Foster thriving with Lions

Courtesy Mike Beamish, Vancouver Sun
Re-posted from www.cfl.ca

KAMLOOPS, B.C. -- While the quarterback is the cornerstone from which CFL success radiates, teams are becoming ever more reliant on the skills of Canadian players to provide the building blocks.

Based on the Lions' sketchy development record of late, however, the stability of the House of Orange is being called into question.

Recent drafts have left B.C. with a collection of non-import backups, role players and competent special teamers, but few personalities to stir the imagination as Paris Jackson does and Jason Clermont once did.

Indeed, a team which counted Jackson, Clermont and Ryan Thelwell among the best receivers -- Canadian or American -- in the CFL, has dropped the ball consistently of late in the persons of Josh Boden, Adam Nicolson, Matt Carter, Mike Lindstrom and Greg Hetherington -projects, draft picks or free agents who couldn't catch on or who simply couldn't catch.

"We were talking about that before training camp," Jackson said Thursday. "A lot of our draft picks have been disappointments. That's why I like what I see here. All our picks in this year's draft, I've been very happy with their performances. They definitely have some leadership skills. In the next few years, we'll see them step up and be leaders."

One athlete fostering that impression is Akeem Foster, a wide receiver from St. Francis Xavier, whose physical advantage is simple math. He is 6-5 and weighs 215 pounds. He could have been a tight end in the days when there was such an animal in the CFL. Foster is fast enough to make cornerbacks trip over themselves, running backwards to cover him on a pass pattern. Or he can just plant himself, have the quarterback throw him a jump ball and require smurf-like defensive backs to contest the pass on a step ladder.

Last year, the Lions lost two drafted players -- Carter, the fifth overall pick, and promising centre Matt Morencie -- who were released after training camp and later picked up by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Lions head coach Wally Buono is promoting legislation which would allow CFL teams to retain the playing rights of a drafted collegian for an acceptable length of time, even if he doesn't make the 46-man roster or practice squad after his first pro training camp.

Because of his promise, Foster, a first-team CIS all-star last season, likely will be placed on the development roster to keep him from being snapped up by other CFL teams. Or not.

"His objective is to make the 46-man [active] roster," Buono says. "And he might just do that. He can run and he can catch. But it's his size which separates him."

Foster was ranked as the fifth-best prospect for the 2010 draft and the only Atlantic University Sport player among the top 15 when the CFL's Amateur Scouting Bureau released its first rankings last fall.

By the eve of the May 2 draft, however, his ranking had tumbled precipitously. The Lions found him still available, in the fourth round -- 25th overall. Buono said Foster had some "off-field issues" but wouldn't elaborate, except to say that they were not character-related.

Foster explains that he did drop out of college football for one season because of academic reasons, which had more to do with taking the wrong credits at summer school than true dereliction of study habits.

"I have no idea how I got drafted so low, no clue," says Foster, who hails from Ajax, Ont., east of Toronto. "But I'm going to make the best of the situation. I told my mom, 'it's not about where you go, it's about what you do when you get there.' "

During idle moments at training camp -- where the Lions are using him at three different receiving positions -- Foster keeps in touch with Shawn Gore of Don Mills, Ont., another Lions pick who signed as a free agent with the Green Bay Packers before this year's CFL draft. Gore, from Bishop's University, was the 10th overall pick, but he was ranked on the Lions board as the best receiver in the draft, just ahead of Foster.

"Shawn and I went to opposing schools, but we train together and we're kind of close," Foster says. "We Facebook each other. I let him know how the camp's going here. But I don't want to see him very soon, because I want him to do well there. Still, if it ever comes to that, hopefully we can step on the field together and make a difference for the B.C. Lions."

It would be refreshing to see a draft leave the team with something more than chills.

Click here to access video footage: Life as a Rookie: Akeem Foster