A former Foothills Falcons football player, drafted to the CFL last week, is wrestling with some heavy decisions in the next few weeks.
Does he follow in dad’s footsteps and pursue a rodeo career? Does he stay in school? Does he start a business career? Or does Bryn Roy put on the red-white-and-blue jersey of the Montreal Alouettes after being drafted in the fifth-round (34th overall) as a linebacker in the CFL draft on May 3.
It’s been a long, strange trip from graduating at the Comp in 2006 to being drafted by the Als.
Roy didn’t play his first-year after graduating from Foothills due to a jaw injury. He played two years of junior college football as Snow College in Utah before transferring to Adams State in Colorado. He played only one game for Adams State because of an injury and in 2011 he transferred to the Texas-AM Commerce Lion.
He got a rude awakening in football-crazed Texas.
“We played a 3-4 defence so this year I was more of a rush end that I wasn’t really used to,” the 225-pound Roy said with a laugh. “For the first part of the season I had a rough time of it. We were playing Midwestern State University at Cowboy Stadium in Dallas and I came up against guard Amini Silatolu, a guard who was taken in the second round of the NFL draft. It was a quick introduction to the Lone Star Conference.”
Roy said he was able to turn his year around at the halfway mark last season.
“It was good that it finally came together because I started putting some film together and sending it to pro teams,” Roy said from Commerce, Texas. “When teams started finding out that this was possibly my Senior year, CFL teams starting calling and I got some phone calls. The Calgary Stampeders were the first to call and then Toronto.”
He said he received calls from several CFL teams, except for one notable exception — the Montreal Alouettes.
“In the fifth round, I was expecting Edmonton to draft me and suddenly Montreal had a pick and my name popped up,” Roy said.
“It was exciting and definitely caused some buzz around campus.”
Roy’s football career began to take off in the fall of 2004 when he transferred to Foothills Composite High School from Strathmore High.
“I transferred to Foothills because I had played spring football in Okotoks with the Eagles,” Roy said. “I had a great experience playing with guys from HTA and Foothills. I didn’t like what was going on in Strathmore. I really wanted to make a career of football and I jumped on the bandwagon and went to Foothills.”
Roy won a provincial championship with the Falcons in 2004 with Anthony Parker, who is now a receiver with the Calgary Stampeders.
Roy was a wide receiver and a safety with the Falcons. He was the Receiver of the Year in the Rocky View Football League in 2005 and went to the Senior Bowl as a safety.
He credited former Falcons head coach Kevin Klotz for making him a better football player.
Klotz called him one of the hardest-working Falcons he has coached.
“That means a lot coming from coach Klotz,” Roy said. “I was a fan of coach Klotz. He got his point across, was stern and that’s why we had success. I think the way coach Klotz and coach Stuber (defensive coach Greg Stuber) coached that team it really taught me how to handle my own endeavors.”
Klotz said Roy was one of the most focused players to ever wear the Falcons’ burgundy colours.
“Bryn was so focused and so competitive and knew what he wanted,” Klotz said. “I am so proud of him because it has been a long journey for him. Nobody outworked him on the practice field.”
He was also physical.
“He came into one of our first tackle drill in a practice and just flattened a guy,” Klotz said. “We all knew Bryn was for real. He set the tone for us. He went out and played every down like it was his last down.”
Klotz said Roy’s favourite position was as a safety. However, he was used as a receiver and on a specialty teams with the Falcons.
“He was just too good of a player to keep off the field,” he said.
Roy comes by his tackling ability honestly. His father Mark Roy was the Canadian and World champion steer wrestler in 1992 and will be inducted into the Canadian Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in June.
Bryn said he would consider a career in rodeo after football. Whatever career path he chooses, Roy will have the wherewithal to handle his money.
“I will walk the stage on May 12 for graduation with a (business) degree in hand,” he said. “It’s been a long-time coming with all the transfers and it’s something I’m really proud of.”
Foothills Composite High School has a history with the Montreal Alouettes. Okotoks town councilor and former Foothills Composite teacher and coach Ray Watrin won two Grey Cups, 1974 and 1977, with the Als.
