Former tight ends find their callings on the O-line
By Cam Tait,
Edmonton Journal
EDMONTON – Simeon Rottier and Brett Waine were used to being tackled after catching the ball. Now, the pair is usually on the ground seconds after the ball is snapped.
Rottier and Waine were at Foote Field on Friday morning for the first day of the University of Alberta Golden Bears football training camp.
Rottier plays left tackle on the Bears offensive line, but for two and a half seasons he was a tight end with the Edmonton Huskies junior club.
“I was sitting on the bench playing tight end and an opportunity came up to play left tackle and I’ve never looked back,” says Rottier, a 23-year-old agriculture student from Westlock. “I love catching the ball. But when you play O-line, you get to mash people all the time. I got into football because I wanted to hit people, so the O-line was a natural fit.”
But something was missing when Rottier first tried to make the switch — 70 pounds.
“When I was a tight end, I weighed 210 pounds, and now I weigh 280,” he said. “I needed to put on weight, so I ate before I went to bed.”
Waine, a rookie from Lac La Biche, was in a similar situation.
“It was at the end of high school and I was playing tight end, but the team needed a defensive lineman,” he said.
“It’s a lot more fun to play on the defensive side of the ball because I like to hit people,” Waine said. “This is a lot faster that high school ball, coming from a little town — it’s a big step up,” said the six-foot-three, 276-pounder.
Head coach Jerry Friesen, now in his seventh season with the Bears, had seven players graduate from last year’s squad. A couple of those players are now in the CFL — linebacker David Lowry is with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and defensive back Neil Ternovatsky is with the Calgary Stampeders.
Friesen said the defensive secondary has seen the most changes: “We’re going to be young back there, and that’s going to be our biggest challenge,” he said.
The punt return team will also have a new look. Kendall Jeske graduated, leaving as Alberta’s all-time leader in punt returns and punt-return yardage.
The Bears ended the 2006 campaign with a 4-4 record, and Friesen says he’s out to improve that.
“If we want to compete in the playoffs, we have to be 5-3,” he said.
The Bears have 70 players in camp, all of whom are on the team.
“We dress 50 guys when we’re at home,” said Friesen. “We have another 18 to 20 players who are developmental players right out of high school who have to get bigger and stronger.”
The Bears have several players on their team whose
fathers played in the CFL — Danny Bass Jr., Damon Fraietta, Matt Chapdelaine and Brian Marshall.
Friesen played against their fathers — Danny Bass, Emilio Fraietta, Jacques Chapdelaine and Greg Marshall.
“When they have players on your team, that tells you how old you are,” laughs Friesen, a former Saskatchewan Roughrider.
