The 17-year-old Central Kings Rural High School student recently received an invite to don a Team Canada jersey and represent his country in a North American championship football game versus the United States in January.
While the coach of his provincial team had an inkling Ross might get the call, the Coldbrook-based fullback is still processing the good news.
“I still don’t believe it. It was a surreal moment. I couldn’t get the smile off of my face for a few hours,” he said.
“I’m definitely looking forward to it.”
Ross is slated to travel to Orlando, Florida from Jan. 23-28 to spend a few days training with the national U-18 squad before challenging the hosting American team.
The Grade 12 student may have been pleasantly surprised to learn he was scouted for the national team, but happenstance had nothing to do with it. He’s devoted countless hours to training with his school’s football team, the provincial team and the Valley Bulldogs organization, receiving guidance from such coaches as Dave McDowell (Central Kings), Reg Ogilvie (NKEC), Steve Snyder (Football Nova Scotia, St. FX) and Steve Melanson (Horton).
At home, Ross watches football films with his father and practices passes with his sister. In the off season, he goes to the gym to ensure he’s in the best shape he can be when it comes time to dig his cleats into the field once again.
Turning to borrowed clichés, one might say football is coursing through his veins or Ross lives and breathes for the sport he first joined nine years old.
“I just fell in love with it,” Ross recalls.
His mother, Janet Ross, recently shared a heartwarming Christmas memory about her son’s first football helmet with Kings County News. She recounted the day - Dec. 22, 2004 to be exact - a five-year-old Connor implored Santa, if he was listening, to please place a football helmet under the tree for him to find on Christmas morning.
“My husband and I froze and gave each other an oh my goodness death stare. What were we gonna do?” Janet Ross wrote in a story shared with Kings County News.
“I worked at Acadia University, and the next morning I sent the most pitiful, heartfelt, pleading email you have ever read on the Acadia-FYI email distribution list to all Acadia faculty, staff and employees.”
Her email inbox flooded with replies from people wishing they could help but, in the end, it was Eric Cederberg of the Acadia Athletics Department and former athletics director Dan McNally to the rescue.
“On Christmas Eve 2011, Eric Cederberg delivered a shiny, perfect, white helmet with a beautiful Acadia A logo freshly adhered to the side and with extra padding added to fit a five-year-old head. Eric also gave me an official Acadia jersey from a previous season,” the story reads.
“I cannot express in writing how incredible this was. Not because I had a helmet in my hand for my son to solidify the Christmas magic we share through our children but because people cared, people shared, people loved and people showed kindness to others with emails, prayers, encouragement and action.”
That little boy, now a grown football player training for his Team Canada debut, continues to cherish his first helmet to this day.
“I still have it in my room,” he said.
“It definitely marks the beginning of something… the beginning of my football career.”
Ross expects to face some stiff competition in the United States. He knows the game will be faster, more competitive and harder hitting than anything he’s seen before.
And he can hardly wait.
“I pride myself in doing the best I can in everything that I do and I think the dedication I put in for football just paid off over the long run.”
To read the full story Janet Ross wrote about the heartwarming Christmas kindness behind her son’s first football helmet, click here.
The 17-year-old Central Kings Rural High School student recently received an invite to don a Team Canada jersey and represent his country in a North American championship football game versus the United States in January.
While the coach of his provincial team had an inkling Ross might get the call, the Coldbrook-based fullback is still processing the good news.
“I still don’t believe it. It was a surreal moment. I couldn’t get the smile off of my face for a few hours,” he said.
“I’m definitely looking forward to it.”
Ross is slated to travel to Orlando, Florida from Jan. 23-28 to spend a few days training with the national U-18 squad before challenging the hosting American team.
The Grade 12 student may have been pleasantly surprised to learn he was scouted for the national team, but happenstance had nothing to do with it. He’s devoted countless hours to training with his school’s football team, the provincial team and the Valley Bulldogs organization, receiving guidance from such coaches as Dave McDowell (Central Kings), Reg Ogilvie (NKEC), Steve Snyder (Football Nova Scotia, St. FX) and Steve Melanson (Horton).
At home, Ross watches football films with his father and practices passes with his sister. In the off season, he goes to the gym to ensure he’s in the best shape he can be when it comes time to dig his cleats into the field once again.
Turning to borrowed clichés, one might say football is coursing through his veins or Ross lives and breathes for the sport he first joined nine years old.
“I just fell in love with it,” Ross recalls.
His mother, Janet Ross, recently shared a heartwarming Christmas memory about her son’s first football helmet with Kings County News. She recounted the day - Dec. 22, 2004 to be exact - a five-year-old Connor implored Santa, if he was listening, to please place a football helmet under the tree for him to find on Christmas morning.
“My husband and I froze and gave each other an oh my goodness death stare. What were we gonna do?” Janet Ross wrote in a story shared with Kings County News.
“I worked at Acadia University, and the next morning I sent the most pitiful, heartfelt, pleading email you have ever read on the Acadia-FYI email distribution list to all Acadia faculty, staff and employees.”
Her email inbox flooded with replies from people wishing they could help but, in the end, it was Eric Cederberg of the Acadia Athletics Department and former athletics director Dan McNally to the rescue.
“On Christmas Eve 2011, Eric Cederberg delivered a shiny, perfect, white helmet with a beautiful Acadia A logo freshly adhered to the side and with extra padding added to fit a five-year-old head. Eric also gave me an official Acadia jersey from a previous season,” the story reads.
“I cannot express in writing how incredible this was. Not because I had a helmet in my hand for my son to solidify the Christmas magic we share through our children but because people cared, people shared, people loved and people showed kindness to others with emails, prayers, encouragement and action.”
That little boy, now a grown football player training for his Team Canada debut, continues to cherish his first helmet to this day.
“I still have it in my room,” he said.
“It definitely marks the beginning of something… the beginning of my football career.”
Ross expects to face some stiff competition in the United States. He knows the game will be faster, more competitive and harder hitting than anything he’s seen before.
And he can hardly wait.
“I pride myself in doing the best I can in everything that I do and I think the dedication I put in for football just paid off over the long run.”
To read the full story Janet Ross wrote about the heartwarming Christmas kindness behind her son’s first football helmet, click here.