Todd Lewis coaches up his Ponoka Broncs during a game in 2019 (Submitted photo).

By Dwayne McLaughlin

powering on through the pandemic

Ponoka football coach honoured for creating virtual spring camp

Feb 12, 2021 | 10:49 AM

The head coach of the Ponoka Broncs bantam football club has been honoured for his hard work to keep the sport going during the pandemic.

Todd Lewis is one 16 individuals and three groups to receive Football Alberta’s newly created Award of Merit.

The award covers the full gamut of football in the province, from tackle to non-contact, from administrators to coaches to athletic therapists, and from all levels of play including university, junior, high school, female tackle, bantam and atom.

Lewis got on the Football Alberta radar with his online spring training camp.

“Last spring when we would have been having our spring camp is pretty much when COVID hit, so weren’t really able to do anything,” Lewis recalled.

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“We thought ‘we’ve got to do some sort of football, we got to keep the kids’ interest high.’ We had to keep providing opportunities for the kids to improve and get better, so we made a virtual camp.”

Lewis held virtual chalk talk sessions where he and his staff could go over plays offensive and defensive plays.

Thanks to Zoom, young players were to review NFL and CFL plays, chat with Edmonton Football Team fullback Tanner Green and Jerry Bussiere from the U of A Golden Bears.

Lewis was able to have a live event to the camp at The Dome in Gasoline Alley, where his Ponoka players were joined by players from Rocky Mountain House.

“The cool thing about it is that Rocky and Ponoka athletes got (to work with) positional coaches, which is fantastic because most small-town team have one, or two or three coaches, and its kind of a general practice.”

Lewis, who plays senior football for the Central Alberta Buccaneers, says he would love to keep doing his virtual camp well into the future after COVID-19.