Four Foothills Eagles brought home more than a tan from a recent trip to Las Vegas.
Eagles quarterback Ethan Renaud, wide receiver Hunter Lewis, defensive back Everett Grenkie, linebacker Aaric Joels, along with coach Tim Henderson, and the Calgary Bantam Football Association Selects brought home the 14U title at the National Youth Alliance Pigskin Tournament.
“They seemed to all enjoy it and got playing time,” said Henderson, the longtime head coach of the Bantam Eagles. “You’re going down there to win the tournament, but the families pay the same amount, so you want them all to get in the game.
“The nice thing about this for the Eagles program is this is the third year in a row we’ve sent four Eagles down so we’ve had some success there.”
The Selects squad is made up of the top 30 players from the regional league following a top 80 camp at the conclusion of the season.
The CBFA Selects program has run for 36 years and this marked the sixth time the team has competed at the Vegas event.
“This is my third year coaching down there and the competition was a lot tougher,” Henderson said. “We tell the kids before we go down that it’s more physical and the game is a lot tougher.
“We prepare them for two weeks and when we get down there they’re kind of shocked by it, but we did really well.”
In Vegas, the Selects overpowered California’s Jack Frost Aztecs 34-0, dropped a tight 21-13 contest to the Saskatchewan Selects, a U15 team, and edged the Vegas Jr. Miners by 20-12 score in the final.
The teams played American rules football and on consecutive days over a three-day span following weeks of practices leading up to the event.
The CBFA playoffs came to a close in early-November with the Selects program extending the season for close to a month for the young athletes.
All four Eagles on the Selects are second-year Bantam players and moving up to the high school level next season.
“What they got out of playing for the Selects is that the calibre of football is a little higher, they got to play with top tier players and top tier coaches,” the coach added.
“It’s a different game, a different look playing down in the States so when they come back and get into high school they have that little bit more experience.”
Foothills had a strong season with a 6-2 record in the CBFA before advancing to the Tier I semifinal round in the postseason.
The four Eagles on the Selects were also named to the CBFA All-Star team and will be recognized at a league banquet this week.
For more information on the Eagles, visit gofa.ca.
