Player, coach football development team coming to Medicine Hat

By JAMES TUBB on April 19, 2025.

jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb

Selects Football will be in Medicine Hat in June focusing on player and coach development.

The Saskatchewan Selects Football Club will host an ID camp on June 1 at the Rick Boksteyn Field at Monsignor McCoy High School as part of the program’s ‘Rural Road Show’. The camp will focus on player and coach development at the grassroots level while also serving as an identification camp for the Selects final November tryout.

Former CFL offensive linemen and Selects coach Matt Sheridan is spearheading the Rural Road Show, and says they want to both find top talent who could play for the Selects program that runs November to February, while also servicing communities where football talent begins on and off the field.

“Not only are we going to be working on the fundamental skills and some of the more elevated skills necessary to be successful at playing football, but we also understand that coaching football in some of the smaller towns is a challenge,” Sheridan said. “As much as recruiting players is a challenge, recruiting coaches is a challenge and there’s no guarantee those coaches have any kind of football pedigree or understanding of the game.

“Many of the communities, the coaches and the representatives I’ve spoken with, they’ve expressed an intense desire to have an element of coaching development as well. So we’ve developed a model and itinerary that allows us to customize and tailor the content, not only of the player development, but also the coaching development.”

Sheridan says they will cover all elements of learning with coaches in attendance – visual, auditory and kinaesthetic styles.

“So the coaches derive the maximum amount of benefit from the camp, so they can go back to their program and make their players better,” Sheridan said. “Because at the end of the day, we can do a skill development program for players, but better players come from better coaches.”

The Selects started in 2012 with the purpose of working to elevate the competition of football in Saskatchewan and create opportunities for players to get to the next level. Since then, they have graduated 200-plus players to the Canadian Junior Football League, more than 150 play at the U-Sports level, seven play at the NCAA level and more than 10 moving on to the CFL.

Sheridan spent eight years in the CFL, seven with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and signed with the Calgary Stampeders in 2010 before retiring. He didn’t get into football until he was in high school before moving to university and ultimately the pro level. He wishes there were ID/development camps and the Selects program like this when he was growing up.

“This is a sport that has a lot of value and a lot of lessons to learn, but it also demands a lot of commitment and a lot of sacrifice,” Sheridan said. “If you learn those things and learn them from the correct people with the correct mindset early enough, there’s no telling what you can do with that and that is one of the foundational goals of the program that our founders set out. Put kids in a position to be successful, but also have the ability to use football as a vehicle to progress their lives, to earn an education, to get a degree and to do better for themselves.”

The ID camp in Medicine Hat is $105 per player and $50 per coach for the full day of practice experience that will feature coaches from the CFL, U-Sports and Junior Football levels. Those interested in attending or looking for more information do so on the Selects Football website or email Sheridan at msheridan@selectsfootball.com.

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