Another season of achievement in high-school sports is on the horizon for Cochrane, with football, girls’ soccer, and cross-country teams preparing to chart the course for the beginning of the 2022-23 school year.
The seven-time consecutive Alberta Sports’ Athletic Association (ASAA) Tier III provincial football champions – the Cochrane High Cobras – held their pre-season training camp this past weekend and will boast one of the largest rosters the school’s ever had for the 2022 season, with over 60 players.
Tryouts for the perennial powerhouse football team were hosted before the end of the 2021-22 school year, in early June. In 31 years of coaching, and in what was his final year teaching at the school, it was the largest turnout head coach Robbie McNab said he’s ever seen.
“This was an extraordinary year for us. We had close to 75 [players] try out and I think there’s close to 68 on our roster right now. That’s unheard of because we’re usually around 45 on the team,” he said.
This year, the Cobras coaching staff – comprised of McNab, defensive coordinator Tommy Knitter and offensive coordinator Derek Cooper – are trying to combine some of the junior varsity program with the seniors in a move to develop and showcase Cochrane High’s younger players’ skills earlier.
“With the incredible talent levels of these kids and their potential, we just thought we couldn’t not have them be part of our program,” said the long-serving head coach.
New and returning players can also look forward to a brand-new turf field being built adjacent to Cochrane High School, set for completion sometime this fall. The new multi-sports field will be marked for football, rugby, and soccer and will have a certified rugby shock pad. There will also be improvements to lighting, scoreboard, fencing, and bleachers.
McNab said enthusiasm for the addition of the turf field is palpable at the school and throughout the community. The Cobras have played their home games at cross-town Bow Valley High School in recent years.
“There’s tremendous excitement with this facility being built, and really, there’s nothing like going out for a game at home and just being in your own locker room,” he said. “We’re looking forward to seeing what we can build with the team here.”
Last year, the Cobras won their seventh consecutive ASAA Tier III provincial championship, in addition to their sixth consecutive Rocky View Sports Association (RVSA) banner. While it’s still too early to say what’s in store this year, McNab is feeling confident about the team’s prospects.
“I feel great about the upcoming season. We had a lot of young kids playing last year and now they’re going to be the seniors this year,” he said. “We’re going to go step-by-step and game-by-game, but our ultimate goal is and always has been to reach that provincial championship.
“We’re gonna work hard, we’re gonna get ready. The kids are focused.”
The Cobras will meet on the gridiron for their first game of the season against Bert Church High School in Airdrie. The game is set to kick off Aug. 26 at 4 p.m.
Competing in the same league, the Bow Valley Bobcats’ RVSA campaign will also begin around the end of August. An official RVSA football schedule has yet to be released, as of The Eagle's press time.
Cross-country
Excitement is building at St. Timothy’s High School after the cross-country team brought home Cochrane’s first-ever high-school provincial banner in the sport last year.
Head coach Travis Cummings said they had been knocking on the door for the championship for the last few years and finally pulled through in 2021. He hopes they can pull another strong team together this year to repeat last year’s feat.
“We had two of our senior women graduate, but for the most part, we’ve got the same team and we have a couple new athletes enrolling at the school that train for the [Cochrane Endurance Project] and some athletes coming up from junior high that should help to fill in that gap,” he said.
“I’m cautiously optimistic though. I never want to get too overly excited about it, because there’s a lot of things that can happen throughout the season.”
Many of the school’s cross-country athletes also train with the Endurance Project, a Cochrane-based athletics club. Those runners have been racing throughout the summer, up until about mid-July.
Cummings expects to see many familiar faces from the club on the school’s team, but not all the school’s runners also race with the club.
“I’m not sure who’s all going to come out of the woodwork this year at the school, but there’s usually a few new faces,” he said.
St. Timothy’s had to rebuild its cross-country roster last year after the return to high-school sports post-COVID-19 restrictions. According to Cummings, their team numbers were lower than usual as a result.
“We have a small student body to begin with,” he explained. “But our sports programs were decimated by the pandemic, so we’re hoping that we can get that sports culture re-established and build some momentum from there.
“All that being said, we’re in a good spot. We still managed to pull a provincial championship out of the bag.”
The cross-country team’s first season meet will be Sept. 14 at Canmore Park.
Girls’ soccer
The high-school girls’ soccer season is also set to get underway in September. In the public school division, the Cochrane Cobras will look to retain their RVSA banner from last fall, while the Bow Valley Bobcats will hope to improve upon their bronze-medal showing in the same league.
St. Tim’s girls’ soccer teams, meanwhile, compete in the Calgary Senior High School Athletics Association. Schedules have not been released but play tends to get underway in early- to mid-September.
