For 38 years, Bruce O'Neil has been one of the leaders of the Cochrane Cobras football program. Serving as defensive coordinator and co-head coach, he's received many honours for his dedication to the sport and for excellence in coaching.
O'Neil doesn't talk about them much. Neither does Rob McNab, who as co-coach has run the team's offence for 28 years and has similarly been honoured
What they're excited to talk about is the success of their players, the solid coaching staff and the constant formula that has made the Cobras one of the most storied and stable high school football programs in the province.
The Cobras season has now ended and when the dust settled the accumulative success of the program has seen two new Alberta high school records established.
Earlier this fall the program set a high school football record by winning 40 consecutive games. Last weekend, the Cobras added their fifth consecutive provincial championship title, another Alberta landmark.
For the fourth consecutive year, the Cobras downed the Holy Rosary Raiders, of Lloydminster in the tier III final. Like the previous two playoff games this season, they started slow but a solid second half gave them a 25-8 victory.
The Raiders struck first with one point from a missed field goal, then intercepted a Cobras pass to run in a touchdown to take an 8-0 lead. With about two minutes remaining in the first half, the Cobras scored a major and were successful on a two-point convert to tie the game 8-8.
The Cobras defence kept the Raiders off the scoreboard in the second half and the offence scored a pair of touchdowns. That included one from a missed field goal attempt by the Cobras. Special teams were able to jar loose the ball from a Raider carrying it out of the end zone. It popped into the hands of Cole Higginson, who went in for the touchdown.
The Cobras came prepared for the combat with the physically larger Raiders.
“We have a great coaching staff, we had a really good game plan in place, the defence executed exactly what they needed to do to stop their run because of their size and on offence we did enough to win,” says McNab.
He says the Raiders once gave them a good run for the title.
“They were well coached, they have good athletes and their size is the envy of every team in the province, for sure. They were everything we thought.”
O’Neil’s defence once again came through in shutting down their opponents to give the Cobra offence a window of opportunity to rebound in the second half. In all three playoff games, the score was either tied or the Cobras were behind at the half.
“The second half was really solid in all three games and that’s the sign of a good team,” says O’Neil.
He was impressed with the focus of the team after the long drive to the colder temperatures of Fort McMurray.
“The kids handled the cold weather, so well. They went for a business trip; they went there to win.”
O’Neil and the Numbers
As a retired mathematics teacher, O’Neil likes to talk about the numbers.
The Cobras have won 12 of the last 17 tier III provincial championships and has been in 14 of those finals, losing only two.
With 20 teams playing tier III high school football in Alberta it means each team has one in 20 chance of winning, he explains. To win two consecutive titles is a one in 400 chance and the odds increase substantially with each successive year.
“To win five years in a row is next to impossible,” he says. “It’s quite an accomplishment.”
O’Neil joined the staff of Cochrane High at age 25 and went on to become the longest serving teacher at the school, retiring after 33½ years.
But when the offer came in for the position he was reluctant to take it. He was seeking a physical education position, preferably in his hometown of Calgary, but was offered a job to teach mathematics and accounting at Cochrane High. No phys ed positions were coming forward in Calgary and it was his uncle who talked sense into him.
“My uncle said. ‘Don’t be a fool and take the job’. It was the best thing that ever happened to me.”
By the way, the accounting course was eventually eliminated and O'Neil did go on to split his teaching duties between math and phys ed.
O’Neil has gone on to be the only high school football coach to win provincial championships in four decades from the 1980s through to the 2010s.
O’Neil initially coached with Rick Schulte and the pair lead the Cobras to their first two provincial tier III champions in 1986 and 1987.
“I was big on encouraging him because I knew could I work with him."
The long-term success has been the result of a perfect storm of contributing partners, he believes.
"We have a great school, great kids, great staff and an administration that has been very supportive of us over the years."
What’s next?
As teachers, O’Neil is retired and so is Jim Forrest, yet both continue to coach. McNab isn’t that far behind.
So now with two major records established this season the question arises as to how much longer they will be with the team.
McNab says right now the priority is to unwind after a long season that saw them on the field six days a week and with the game on their minds all seven.
“We all need to all sit back and take a couple of months and relax and figure out what the future brings,” says McNab. “So we’ll get the kids back in the weight room in the next couple of weeks and go from there.”
“I’ll be there for one more for sure. After that, we’ll see."
No matter what, the bottom line is to ensure the program continues to have great success and, like the planning they do for every game, there’s a succession plan in the works.
“We will have a plan in place for when we do leave, because even when we retired it’s still our program,” says McNab.
Tue, Apr 23, 5:00 PM
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