the World Team slept, a breakfast banquet was being held for the members of Team USA, who were the top ranked recruits from all over the country, where they were all to sign their letter of intent to go to the University of their choice. And we’re not talking College of the Siscayous or Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrow here. Alabama, Notre Dame, Texas, Stanford, and the newly crowned National Champion Auburn Tigers were the destination for these players among other Division I schools. In short – these were their guys!
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THE GAME
If I remember anything vividly from this experience it will be the first drive of the game. The Americans had taken the kickoff and were steadily working their way down the field. It wasn’t easy for them as the World Team was making them work for every inch. On a second and 8 situation they called a drop back pass. Now we’ve all seen the movie “The Blindside” so we know how vital offensive linemen are in the US recruiting and lining up to protect the American QB was Matt Hegarty who had just signed a letter of intent to Notre Dame. The kid he was protecting was QB Kiehl Frazier who had done the same thing that morning only inked his moniker to Auburn University. I’m assuming these are programs you’ve heard of.
As the ball came up Hegarty dropped into to pass pro when a blur wearing the World Team white jersey went blasting by him like he wasn’t even there. It was Joel Suetter. The Captain of both the team and the Bad Hair for Men Club kicked it into overdrive and tracked down the top quarterback recruit of Auburn with the efficiency of a top steer wrestler. As he stood over the American QB like Muhammed Ali over a prone Sonny Liston, I couldn’t help but think that this kid grew up on Norwich Drive in Sherwood Park and just tracked down the possible heir apparent to the last Heisman Trophy winner. Whoa, we do some good work here.
Soon, Joel was seeing a lot more of Mr. Hegarty and any other help he could muster from other lineman and runningbacks to stop the kid with the constant motor. If they tried to run away from him, Lyndon Gaydosh was there in the middle to limit the run gains with extreme prejudice. On the other side of the ball, rushing yards were hard to come by but if anyone was up to the challenge it was Steven Lumbala who lead all World Team ground gainers in the game. Harty was up to the task as well snatching the first three passes completed by Team World. All in all you couldn’t swing a cat without hitting an Albertan contributing to the cause.
Sure, others stepped up to the mat for Team World. Toronto’s Tevaun Smith had a stellar game taking a kickoff back for a TD, catching a two-point convert and eventually being named the World Team’s MVP. The Austrian offensive linemen Micheal Habetin and Aleksander Milanovic kept the hard charging American’s off of our QB’s. Defensively, there is a reason that American Samoa is pound for pound the best contributor of NFL talent outside the USA in the world. Linebackers Beck Coulter and David Katina may be playing on Sunday in the future. The enthusiasm of the players from Japan and the wry sense of humour from the Australian contingent were memories that stand out as well.
Late in the game I was checking to see how the last two, Brow and Gilbert-Knorren were doing. As an offensive linemen, Kyle Brow, would be hard to notice much but he did play all of the game but two series so he was definitely getting his money’s worth out of the event. As for Jahlani Gilbert-Knorren, his struggles to find and identity had continued all week long in preparation for the game. The coaching staff knew he was a gifted athlete and they tried him at receiver, quarterback, and runningback and still couldn’t find the right fit for him in their mind. As a result he spent most of the game watching like I was. Late in the fourth with the World Team trailing 21-7 the USA fumbled a punt return which was pounced on by none other than Bad Hair Seutter. As the World Team offense rushed out on the field I started looking for Jahlani to see if he’d played yet. The problem was I couldn’t find him. As I looked at all the groups huddled around the heaters he was nowhere to be found. Just then a huge roar came up from our bench. Ben Rossing, the World Team QB had just heaved a 51 yard TD pass to…..Jahlani Gilbert-Knorren. So that’s where he got to. I guess the coaches figured out how to use him after all. As I watched the replay on the big screen (yes, this high school stadium came with a replay screen), I marvelled at the kid who I first saw dodging tacklers from the Edmonton Seahawks pee-wee team eight years ago, blow past the American corner who was headed to the University of Texas in the fall and make a circus catch on a slightly underthrown ball. Sadly, after that despite the heroic efforts of the defence, the American side was able to essentially run out the clock from there to preserve the 21-14 victory.
The moral of this story is that football, Canadian or American, is growing worldwide. There are other areas developing athletes in the game that used to be strictly a North American phenomenon. The Development Team that I was dealing with has some talented up and comers from Spain, Serbia, France, Norway, Sweden, Japan, Mexico, Australia, and – of course – American Samoa that may one day be limiting the percentage of Canadian talent on the World Team. But for now it is what it is, but it should be noted that when it was all said and done, there wasn’t a region anywhere on earth that had as much contribution to the World side of the ball than the six Canadian kids from the eastern slopes of the Rockies.
I hope this helps you look at our players in a different light this upcoming fall. On national teams, Alberta does OK, but last year’s entry into the World Junior Hockey Championships featured only one Albertan (Dylan Olsen) and there has been only one Albertan on any Canadian National basketball team (Jermaine Bucknor) in recent memory. And, this wasn’t a national team – it was a WORLD team and we put six on there. Kids you and I have coached are among the best going in our sport.
By Tim Enger, BPE, MA
Football Alberta, Technical Director
Head Coach, Team Alberta, 2007 National Champions (U19 – Football Canada Cup)
[url]http://www.footballalberta.ab.ca/web/
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