The 30th Annual Senior Bowl High School Football All-Star Game has been announced for the May long weekend, the South team has been selected following tryouts last weekend and Cochrane Cobra Joseph Bell has been selected to play.

The young defensive back said that this was his fourth year playing football and that he started after being told he might be better suited for it than the sport he was currently playing.

"I started in Denver, Colorado and a pro safety down there in the NFL told me when I was playing hockey at 4 in the morning when he was going down for a morning workout, that I should quit hockey and play football. He made my decision."

Bell said that defence was the obvious choice for him.

"I love contact. You can't do that on the offensive side, so you've got to play some defence."

The tryouts went well, and Bell said he felt good about them.

"It went great. I made the team, the roster came out today and one of my other buddies that was playing offence as well made it. It was a good day for us."

However, the young footballer said that it wasn't all roses.

"At the start, Friday, I was very nervous. I was dropping a lot of balls and wasn't confident in myself and then Saturday was a booster. I got myself more comfortable and Sunday I just knew I had to come out and ball out and have a good day so I did. I guess that all worked out in the end because I made the team."

Bell commented that he is looking forward to meeting some stiff competition.

"I'm most excited to meet the best competition up north. You get to play them in provincial finals as we have with Holy Rosary and just having all the best athletes in their high school senior year and (getting) to play with them is just amazing. That's what I'm excited for."

Bell wasn't surprised in being selected but was proud to see his work being noticed.

"I was very confident in myself, but I would say that it's very (...) reassuring that all of my hard work has come to a point where I'm getting rewarded for the hard work that I've put into football."

 

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