Aspiring athletes took to the field with CFL veteran Bryn Roy

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Strathmore’s own Canadian Football League (CFL) veteran, Bryn Roy, returned over the weekend to help teach a group of aspiring young athletes, as well as to give them a helping hand with potential recruiters.

Roy, alongside several other CFL veterans hosted a football combine on Dec. 4, for athletes in Grades 9-12 to learn, test their abilities and experience a simulation of what being scouted would look like. 

A football combine, he explained, is a combination of skills and drills used across the board in the football world to measure athleticism and scale a person’s abilities in the context of football

The drills and tests include a 40-yard dash, pro shuttle, vertical jump, broad jump and bench press.

“These kids are getting to run all their tests and then all their numbers are getting sent off to our partner program, (which includes) … almost every junior program in Canada and then around 30 schools in the (United States) that I have personal relationships with,” said Roy.

“These numbers that are taken today are getting sent to the desks of the decision makers at 55 different programs total.”

This year’s combine marks the fifth such event that he has operated and the second in Strathmore. The prior three years were hosted in Okotoks, where Roy also played during his high school years.

Of the students who participated in previous year’s combines, Roy said 31 had been offered opportunities to play football beyond the high school level. He hopes to one day see results from at least some of the 50 students who came out to train on Saturday.

“All of us pros who are here to help, we all had to do this, so we know what goes into it. It can be intimidating for a young athlete to be assessed like this, but it’s way more intimidating at the next level when a scholarship or contract is on the line,” Roy explained.

“If we can make this as realistic as possible where they know there’s not a chopping block at the end of today – today is not going to make or break their career, however, there’s several kids whose careers could be impacted as far as being seen and receiving scholarships or opportunities to play at the next level.”

He added that particularly being from rural Alberta, it can be exceptionally difficult for aspiring athletes to be scouted and find opportunities to move forward in their sporting careers. 

Further, his is the only regular football combine that operates in Western Canada.

“The whole goal, the whole drive to have this combine in the first place, was just knowing how hard it was for me as an athlete to get signed and to continue my career,” said Roy.

“I was a pretty good athlete in high school, I made Senior Bowl and team Alberta and won a provincial championship and all that and I still didn’t have any offers after my senior season.”

Following his time in high school, Roy was a walk-on for Snow College in Utah, prior to attending a training camp and eventually getting drafted by the Montreal Alouettes.

From there, he went on to play for the Saskatchewan Roughriders, then the Edmonton Eskimos and then back with Montreal again.

Now being in an off season, Roy said he wants to help and encourage the next generation of players as much as he can.

“I had to go the long way, the whole way and because of that, I learned how to help this generation. I learned how not to do it enough different ways that now we’ve got at least a path of least resistance for these kids and hopefully we can help as many as we can,” Roy explained.

“I want anybody who wants to play to come. Everybody is welcome, but the reason why we host it in smaller venues is to let people know you can make it from anywhere, you just have to have a desire and want to. You can’t take no for an answer.”

According to Roy, only seven per cent of students who play in high school will play in college and only one per cent of those will go pro.