U of A beefs up recruiting strategy

Years before he was hired to coach the University of Alberta Golden Bears football team, Chris Morris cringed when universities across Western Canada announced their recruiting classes.

It hurt Morris to watch the exodus of the best high school players from in and around Edmonton for rival programs. Kids who ran, threw and hit their way across the city for three to four years would take their talents to the University of Saskatchewan, to UBC and to Calgary.

There’s still much work to be done in building the Bears to being a premier team in Canadian Interuniversity Sport, but on Friday, Morris was able to take a moment to recognize that this year, the trend has reversed somewhat.

“This recruiting class ends the bleeding of athletes going (away from Edmonton),” he said, standing near a table of seven of his top recruits at the U of A’s Foote Field, where his team began its spring camp on Thursday night.

Morris has two players from Saskatchewan: sixfoot-seven, 300-pound offensive lineman Peter Kozushka and five-foot-eight, 180-pound running back Dryden Kalesnikoff.

He has two prized players from Calgary, in Henry Wise Wood quarterback Peter Zajdel and Notre Dame receiver Jon Girma. Court Boice is from Seattle but played his high school football at Belmont Secondary, in Langford, B.C. The six-footthree, 185-pound receiver is with the Bears as well.

Four of the recruits — Kozushka, Ross Sheppard offensive lineman Ramey Kharfan, Edmonton Wildcats defensive lineman Garrett Meek and Bev Facey defensive back Sam Clayton — have Team Canada experience.

Add in two St. Albert kids in defensive back Shaydon Philip and linebacker Rory O’Donovan, and Morris, who heads into his third season steering the collegiate Green and Gold ship, was feeling pretty good about the direction his program is headed in.

“I thought last year was a good class. I think this year’s is even better,” he said.

The Bears were 3-5 last year but showed improvement from two winless seasons prior. Despite their losing record, the Bears were in the Canada West playoff hunt in the last week of the season.

Convincing the likes of Kozushka and Girma to come to Edmonton three or four years ago would have been a much more difficult task. A few wins went a long way to showing what Morris is preaching to recruits is starting to take form.

“It’s really changed,” Girma said of the perception of the Bears football program. “Because it hasn’t been that, “Oh, U of A is losing.’ It’s been, ‘U of A is one of those teams that’s starting to come up, and U of A is one of the teams that has a shot now.’

“I felt like that really made me want to come here because I felt like I could add to that.”

“It’s definitely changed,” added Kozushka, who’ll join his brother Michael on the Bears’ offensive line. “Ever since Coach Morris came in, it’s been on the rise, and people want to be a part of it.”

Academics were a plus to both players, as they’ll study engineering. First-year engineering students can redshirt for Morris while they adjust to the demands of the program in their first year.

“The biggest thing (that Morris pitched) would have been academically,” Girma said. “Telling me about the academic All-Canadians, that especially made me feel like I’d have a better support system here than anywhere else.”

Morris feels the pieces are coming together in his lockerroom.

“I think the guys that we have here over the last few years are winners,” he said. “They expect to win, and they work too hard to have the mentality that they’re going to lose. I think we are, from a mindset, on the right track.”

The Bears season starts on Sept. 4 in Regina against the Rams. They open at home on Sept. 11 against the Saskatchewan Huskies. coleary@edmontonjournal. com Twitter: @olearychris