Otha Foster III is a Canadian Football League West Division All-Star.
This is the first time the B.C. Lions safety/linebacker has made an all-star team.
“Making the all-star team, like any individual award, it’s a great feeling,” Foster said. “The goal is to win the Grey Cup, but making the all-star team shows the hard work and dedication you put in during the offseason and the grind through the season.”
Foster, a 2006 Varnado graduate, said he was excited when he found out.
“Whenever you get an award, it’s like a payoff for all of the hard work you put in,” Foster said. “There’s only one all-star on your side (at your position), so to be the all-star was exciting.”
This season, Foster made 58 defensive tackles, one special teams stop and three sacks, and he forced two fumbles in the 18 regular season games.
“Otha was a hard worker,” former Varnado head football coach Paul Meyerchick said. “There’s nobody that deserves it more than he does. He had a great attitude, he was a great kid and he was a great leader for us.
“He was just as good of a running back as he was an outside linebacker. He worked hard. Family was always important to him. Nobody deserves success more than him.”
Meyerchick coached Foster when the two were at Varnado. Meyerchick was an assistant football coach at Varnado in 2003 and was the head coach for nine years, beginning in 2004.
Foster recently completed his fifth season in the CFL.
In that time, he has 242 tackles, 10 special teams stops, nine sacks, three interceptions, two touchdowns and five forced fumbles over 72 games.
Foster was part of a Grey Cup Championship in 2015 when he was a member of the Edmonton Eskimos.
This year, B.C. went 9-9 in the regular season and reached the playoffs before falling to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, 48-8, in the opening round on Sunday.