When we think about football, the first image that comes to mind are big, bad muscular athletes who can scare off their opponents by a simple snarl.
That may be true in some cases. However, in other cases, there are exceptions to the rule and graduating football player Jean-Michel Paquette is most certainly one of them.
The 5’4″ running back was honoured last Thursday night at the Concordia Athletics Banquet by receiving the Dr. Robert J. Brodrick Award for best male athlete of the year.
Paquette is the true example of an all-around student-athlete. He came to Concordia in 1998 from St. Louis de France with a strong football background from CEGEP de Trois-Rivieres but did not know how to speak English.
Five years later he has earned so many athletic awards, graduated with a bachelor’s in commerce and is now Concordia’s newest recruitment officer.
This year alone, Paquette went through so much adversity but managed to pull himself through. He had a great start to the season, rushing 644 yards for three touchdowns in only six games.
He was also a strong presence in the special teams as a punt returner, gathering an average of 16.1 yards a return. He also led the conference in all-purpose yards with 1,192 yards total, or 198.7 yards a game.
However, tragedy struck in early October in the dwindling minutes of a Concordia-Universit
