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Matthew Ljuden plays offensive line for the St Joe's Celtics (Photo: Matthew Ljuden / Facebook)
By Shane Clausing
Nice block earns recognition

St. Joe’s football player becomes first recipient of NFL’s Way To Play Award

Sep 27, 2021 | 1:29 PM

A St. Joseph Catholic High School football player received some national recognition last week during the NFL on CTV broadcast.

Matthew Ljuden became the first-ever Canadian recipient of the NFL’s Way To Play Award.

The Way To Play Award is new this year to the NFL’s Canadian broadcast.

Each week, one high school player from Canada will be recognized on the NFL on CTV who exemplifies proper playing technique.

Ljuden is an offensive lineman and is 17-years-old. He had his highlight submitted of him playing a game against another team earlier this season.

In the video, Ljuden is seen pancake blocking one of the defenders on the opposite team. Because of his tackle, it helped lead to St. Joe’s scoring a touchdown.

Ljuden says he was surprised to receive the honour.

“I have no idea who nominated me to this day. There’s rumours going around who did it, but honestly I don’t know and we don’t know,” he explained.

“I was actually watching my friend’s football game watching him when another coach behind me tapped me on the shoulder and showed me the video on his phone. It’s crazy to see that.”

He says his intent was never to get showcased on national TV. In fact, he didn’t know the award even existed.

“I was just doing my job for the team. I’m there to block and it was a good team play, we even scored a touchdown too on that play,” he said.

“I had no idea that would be on any networks or anything. It would probably end up on my highlight tape, but that’s all I thought.”

Because of his accomplishment, St. Joe’s will receive a $1,500 equipment grant for their school.

Ljuden is in his fourth season of playing football consistently. With this year being his Grade 12 year, he says there are several universities looking at him this season, hoping he’ll continue to play football into post-secondary.

He credits his team for helping him get the award and tells EverythingGP it wouldn’t have been possible to do it without them.

Ljuden and St. Joes picked up a victory over the Grande Prairie Composite High School Warriors this past Saturday. They’ll faceoff against the Peace Wapiti Titans at Legion Field on Sept. 30 at 8:00 p.m.

by Shane Clausing