A young football player with strong family ties to Hay River has his eyes firmly set on making it to the pro ranks.
Sixteen-year-old Cedar Frank-Caudron, who spent the first three years of his life in Hay River, currently lives on Vancouver Island and plays for the Comox Valley Raiders, a community junior football team that competes against other B.C. towns and cities.
"My goals are to play in any kind of professional league," he said. "NFL, CFL, I don't care as long as I'm playing football."
And right now he is good enough that he was chosen to play in an East-West all-star game last month featuring junior players – aged 16-18 years – from community or high school teams across Canada.
Frank-Caudron plays defensive tackle, nose tackle and right guard.
"I play on the D-line and the O-line," he said, using football terminology for the offensive line and the defensive line.
Those positions match his stature.
"I'm 6'1" and I weigh 315 pounds," he said, noting that, unlike many people, he has no reluctance to talk about his weight because that is the range for linemen in the National Football League and the Canadian Football League.
Plus, he predicted he has more to grow.
"Height-wise I'm hoping around 6'4", 6'5", about that," he said. "I could see that because I'm already about halfway to 6'2"."
As for his weight, he's hoping for about 270 to 300 pounds so he can play on the defensive line in the pros.
His mother is Shari Caudron, who lives in Hay River.
She said her son definitely has a chance to make it to the pros.
"It's been his dream for the last couple of years. His dream is to make it into the NFL," she said. "He also knows that he has to get a university education, as well. So he's bound and determined to focus on this."
Caudron noted her first cousin was the late Bill Stevenson, who played with the Edmonton Eskimos for his entire 14-year career in the CFL – first as a defensive lineman and then as an offensive lineman.
Stevenson was part of seven Grey Cup-winning teams and was an all-star twice.
Frank-Caudron's father also played amateur football.
"It's kind of a natural thing on both sides of the family that football is one of the sports that we're passionate about," said Shari Caudron.
She said she "absolutely" encouraged her son to play the sport.
"It's an opportunity that we don't have in the territories," she noted.
In the recent East-West game – played on July 25 in Chilliwack, B.C. – Frank-Caudron was pleased with his performance.
"I had a great game," he said. "We lost the game, though. I was Team East and all my buddies were on Team West and they beat us by 14 to nothing."
Frank-Caudron ended up on Team East when it didn't have enough linemen because two players couldn't make the game.
Each year, the East-West game attracts talent scouts from colleges and universities.
Frank-Caudron attracted interest from an offensive co-ordinator coach from a private prep school in Ontario, and he was invited to attend the school and play football there.
However, he declined the invitation.
"Physically, I was ready for the game and playing and all that," he said, but he noted it would have meant living in Ontario with no family around.
Frank-Caudron, who is entering Grade 12, said it is still possible he may head to Ontario near the end of the upcoming school year.
While his goal is to get a scholarship to play university football in the United States, he said he will continue playing the game even if that doesn't happen and hope to make a university team as a walk-on, meaning a player without a scholarship.
Frank-Caudron has been living with his father on Vancouver Island for about a half-dozen years, and that's where he started playing football.
However, he has a strong attachment to Hay River.
In fact, Frank-Caudron said he "definitely" considers Hay River his hometown, especially after a visit about three years ago.
"I came back for a visit for four or five weeks and I know it's a short time, but it felt like home on the inside," he said. "I don't know how to explain it."