Young Winnipeg football players getting valuable experience in U.S. thanks to former Blue Bomber

A former wide receiver for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers is giving back to the community through a brand-new team bus he hopes Manitoba sports teams will use to help them travel.

Kito Poblah, who spent three seasons with the Bombers from 2011-2013, says what’s missing in Canada is introducing kids to high level competition at a young age – and that means travelling for sports.

“This is where the inspiration for that program came about and it’s been great ever since,” Poblah told CityNews.

That program is the Manitoba Selects football team – founded in 2016 – which takes players to the United States to play against American football hopefuls.

“We have kids from all over the province – kids from Brandon, kids from Steinbach, kids from the inner city, even from Dauphin as well – that come… once a week and they come together (and) we practise,” said the Montreal-born Poblah, who also played for the BC Lions.

He’s brought young football players to Grand Forks, North Dakota, and Las Vegas, and even allowed them a chance to play at Viking Stadium in Minnesota.

“The biggest question I always ask Canadian players is, what’s the difference between an American athlete and a Canadian athlete? Usually they’ll say they’re bigger, faster, stronger, all these things that are really not even true.

“Since we’ve been able to provide these kids these resources and be able to give them the experience to go play around American guys. Now they’re realizing, ‘damn, I’m as good as these guys.’ And this guy wants to go to … the biggest schools. ‘Why am I thinking that I should only go to this level of school?’ Now we’re trying to help these kids expand their mind for them to realize, ‘maybe I can actually reach for the stars. Maybe I can push myself past what I though I could do.’ That’s exactly why we’re doing what we do.”

The Manitoba Selects head for Florida Wednesday evening.

Eleven-year-old Brian Courchene, a first-year Manitoba Selects player who lines up as defensive tackle, isn’t accompanying the team to Florida this time around due to an injury. But he says he’s looking forward to seeing where football takes him, and hopes it gives him a chance to travel and see the world.

“It feels intense,” Brian said about playing football. “My nerves get on a little bit. It just feels nice to get onto a field and play some ball.”

Brian and his mother Cheryl James fundraise to be able to afford the travel, as many families who belong to the Manitoba Selects team do.

“I’m up in the stands with the other parents and I’ve always got my phone on,” James said. “My brother told me one of the things to do is to video him so that he can see his own improvement. After I spend the day, while he’s practising I record him, and then as we’re heading home he watches the videos.”

Poblah says the past few years have brought him closer to his goals of being able to offer high level travel sports in Winnipeg. But he realized he could take it a step further.

“You know what, it’s pretty funny because a few years ago we were always renting buses and then I was like, you know what? I’m just gonna go learn how to drive a truck,” Poblah recounted. “It was funny because I told everybody I wanted to get a bus, and it’s been four years in the making.”

The former CFLer isn’t a stranger to making reality out of dreams, so he set out to accomplish another goal.

“Essentially I challenged myself first by going to get the bus licence, and then once I got the bus licence I knew that I had to follow through with actually getting the bus. Very fortunately, over the past couple years, we’ve been able to make some moves. This year we’ve been able to purchase a bus for the program.”

Poblah runs his own sports agency, which partially helps subsidize sports clubs like the Manitoba Selects to help them deal with costs. That’s how the bus was purchased. He says he’s looking forward to being able to offer the bus to other teams for their own inaugural rides.

Manitoba Selects head coach Donald Burrell, who is also formerly of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, says the inaugural trip for the new bus is taking his players to Florida.

“I’m looking forward to them just having the opportunity to build their confidence when we go down and play against U.S. kids,” said Burrell, who’s in his third year with the Manitoba Selects but first as head coach. “We get a chance to use them as a measuring stick, where they are individually and where we are as a program.

“They want to be put in a position where they’re utilizing their athletic skills. They just want to have an opportunity to develop their skills a little bit more. It’s winter, everybody else is done with football but us. They have an opportunity to put the helmet and shoulder pads on when everyone else is done. I think they enjoy that part, I know I do.”

Burrell says although the team needs some more training, they’re ready for their upcoming games in Miami and Orlando.

“That entire team, offensively, is probably the best part of it,” the coach said. “Defence, we’ve got a little ways to go, but offensively I’m looking forward to what we put in, the type of effort we’re gonna put in when we get a chance to play against a team down in America.”

“We try to give these kids the best experiences possible at a young age, so that when they’re 14, 15, 16 and they have the opportunity to play in front of scouts that are looking to recruit them, they’ve already played in the big stage,” added Poblah. “They’ve already played versus other guys and they’re more ready for that moment to be able to get that scholarship to go to the next level.”

WATCH: Former Winnipeg Blue Bombers wide receiver, Kito Poblah, talks life after CFL retirement