First-year engineering student Cole Christianson is finding a way to mix academics and athletics. He was on the Golden Bears football team last season and made the cut for Canada's U-19 football team.
Christianson, who is originally from Ardrossan, just east of Edmonton, played high school high football with the Ardrossan Bisons of the Alberta Schools Athletic Association. His team made the provincial finals every year for three years, losing each time.
In his final season of high school football, he recorded five interceptions, and averaged 11 tackles per game.This past season, his first with the Golden Bears, Christianson was an engineering "red-shirt" for the Golden Bears in his first year at the U of A. First-year engineering students are allowed to practice with the football team but not play, due to scheduling conflicts.
"First year engineers can't actually play any games because the engineering schedule is too busy-the team has a meeting before every practice and if you can't make the meetings you can't play the games. We (first-year engineering students) can't make it to the meetings," said Christianson, who is one of 42 engineering students who are also varsity athletes.
He added that the first-year program is challenging and says that tutors provided to engineering students by the football team helped him earn a first-term GPA of 3.7. Another academic benefit of being on the varsity team was the fact that he had an "instant study group" comprised of other engineering students.
"They make sure you keep up w everything," he said. "You have to study because it's the only time you have. It really helps sharpen your time management skills and discipline."
Christianson tried out for the U-19 team last year and this year, was contacted by the team just after Christmas. The team will meet in Texas Feb. 2 and will likely begin two-a-day practices then, he says.
One of the practices will be held at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington Texas-home of the Dallas Cowboys. They will play the U.S. U-19 team Feb. 7 at the University of Texas-Arlington's Maverick Stadium. The series of games is a collaboration of the sport's national governing bodies in each country-USA Football and Football Canada-featuring top student athletes in one of the sport's greatest annual international competitions.