The next level.
In a town grooming athletes from the high school/community ranks in a wide range of sports, Cochrane High School Cobras football co-head coach and offensive coordinator Rob McNab is always pitching “the next level.”
From recent Cobras football grads like Kellen Forrest (University of Calgary), Bryce McKinnon and Kyle Moortgat (University of Regina), to basketball players like Cooper Hamaliuk (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology), Chase Nielson (Medicine Hat College) and McNab’s eldest daughter Kristen (Med. Hat), McNab urges Cobras athletes to excel.
Cobras senior quarterback Cody Stevens is McNab’s latest prodigy moving up, signing a letter of intent to play for the University of Alberta Golden Bears football team in 2015. Stevens is pumped at the prospect of playing for the Edmonton-based Canada West University Athletic Association team, and understands what he’s being taught at Cochrane High will serve him well at the next level.
“Absolutely,” Stevens said of the football skills he’s learned at Cochrane High. “You see the field differently when you learn to read defences more than other schools. Coach McNab, he taught me a lot about reading defences throughout the years and preparing me for the next level.”
The Texas native is a classic drop-back passer with a cannon for an arm, spinning spirals tighter than a sports writer’s wallet. The 6-foot-1, 185-pounder is in his third season with Cobras.
“It’s terrific,” McNab said of Stevens’s commitment to U of A. “He’s got all the tools, talent and mentality – everything – to play at the next level. I’m glad this is something he’s going to pursue. University of Alberta is an up and coming team, and they want him, so that’s always a good thing. I think down the road he’s going to be able to make a difference.”
Part of making a difference in football includes the risk of injury, which Stevens suffered Sept. 25 in an exhibition scrimmage against Calgary’s Notre Dame, the No. 1-ranked high school football team in Canada. He was spotted leaning on crutches on the Cobras sideline during Cochrane High’s 76-10 Sept. 27 Rocky View Sports Association win over visiting Bert Church Chargers. He aggravated an ankle injury (sprain) at Notre Dame, but said it wasn’t serious.
A timetable for his return to Cobras is unclear, but Stevens will be fit and ready for U of A’s spring camp.
“I’ve had a lot of good quarterbacks. He could be the most talented passer I’ve ever had,” McNab assessed of his starting pivot. “He can stand back there and throw with the best of them.”
He’s also a student of the game.
“His whole attitude about wanting to learn,” McNab said. “That’s the big thing. He just wants to learn.”
A quiet leader who prefers to let his play do the talking, McNab says Stevens is “coming out of his shell” in his senior year.
“He wants to play,” McNab states of Stevens. “He’s a football player.”
