Quicker, stronger, smarter – these have been the perameters that Burnaby’s Michael Couture has been working to improve on during his four-year playing
career with the Simon Fraser University Clan.
Through necessity, the 21-year-old has become adept at adapting to new challenges, as is a requirement when you play football on Burnaby Mountain.
A senior, Couture was named to his second straight Great Northwest Athletic All-Conference team, earning the honour as an offensive lineman. Last year, he earned the honour as a centre.
“It’s exciting, a nice honour,” said Couture of this week’s award. “When you switch positions you are focused on getting up to speed and I wasn’t expecting this.”
In his second year, he played left guard after launching his SFU career at right tackle. Every year he was plugged into a different role, and three of those four seasons under a different coach.
That kind of challenge was something he embraced – first out of necessity, then with vigor.
“I was told when I got to SFU I’d red-shirt and just travel with the team but in Week 3 we had some injuries and some guys couldn’t make it and I slotted in,” said Couture. “They wouldn’t have put me in if they didn’t think I was ready.”
The 6-foot-4, 276-pound lineman said there was no bigger adjustment than picking up the NCAA Div. II game with mostly community and high school football as your reference point.
“The biggest difference for me was the speed of the game. I had a high school mindset that I was big enough and strong enough, but when you get into (the college game) everything’s so quick, players are flying past you.”
Moving to centre under then-head coach Jacques Chapdelaine, presented the biggest step.
“It was an eye-opener, no doubt,” he said of 2014. “I thought I knew stuff about football but under (Chapdelaine) I learned so much more. My football IQ, after playing a season at centre, went through the roof.”
This past season under first-year coach Kelly Bates, Couture said the move back to right guard proved a great fit, as the coach was an 11-year offensive lineman in the Canadian Football League.
Each new position provided a different view and role, he noted.
“To some extent my second time at tackle I just tried to keep my head above water,” said Couture. “I tried to take what I know not to do and build from there. The game slows down a lot the more you know and play.”
The past season’s results may have been disheartening from an observer’s perspective – and
Couture admitted finishing 0-9 was extremely humbling – the pick-ups and positives still stack up.
“Nobody wants to go winless in your senior season, but I came in not worrying about the wins and losses,” he said. “The program has had a motto of celebrating adversity, with all the changes we’ve gone through.
“Things in life don’t always go the way you expect them to, but its how you handle them and what you learn that will be most important.”
In five of the nine games, SFU led at halftime.
“We were a much better team than our record showed, and every guy in the locker room knew we could compete at this level.”
Majoring in criminology, Couture said his football dream – which began as a youth playing on the North Shore – isn’t over yet. He is still doing all the work with weights and footspeed with an eye on making the CFL.
“I think the thing I’m always working on is my knowledge of the game. If I can maximize that I’ll have answers that the other guys won’t have.”
