Harry Ainlay bench boss named coach of the year
Tyler Greenslade has worn a few hats during his short time with the Harry Ainlay Titans football program.
And now the high school’s athletic director, defensive co-ordinator and co-head coach added some shiny hardware to the collection after being named Football Alberta’s 2019 Norm Kimball head coach of the year.
“He has a way of connecting with young men and always gets the most out of himself,” said Titans offensive co-ordinator Brock Ralph, a former Edmonton Eskimos receiver who runs the Titans program with Greenslade.
Ralph received the same award in 2017 during the Titans’ previous provincial Tier 1 championship, before the team suffered an agonizing 3-2 defeat in the 2018 title game to the same St. Francis Browns squad they’ve met in each of the last three finals.
But the Titans got back on top in last year’s clash of the perennial powerhouses.
“They’ve been in that conversation longer than us and we always want to give them their due, but the last three years we’ve been in the provincial final with them so it’s been a great kind of new rivalry,” said Greenslade. “We’ve been really fortunate to squeeze out a couple of close ones . ... It’s a great honour and pleasure to coach a lot of these kids who end up going on to do some awesome things at the next level and if you look back at the history of that provincial final over the last three years, there’s been some pretty impressive football players.”
And while they’d like nothing more than to be able to continue that rivalry in 2020, all teams are in the same boat at the moment.
Greenslade’s day in the sun comes in the shadow of Friday’s announcement Football Canada has cancelled its summer flag and tackle football events from coast to coast in the face of COVID-19 restrictions, while Football Alberta executive director Tim Enger said the fall season is “in limbo” at the minor and high school levels.
“That’s the billion-dollar question when you look at sports in the world, it’s something we’re all kind of waiting to see what all the health authorities say across not only Alberta, but the world,” Greenslade said. “I think that Albertans should be commended for adhering to the guidelines and I think we’ve positioned ourselves to see if we can hopefully get back to life as normal in the fall.
“I’m fortunate in the stage of my life where I can hopefully coach for a long time, but the thing I think is gut-wrenching for every coach is you’re only in high school for a short amount of time and it’s tough to see kids losing opportunities. I don’t want to minimize how big of a deal the COVID pandemic is but at the same time, we all want to see our student-athletes getting back into their passion and we’re just going to keep adhering to those guidelines so we can hopefully see a fall athletic season for all of the sports.”
That window isn’t getting any larger for players heading into their Grade 12 year.
“The kids at our school, they’ve worked hard for their moment but we’re fortunate to have a fairly large profile that a lot of our current Grade 11s are getting scouted and recognized at that next level already,” Greenslade said.
“But I remember being in Grade 12 and wanting to play football after high school and that’s a huge moment in your life, where you’re preparing for that and hoping to have success.