In a year that has been nothing close to normal, Football Alberta has set aside its normal coach/volunteer of the year awards and is looking for heroes who persevered in a trying 2020 season.

Football Alberta executive director Tim Enger says they will be presenting awards of merit for 2020 and are now seeking nominations.

He says they hope to present many of these awards because there were so many worthy recipients who kept the lights on during the pandemic. 

"There are volunteers are out there, even the coaches themselves, that worked their tails off just to get the kids on the field in certain areas," says Enger. "So, there's probably way more heroic activity going on there than in a normal year, and these are the people that make football roll."

"We don't care if we give out a thousand of these awards. It's just important to recognize the true heroes of football during the pandemic."

He says an impressive amount of football did place in some form or another.  Around 75 per cent of their minor football teams and 55 per cent of ASAA high school football teams were able to continue in a modified form. That ranged from practices to limited competition.

Additionally, Football Alberta says the university and junior teams were cobbled together to allow some field time for players. However, there were no regular seasons, no playoffs, and no provincials at any level. 

Here in Cochrane, both the Cochrane Cobras and Bow Valley Bobcats did practice and the Cobras, for one, ended their year with an inter-squad red and white game.

The Cochrane Lions minor football program continued with skill development but opted out of playing in the Calgary area leagues. The Peewee Lions ended their season with a flag football tournament, by dividing their team into four smaller units.

Annually, Football Alberta traditionally seeks nominations for four high school football, two minor football, and an overall “Coach of the Year” category. 

You can nominate your heroes here

Nominations close on Jan. 15.