This Sunday the best of the best in high school football will be at the Badlands Community Facility for the Alberta Top 100 combines.
The reputation of Drumheller as a strong football community was cemented last weekend as the Titans won their second Tier IV provincial title in as many years.
This is also the second year All Star Football has been in Drumheller to host a combine. Last year the program was regional. This year the top 100 players from throughout the province will be coming to Drumheller.
“We have kids coming from all over Alberta,” said Ron Laprise of All Star Football.
Ron Dias of All Star Football is doing combines in Calgary, Edmonton and Southern Alberta looking at players. The top players from these combines will be referred by their coaches to Drumheller for this Sunday.
Laprise says he expects about a dozen Drumheller Titan players to be at the camp.
A combine is where a football player is put through the paces assessing their skills, fitness and agility, and compiling this data. This provides a snapshot of a player’s development.
This information is compiled and All Star Football makes it available to scouts at the post secondary level in Canada and beyond. All Star Football hosts combines in most major areas in Canada and maintains www.allcanadagridiron.info that tracks amateur football nationally.
The combine is also expecting representation from a number of post secondary institutions and junior programs to scout some of the prospects.
This year they are also including the top 50 Bantam players in their own combine. This will provide the players with a benchmark of their abilities, giving them a reference point for their development.
“We decided we are going to turn it into the Rising Stars,” said Laprise.
All-Star Football is planning to make Drumheller the permanent host for the Top 100 Combine.
“This is a building year to get the message out because this is going to continuously grow and get even better,” he said, adding that Drumheller’s reputation for football is also going to continue to grow.
“This is going to be a breeding ground for good football, winning two provincial titles like this,” he said.
The combine goes at 11 a.m. on Sunday at the Badlands Community Facility.
