Michaels plays in CanAm Bowl XXVI

Burlington’s Jordan Michaels was chosen to represent the USA in the CanAm Bowl in Meeteetse on Saturday. Michaels was an instrumental player this past season for the Huskies, who defeated Snake River for the 1A six-man state championship.

Michaels earned co-offensive player of the year and led the state in both passing yards in a game with 303 and all purpose yards (rushing, passing, punt return and kick return) with 490 in the semifinal game against Encampment.

Michaels also played in the Wyoming-Nebraska 6-man Shoot Out at the end of May. “It has been cool to play a couple more times and especially to meet and play with kids you compete against all year,” said Michaels. “Everybody was easy to get along with and we made some good friends.” 

The CanAm Bowl is a 6-man all-star game that pits players from Montana, Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming and Texas against players from the Saskatchewan and Alberta regions of Canada. 

The first bowl game was played in 1997. Most of the games have been held in Canada. Saturday was the first time the Bowl was played in Wyoming and only the second time it was played in the U.S. 

Michaels joined Wyatt Trembly from Dubois, Joe Pina from Meeteetse, Seth Maxon and Isaiah Skalberg both from Little Snake River, as the Wyoming delegates and they joined 12 players from the other states to make up Team USA. They were coached by Scott Reed from Farson-Eden, Zeb Hagen from Meeteetse, Thomas Tritz from Texas and Sam Weeldreyer from Little Snake River. 

“We liked the Nebraska players a lot better this game than during the shoot out,” Michaels joked. “Everybody was pretty nice and we ended up having a strong team.” 

The players and coaches met together on Tuesday for a few practices before the game. “It was a cool experience. We stayed in the Meeteetse gym which was interesting and the practices were hard but it was all good.” 

Michaels played some quarterback and on special teams. 

Team Canada took the lead by the end of the first quarter and held the lead through halftime. Team USA gained some momentum and took over late in the third quarter and held the lead to end the game with a final score of 65-44. This win bumped Team USA to a 21-5 lead in the series.