Sylvan Lake will be represented at this year’s Football Canada Cup in Saskatoon this summer, after Landon Rosene was named to the Team Alberta roster last week.
Rosene, 16, made the cut after impressing at tryouts in Edmonton. A runningback, he was one of 325 players vying for a spot on the 40-man roster.
“I’m pumped to be representing Alberta in my favourite sport,” he said.
Rosene plays football with the H.J. Cody School Lakers. Jeremy Braitenback, head coach of that team, wasn’t surprised to learn Rosene had been selected.
“If you watch him play, he’s pretty amazing,” he said. “He’s not the biggest character, but his skill set is that he’s quick and he can really make good cuts at a high speed which set him apart from a lot of other players.”
That Rosene was selected as a running back is particularly meaningful, said Braitenback. Although Sylvan Lake players have played for the team before, Rosene is the first to have been selected in that position.
“It’s the most important position on the field, and most of the time, it’s kids out of the bigger schools in Edmonton or Calgary that make that position,” he said.
Talent ID camps were held in Calgary, Lacombe, Lethbridge and Edmonton over two weekends in April, when 325 players trying out were narrowed down to 110. Final selection took place at a camp held May 9 to 11.
The team will compete at July’s Football Canada Cup in Saskatoon. Alberta has previously done well in the tournament, finishing runner up to Quebec every year for the past three years.
Ben Pasiuk and Owen Smith, both of École Secondaire Lindsay Thurber Comprehensive High School in Red Deer, make up the rest of the Central Alberta players on the team.
Others hail from Calgary, Medicine Hat, Peace River, Sherwood Park, Edmonton, Okotoks, Spruce Grove, Raymond, Cold Lake, Claresholm and St. Albert.