Untapped Recruiting Area for LSU

Is this an opportunity that is being missed by LSU? Look at the links following the article; specifically the You Tube videos of USA vs Canada in the 2015 International Bowls for youth football. Shea Patterson played in this Bowl game in the past.

Spring football is prime scouting season
Thursday, Apr 16, 2015 06:00 am By: Brendan Nagle
Cochrane Eagle News

In a season short on positives for the Cochrane Midget Lions, experts at the next level are still finding them. And it's costing eligible players who've declined to play community spring football this season. Dearly. Count Carleton University Ravens football head coach Steve Sumarah as someone finding positives among the Midget Lions ranks, making his flight from Ottawa worth the effort. Without giving too much away, Sumarah suggested there are at least a couple of Midget Lions players the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) football program is tracking. And there would be more, if Cochrane had more live bodies in its spring-season community football program for Grade 9-11 players aged 14-18. Cochrane dressed 25 players in its 54-0 Calgary Area Midget Football Association (CAMFA) loss April 11 to Calgary Mavericks, which had twice the number of players in uniform. Obviously, Sumarah was scouting Mavs and all other CAMFA teams, along with Lions.

“To be honest with you, I think it's the most important thing,” Sumarah said of his spring scouting chores at community football fields in the third province west of Ontario. “There's no secret football in Alberta is some of the strongest in the country.” “I believe that if you want to compete nationally, you have to recruit nationally. What better format than having all Grade 9-10-11s playing and then you can compare them playing against each other? I think it's a fantastic situation.” Sumarah is one of several CIS coaches on the ground right now scouting midget-aged football players.

“Everybody sees it and sees the value in it,” Sumarah said of university coaches descending upon Calgary-area midget football. “If you're not here, you're crazy. Sometimes people don't realize the value these programs offer. With the opportunity to see spring football, this is what's happening. If you want to be seen, you need to be involved in these programs.”

University of B.C., University of Calgary, University of Alberta, University of Manitoba; pretty much all CIS Canada West football coaches, and Carleton's Sumarah, were scouting April 11 CAMFA Week 3 action at Calgary's Shouldice Park and the Football Alberta camps April 12 at McMahon Stadium.

“All the Canada West scouts will be here, for sure,” Midget Lions head coach Jud Graham said. “It's a great opportunity for players to get noticed.”

Spring is prime recruiting season for universities, and there are at least a dozen eligible, high-caliber Cochrane-area football players not playing for Midget Lions this season and, therefore, not being scouted by universities like Carleton right now.

“The way things are unfolding is it's happening sooner and sooner. You have to be ahead of the curve,” Sumarah said. “For us, we want to really make sure they (players) know who we are and they know we are interested.”

Sumarah will take 10-15 player names away from his Alberta Midget spring-football scouting sojourn. The Carleton football coach will let those players and their parents know the Ottawa-based university is interested in inviting them to play/study at the university starting in fall 2016. But the eligible Cochrane-area players not on the field for the Cochrane Midget Lions right now won't get that memo.

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See International Bowl Youth Football USA vs Canada at:

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