It was a great football experience for a local football player.
Ryan Stumborg of Humboldt played in the Saskota Bowl in Rolla, North Dakota on July 9, accompanied by coach Cory Popoff, also of Humboldt.
"The Saskota Bowl is a game played between nine-man players from North Dakota and nine-man players from Saskatchewan," said Stumborg.
The province and state both hold tryouts to find the best players for their team.
In order to get onto the Saskatchewan team, Stumborg attended tryouts in Saskatoon in May.
"Basically, anyone who wanted to try out could come and try out, said Stumborg. "(The only rule was) they had to be nine-man players."
After being chosen as a defensive back for the team, he then attended a week-long training camp in Melfort before heading to Rolla on July 8.
It was a challenging game for Stumborg.
"It was crazy," said Stumborg. "North Dakota has very good football players, big and fast."
Defensively, the team played quite well.
"We shut them down a lot but they got a couple lucky plays," said Stumborg.
Offensively the team did not do as well.
"Defensively we were very good, however offensively we couldn't move the ball, that resulted in a loss for us," said Popoff.
Although it was a challenging game against North Dakota, Stumborg played very well, said Popoff.
"He was matched up for the most part to a very talented wide receiver and was able to shut him down almost every time," said Popoff. "Ryan made several good tackles and was definitely one of the stronger players on defence from that aspect."
Even though Saskatchewan lost the game 39-0, that didn't stop Stumborg from enjoying the experience.
"It's a really good learning experience," said Stumborg. "You meet new people and coaches. I would recommend it to other nine-man players."
Popoff also enjoyed the experience and working with other football players he normally would not have the opportunity to coach.
"The coaching experience itself was very rewarding," said Popoff.
"All of the players worked hard to prepare themselves for the game."
Popoff was proud of all the hard work the Saskatchewan team put into the game.
"It was a great experience in playing with skilled players from another country (for the team)," said Popoff. "When you have skilled players together, you certainly learn and grow as a player and it adds to your character as well."
