Korte getting his first taste of coaching at Alberta camp

He's still under his first contract in the CFL, but that hasn't stopped Mark Korte from taking a peek ahead to what his professional future may hold.

With the 2020 season cancelled, the Ottawa Redblacks offensive lineman is back on campus at the University of Alberta, where he played from 2014-17 under Golden Bears head coach Chris Morris.

The two have reunited for the Golden Bears Elite 80, a series of high school football camps taking place on the weekends inside the dome at Foote Field, where Korte — who would have been playing in his third CFL season — is getting his first taste of coaching life.

“It's really good. We've got good coaches that are university coaches, pro players, pro coaches,” said the 6-foot-2, 293-pound native of Sherwood Park, who was drafted fourth overall by Ottawa in 2018. “We've just got a really good mix of people to coach this camp that are putting on a special opportunity for everybody.”

One that never would have been available had COVID-19 not shut down football at every level this year.

“Unfortunately, it's near impossible to replace the experience of playing high school football,” Korte said. “But what an alternative to take some of the best players in the province, take coaches from the professional level and the college level and basically create our own little high school football season and practise against each other.

“It's a really unique opportunity for kids to be a part of, and I think it's a great service that Morris and the U of A have put together.”

It's hard not to look at the crop of young talent assembled and wonder about the next up-and-comers, especially with the spotlight shining brightly on some Edmonton products blazing a trail to some of the biggest NCAA Division 1 schools, including Oklahoma State's Chuba Hubbard and Clemson's Ajou Ajou.

“It's amazing to see the talent that's come out of Canada, in general, and especially out of Edmonton,” Korte said. “One guy's a legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate and he's going to be a high pick in the NFL, and the other guy's starting out and looking really good at Clemson. ...

“So it's really impressive to see how far Edmonton football's come, and it's interesting to go there with high school football players and see who's next and who's at the top of the heap of a pretty good athletic class that's going to come out of this city.”

And it's equally as interesting recognizing some of his younger self in certain young athletes.

“It's always fun when coaching to see kids that remind you of yourself and remind you of other players you've seen be successful. Justin Lawrence is one for me,” Korte said of his fellow Spruce Grove product and former Bears teammate, now with the Calgary Stampeders. “It's like, `Man, this kid reminds me of Justin in a lot of good ways.' And to be able to interact with some of the kids who play in Spruce Grove is pretty cool, to be able to see a guy that stood where I did a few years ago is pretty neat.”

In his own ongoing development as a player, Korte took big steps last season, rising to the rank of starting left tackle in Ottawa — the position he played in university, but one that often falls on Americans in the CFL.

And he says he's doing as much learning of his own as he is coaching with the Elite 80 camps.

“It's really cool to work with a guy like Tim Prinsen and Chris Morris,” he said of the former Edmonton Football Club offensive linemen coaching at the camps. “Guys I grew up watching and I got to learn under them as a player, and now I get to work with them.”