Riders’ Korte-Moore an accomplished two-sport athlete

Football isn’t the first sport in which Saskatchewan Roughriders first-round draft pick Lake Korte-Moore has excelled.

While he was one of the most sought-after prospects in the 2023 CFL draft, Korte-Moore was also a talented skier while he was growing up.

The Ottawa native said he’s been clipping on the skis since he was just two years old.

“My family is big on skiing,” the former UBC Thunderbirds defensive end said Thursday after the second day of Roughriders rookie camp at Griffith Stadium in Saskatoon.

“It’s just been something my family does. I got into racing pretty big and did that all the way until Grade 12.”

Growing up as a multi-sport athlete, Korte-Moore said he was able to move up the ranks as a competitive downhill skier.

He wasn’t able to make a World Cup skiing roster or the national team, but he said he competed in International Ski and Snowboard Federation events, which took him to competitions across Canada.

He participated in slalom, giant slalom and super-G events.

“I raced in some (events) right behind the World Cup level,” he said. “It was a great experience, for sure.”

But by his Grade 12 year, Korte-Moore said he had to temporarily hang up his skis in order to pursue his football journey. He said it was a much easier decision once schools started to reach out to him.

“I realized it was pretty difficult to go far with school and skiing, especially with where I was at. I also made Team Canada that year for football, and from there it just drove me to play football more,” he explained.

“I got the opportunities of a lot of scholarships and it just helped me make the decision to go down the path of football and get an education.”

The move to football clearly worked out for Korte-Moore — he was the third pick overall in the 2023 CFL draft — but he credited skiing for helping him get him to where he is today, largely because of the lower-body strength it helped him build.

“I’d say skiing helped a lot with football in terms of just lower-body explosiveness and movement and being able to go from the edge of your foot to edge of your foot,” he stated.

“It helps with your pass-rushing with the bend and then coming off of one leg and being explosive.”

Korte-Moore said learning how to ski also helped him learn how to skate, an important skill for anyone living in Saskatchewan.

For now, Korte-Moore said he’s focused on football and possibly helping to bring a Grey Cup to Saskatchewan. But he noted he’d love to try to become a bobsled athlete if the opportunity appeared after football.

“If I’m able to, I’d try it out. I did say I’m going to try taking football as far as I can, (but) a goal of mine since I was a kid was to possibly go to the Winter Olympics,” he said.

“So after my football career, if I have the opportunity and I’m able to, I’m fully willing and down to try bobsled and hopefully go to the Olympics through that.”

In the past, several CFL players have gone on to success in the bobsled.

Jesse Lumsden, a former running back with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Edmonton Eskimos, became an Olympian in the sport in 2014.

In 2022, former Roughriders safety Jacob Dearborn also represented Canada at the Winter Olympics. His team placed 23rd in those Olympic Games.

Rookie Camp Day 2

The second day of rookie camp brought the first injury of camp. Head coach Craig Dickenson confirmed that receiver Jake Parker suffered a broken wrist Wednesday.

Thursday’s practice session also saw several more competitive drills, with players going up against each other in one-on-one or 12-on-12 situations.

Dickenson said he’s planning on implementing a lot more 12-on-12 drills starting Friday, and even more once main camp starts on Sunday.

“We’re going to try to do as much 12 on 12 as we can. I know there’s some risk in that, but we feel like football is still a team game and we want to try and play as much 12 versus 12 as we can,” he said.

“I think we can do it as long as we’re smart about how we do it and we emphasize tempo and what we’re trying to get.”

Dickenson noted the rookies will also be strapping the pads on Friday.

The club signed offensive lineman Phil Saleh on Thursday, and Dickenson said that’s an area where the team really wants depth.

“We’re signing as many good offensive linemen as we can, and hopefully we can find two or three really good ones. We want to find guys who have a real high level of compete and are physical,” he explained.

“It’s hard to judge that in a practice against your own guys. We’re going to put a lot of stock in learning the system in practice and then those pre-season games are going to be important.”