The Bow Valley Bobcats moved on in the provincial high school football playoffs at the expense of the Ecole Olds High School Spartans last week.
The Bobcats defeated Olds 34-17 on Friday, November 1st in Red Deer.
Spartans Head Coach Kent Lorenz reflected on the season ending loss. He says “we worked hard all week in the cold weather getting ready for Friday and I thought we had a really good week of practice. Unfortunately, it didn’t tabulate on the scoreboard. It was a great facility to play at and the boys played their best but it just wasn’t quite there that day. Well, the game was really quite close for most of the game. I think it just went down to a few things where we were able to not quite convert third downs and they were. They got a few bounces here and there. We just came up on the short end of the sticks.”
Lorenz adds, they had a great group this season with 22 rookies on the team and 12 players that had never played the game of football. He says “we had 35 players. So roughly 70-75 per cent of our team were brand new to high school football. So with that there is 5 players that are graduating and it’s been a pleasure coaching them this year. A lot of the players will be back. There is a few that’ll definitely be moving on or having other opportunities. We take every year as a unique situation and we welcome any kids that come out.”
OHS ends the season with a total of 7 wins and 3 losses. He says “I let the kids know, the players know, that I know they gave it their best effort and left everything out on the field. Not all the time are you going to get the victory but a lot of time it is about the process and looking each other in the mirror at the end of the game. Just be able to say ‘yeah, we did our best as a team’ and I thought they did.”
The Spartans wound up 10th in Football Alberta’s Top 10 for 3A schools with populations of between 200 and 799 students.
Listen to 96.5 CKFM’s conversation with Kent Lorenz.
