Football came into offensive lineman Myles Rose-Standish's life at the perfect time and he hasn't looked back ever since.

The 6'5", 300-pounder originally started playing the game in grade ten as a way to deal with his emotions in a productive manner. He had had a falling out with his mother the year prior, forcing him to move from his home city of Ottawa, to Montreal, where his father lived.

"I started playing because I needed the release," he says.

"I had all this energy and emotion from what was happening, and just to go on a field and to be able to play with anybody is so nice, because for me I find that everything stops. I don't have to worry about bills, I don't have to worry about school. All I have to worry about it just making the play. It was really nice. It let me release all the stuff that I needed to."

Rose-Standish played right tackle all throughout his high school years in the south shore of Montreal. He jokingly admitted that he was placed on the offensive side of the ball after things didn't work out so well defensively.

"My first practice, [the coaches] lined me up at nose tackle and were like, get past these two players. They had two people [at offensive line] who had been playing football for a little while and then me, knowing nothing trying to break through a double team. That's kind of how I got started on the offensive line, because I wasn't good enough to play on the defensive line."

Word quickly spread about Rose-Standish's abilities up front. Towards the end of his high school days, he was recruited by two of the top Division 1 CEGEP (pre-university and technical college) programs in the province in Champlain Lennoxville and Vanier.

He eventually settled on the Champlain Lennoxville Cougars, whose roster was filled with talent from across Canada, including Nova Scotia native Isaac Adeyemi-Berglund, who has played the past three years with Southeastern Louisiana.

"Looking back now, if I could go back and do it again I would," he says.

"I loved it because I got to live away from home and live in a dorm for the first time. It was a time to realize what I wanted to do both with school and football but also to let loose and have fun."
 

In his first year with the Cougars in 2013, the team won their 11th Bowl D'Or Championship and the next year they made it back to the finals, losing in triple overtime. Playing with Champlain Lennoxville also helped Rose-Standish prepare for the university ranks, as the squad was very committed to film study and game prep.

"It was a very professional program the way that they ran it," he says. "And that serves to enable players to go on to the next level. I think it was probably one of the best decisions I ever made football-wise."

Rose-Standish received interest from many teams following his two-year run with the Cougars. But ultimately, he decided on Manitoba in order to see more of Western Canada and to get out of the east.

"After a while, I just wanted a change of scenery," he says. "I wanted to get out of Quebec, it's kind of who I am as a person. Eventually I need to change my surroundings."

Rose-Standish saw his first game in Bison colours in 2015 exhibition play against the Guelph Gryphons. It couldn't have gone any worse.

He was playing right tackle when one of Manitoba's quarterbacks rolled out and got tackled into his left knee. The hit resulted in a fully torn MCL as well as a dislocated kneecap.

"It felt like you pulled on something kind of taut and then there was a crunch. I didn't even see it so I was just there in shock. I thought my knee was bent left so I didn't even look down. The doctor came out and put some pressure on my quad to fire it up and the kneecap just popped back into place."

Rehabilitation for the injury took Rose-Standish nine months. He was back on the field for the team's spring camp the following May, where he earned a starting spot at left guard.

"You're always nervous coming back from any type of significant injury," he says.

"Subconsciously you're always going to favour it until you take a hit or do something wrong on that foot and realize that it's fine. You start to gain your confidence back and it slowly starts to build."

The first game of the 2016 season, Rose-Standish demonstrated his range, as he shifted to left tackle after veteran Tom Clarkson went down with a season-ending injury. He played there all year before moving to right guard last season.

"It was such a transition for me coming in," he says of the shift inside.

"Playing tackle and playing guard you'd think would be fairly similar because they're right beside each other, but with tackle you're one-on-one with somebody and you have to beat that person every time, whereas guard you're not."
Despite the move, Rose-Standish played well, understanding the benefit of being able to move within different positions on the line.

"It makes me more versatile within the team and possibly in the future. Now I know that I can play guard with some proficiency. It's good to get your feet wet with different positions."

Now in his fourth year with Manitoba, Rose-Standish has played every game at left tackle. During his time with the Bisons, he's suited up in every position on the line minus centre.

This season, the team is in the top two in almost every offensive category, including leading the conference with just 12 two-and-outs, which is a testament to the play from the Ottawa native as well as his fellow Hoggies.

"It's a reward for all of the work that we were doing with [offensive line coach] Kelly [Butler]," he says. "We used to go every Friday morning at 6 a.m. and do footwork and bag drills. During the summer it was two days a week. It's just a payoff for all the work we were doing and all the sacrifice for our time."