Music video produced at Medicine Hat’s Methanex Bowl on Friday

“Her name is Honourable Lois Mitchell, former lieutenant governor of Alberta. She’s also part owner of the Calgary Stampeders,” Lennard said.

“I met with her owner about eight months ago, and I said, listen, your honour, let’s talk about things. Brainstorming, we both agreed it’s great to get a song, then create, that teaches rules and a really fun song and a fun video.”

Having a strong connection with Medicine Hat College, Lennard connected with a former student.

Parkor Thomas is now a teacher at St. Mary’s school, also leading the fine arts program.

“I had 90 kids in a choir, and we were in a songwriting unit teaching them how to write songs, so he’s like, can you write me a song? So I said, sure, we’ll write you a song. We wrote a song about the 25 most important rules of the CFL,” Thomas said.

“Then from there, he said, great. Now, can I get your kids to sing it? And I was like, sure,” he added.

After the students wrote the song, the selection process for the singers was the next step for Thomas.

“We hosted multiple auditions to find the best singers that we possibly could that would go into the recording studio, be able to be in this video,” Thomas said.

“With the hopes of possibly performing live at one of these stadium shows. We did an intensive in-person, online, all sorts of different things to narrow down our top singers at our school.”

Ayla Johnson, a Grade 8 student at St. Mary’s School is one of the soloist chosen to sing the song.

Excited for the project and the opportunity it presents.

“We went to a recording studio, which was super cool to experience, and then now this, which is also amazing,” Johnson said.

Medicine Hat’s Stir Studio hosted the recording of the song and the city donated the field to the group for the day.

Thomas said his students were overwhelmed when they found out about the project.

“I remember telling some kids about this project for the first time and I had kids crying. They were so excited,” Thomas said.

“It extended more than just our students at our school. It turned into our school, McCoy High School, cheerleaders who showed up now and the band people, even production people who got involved in our calling shots today.”

The production crew in from Calgary, captured the students from both St. Mary’s and McCoy participating, as well as Toxic Elite Cheerleading.

Lennard said the video will be promoted league wide.

“What’s going to happen to this is actually it’s going to be taken and distributed to all the CFL teams next month,” Lennard said.

“We hope someday to perform this for the troop at halftime shows, CFL cities all across Canada.”

The hope is for the song and music video to help promote new fans to the Canadian Football League by presenting the rules in fun way.

by Jesse Gill

Music video produced at Medicine Hat’s Methanex Bowl on Friday

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