Kindersley Kobras linebacker Shaun Cranston, 16, has been chosen for the Saskatchewan Selects Football Program and will travel to San Antonio, Texas, late in February to play in the International Pigskin Football Tournament.
Kenneth Brown
of The Clarion
A high school football player from Kindersley has been invited to join Saskatchewan Selects Football Program after an evaluation camp in November.
Shaun Cranston, a Grade 11 student at Kindersley Composite School (KCS), has aspirations of playing college football in the United States and he will get a taste of four-down American football in the Saskatchewan Selects Football Program.
The local player attended an evaluation camp in November at the Yara Centre Field House in Moose Jaw, the home for the Saskatchewan Selects Football Organization. The 2018-19 campaign marks the seventh season for Saskatchewan Selects football. Cranston has been practicing with the team since Dec. 1.
[emember_protected for=”2″ custom_msg=’For more on this story, please see this week’s print edition of The Clarion.’]
As part of the program, the team practices in December and the practices include various guest coaches. The team plays an interprovincial tournament at the Yara Centre on Jan. 5-6 and the big tournament of the season is in San Antonio, Texas at the end of February.
Cranston, 16, will play in the International Pigskin Football Tournament on Feb. 23-24 in San Antonio. Practices and meetings start in Texas on Feb. 20, according to a schedule on the Saskatchewan Selects Football Organization’s website.
The tournament has teams from Texas, other football states, Mexico and Saskatchewan. Cranston, a linebacker, said he believes the Saskatchewan Selects team won the whole tournament in 2017, so it would be nice to repeat.
He noted that the Saskatchewan Selects organization holds an open tryout in the fall each year and he heard about the opportunity from Angy Johnson, a physical education instructor at KCS. He said it did not take long for him to decide if he wanted to try out.
“When she handed me the booklet explaining it, I immediately wanted to go,” he said of the interaction with Johnson, recognizing that he enjoys playing contact sports such as football and hockey because they are fast and physical.
Cranston plays for the Kindersley Kobras and he was named the team’s most valuable player on defence after the 2018 season. He said he also plays for the local midget hockey team, but football is his favourite sport to play and it is a sport he hopes to continue playing at a high level in the future.
He noted that he started playing football as soon as he could. He started playing in Grade 7 while he was living with his father in Unity, and then he became a member of the Elizabeth Middle School program in its first year after moving back to Kindersley for Grade 8.
This past season was his first season as a linebacker and he was named the team’s Defensive MVP. He said he played at the tight end position from Grade 7 to Grade 10, but he has found his true calling on defence.
“I just like the defence because I can sit back, read what’s happening, and then go in and just play physical,” Cranston said, recognizing that he enjoys initiating contact on defence even though he also enjoyed avoiding contact and making plays on offence.
A college recruitment agency contacted Cranston in hopes of working with the player to get him signed to play for a U.S. college program in 2020 after he graduates from high school. He said he was scheduled to talk to the agency about his plans for college.
The linebacker coach for the Saskatchewan Selects pulled Cranston aside during the evaluation camp in November. He said he did not know what to expect at the time, but the coach asked him if he would be dedicated to travelling to Moose Jaw and San Antonio if he was selected for this year’s team.
Cranston said players have to travel to Moose Jaw on weekends from December to February. He noted that he assured the linebacker coach he would be dedicated to travelling as a part of the team. He was excited to get the email confirming his selection.
“It was sort of a tense few days until I got the email that confirmed it,” the local player said, recognizing that he was about as excited as he has ever been and he has “never really felt anything like that before.”
According to Cranston, he gets to see plays develop as a linebacker and it has allowed him to flourish at the position. He said he looks forward to an opportunity to play in Texas and learn from the program. The Saskatchewan Selects linebacker coach is also a coach for the University of Alberta in Edmonton, he added.
[/emember_protected]
