Yorkton Minor Football and YRHS Raider product Noah Zerr (Langenburg, SK) recently represented Canada on the international stage, travelling to Arlington, Texas, to compete in the now annual International Bowl – a competition that sees the top football players from Canada battle the top American football players for football supremacy – from January 31 to February 5.
While there, Zerr and his Canadian teammates proved that the United States isn’t the only country when it comes to football, first dropping the US U19 Selects 31-13 on Sunday, January 31 before shutting out the US U18 team 24-0 on Wednesday, February 3.
“It was a great honour and it was a really exciting time,” said Zerr on his chance to represent his country; a chance that he earned during the 2015 Football Canada Cup, where he was named to the tournament all-star team and given an automatic spot on Team Canada. “You have a lot more pride for your country when you’re playing for it and it’s kind of hard to explain.
“You feel so honoured to represent your country. You have people from home texting you and telling you that they’re watching the games and it’s wild, it’s surreal and it’s a great honour.”
As a member of Team Canada, the 6’7”, 285 pound offensive lineman was considered one of the best players in the world in his age group, as were his teammates and opponents, and playing against players of that calibre daily was something that Zerr said he never thought would happen. “It was surreal, playing against the best guys from Canada all week in practice leading up to those games, and then playing the best guys from the US,” offered Zerr. “To be considered as one of the best players in North America with those guys, it’s kind of humbling.”
Unlike most of his teammates and opponents however, Zerr took to the field in Texas as a non-committed prospect, not having decided where he would play his university football. “Most of the team was already committed to CIS teams already, and most of the American players were committed to US schools, but I on the other hand wasn’t committed to any school when I went down to Texas,” mentioned Zerr, adding that while he wasn’t committed, he did have a few suitors for his services. “I had talked to a few schools, places like the University of Calgary, Simon Fraser, UBC, Regina but just didn’t make my decision before going to Texas.”
Upon his return from Texas however, the highly sought-after lineman thought that it was time to make a decision; something he did immediately upon returning to Saskatchewan, verbally agreeing to join the University of Saskatchewan Huskies. “I know that I took longer than most people did to make the decision of where to go, but I just wanted to make sure that I found the right school and I think the U of S is the right school for me,” said Zerr, adding that as soon as he decided to attend the University of Saskatchewan he called Huskies head coach Brian Towriss, before informing the other schools of his decision. “I called coach Towriss to tell him that I was verbally committed to the U of S and that after a family holiday I would officially sign with them.
“Then I decided to call the other schools that were interested and tell them that they weren’t in the running anymore and that was that.”
Zerr said that the final decision wasn’t an easy one, but that it ultimately came down to proximity to family and where he felt he would benefit the most from playing. “The other schools have good programs, but I think the U of S is the best fit for me,” mentioned Zerr, continuing, “And it’s close enough so that I can visit my family and they can visit me without having to travel so far.”
The University of Saskatchewan football program has won three Vanier Cup titles (the CIS National championship) and competed in six other Vanier Cup games. Zerr plans to study Kinesiology while at the U of S.
