The first provincial U16 team in Football Alberta history features three Grade 10 players from St. Albert.
Sam Cuciz, quarterback of the St. Albert High Skyhawks, and offensive lineman Anthony Swecera and running back Keaton Zaychkowsky of the Paul Kane Blues were selected to participate in the International Bowl on Jan. 31 in Arlington, Texas.
Team Alberta will huddle up against USA Football’s U16 team as part of four games that weekend between age-group teams from Canada and the United States sanctioned by the International Federation of American Football.
The game will be played under American rules and held the day before the Super Bowl at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, home of the Dallas Cowboys.
The 42-man roster consists of players from the Alberta Summer Games’ football competition in August at Airdrie.
Al Cooper of the Calgary Cowboys’ bantam organization is the Team Alberta head coach. Cooper coached Zone 3 (Calgary) to the gold medal at the Alberta Summer Games. The rest of the coaches were selected from the other zone teams.
Cuciz was the starting quarterback for the 3-5 Skyhawks and in five metro Edmonton regular season games he ranked third in passing yards in Miles division two with 430. He completed 39 out of 66 passes for seven touchdowns and three interceptions.
Swecera was one of only two Grade 10s to crack the roster of Paul Kane’s senior team, the 8-0 Miles champions.
Zaychkowsky was honoured as the Grant Yuzyk Trophy recipient as the most valuable player in pool B in metro Edmonton junior football. He rushed for 873 yards on 49 carries for nine TDs and caught five passes for 42 yards for the 3-3 junior Blues. He also played a prominent role at slotback for the senior Blues winning the Miles final against the McNally Tigers.
Team Alberta has training camps scheduled for Dec. 14 and Jan. 3-4 at the Commonwealth Stadium Fieldhouse before departing for Texas on Jan. 26.
Chad Monai-Brophy of the St. Albert Rugby Football Club is this year’s co-recipient of the U18/19 player of the year award in the Edmonton Rugby Union.
Monai-Brophy and Bray Melnychuk of the Clansmen were honoured for their rugby prowess at the junior level at the ERU’s awards banquet last weekend.
Last year Monai-Brophy was awarded the Garth Jones Shield as the U17 ERU player of the year.
Monai-Brophy is a rising star at standoff who made his men’s debut this year with St. Albert’s premier and second division teams. He was the youngest player on St. Albert’s 22-man roster for the Labatt’s Cup provincial final as the fantastic firsts stomped the Calgary Hornets 39-5 in Calgary.
