(S24) - PT 4 - Trial by Fire

[DNeon]

Ben Anabender had a few rough introductions. From being sidelined in the Rookie Bowl to facing the Ultimini champs in his first game, Anabender has generally thrived on being underrated. After an abysmal showing at a team wide scale, the Pythons were not particularly well respected in the early rankings of the DSFL, but those in the team knew they were working hard, and that the results were far closer than they seemed thanks to some of the worst turns of luck Anabender had ever seen on the gridiron. Nevertheless, he kept his head high and his mouth shut. As he looks back now Anabender often reflects that the Norfolk game wasn't as bad as he had thought, with new understanding that being uninvolved in the play-by-play is generally the job of the CB. Nevertheless, his first game and media surrounding it lit a fire under the whole Pythons team. It can be credited with the newfound strength of the Constrictor defence and was the first domino to fall in the lead up to welcoming new team leader Brach Thomaslacher. All in all, Norfolk won the battle but Anabender in Portland had kept his eye on the war. After all, revenge a dish best served 21-9.

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[GoonerBear]

Rando Cardrissian had to climb his way into a starting position at Virginia Tech, and got his "welcome to the League" moment when he started out for the San Jose SaberCats...once again behind another RB, Quindarius Tyerucker. It felt like a slow two seasons behind Tyerucker, especially with his own speed game not quite up for the challenge. In his first game for San Jose, he rushed 11 times for 34 yards. Tyerucker got 15 carries for 79, a much higher average. He would score two touchdowns all that season and was legitimately surprised to be nominated for Offensive Rookie of the Year that season. He was one of the few starting already in the ISFL, though it felt encouraging to get some recognition from the awards committee. Between college and the DSFL had not been as big a challenge as the jump from DSFL to NSFL. He had won Offensive Rookie of the Year in the DSFL, outpacing contemporaries in the backfield for the Kansas City Coyotes like Baby Yoda in Minnesota. That first game was the first of several incredibly sobering performances in the ISFL over the next two-plus years. Having been through that, so far, he has learned to coexist in peace with Jamar Lackson at halfback and himself at fullback. They don't have to step on one another, and the flexibility has been good for the SaberCats offense on the whole.

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[GuitarMaster116]

My player has come a long way since when he first started playing in high school and college. Going into high school, Mellott never had any football experience or knowledge so he ended up getting benched for other players. He only was able to make a college team halfway through his junior year as a walk on after a tryout, but he still didn’t get much playing time. It wasn’t until senior year of college he got good playing time, and he actually was one of the best left tackles in the league. But since he was an unknown player before that, he was forgotten about and was written off as a fluke.
When the ISFL reached out to him, Mellott was surprised and super excited. He was eligible for the S24 DSFL draft. He had two “welcome to the league moments”. The first was in the prospect bowl. Mellott was ready to play and show people what he could do, but he didn’t play. Instead he was put in as the second string left tackle. He realized that this wasn’t college, and these people were all really good players. Sheer willpower alone wouldn’t cut it in this league, so he vowed to work as hard as he could to become the best player he could be. His second “welcome to the league” moment was his first game in the DSFL against the Dallas Birddogs. Mellott was starting in his very first game and he was ecstatic and ready to go, but in his first game he really was not that impressive, only gaining a meager 2 pancakes and also committing a penalty. In college he was able to dominate most players, but it wasn’t so easy in the DSFL. But he kept grinding and working as hard as he could to become better.
Now, in the present, Mellott is currently the second-best offensive lineman in the league with 39 pancakes and 1 sack allowed, and he has started to pop up on some people’s radars. He still has a lot of work to do, but he has gotten settled into the league and into a routine and he plans to make sure whoever takes a chance on him in the ISFL will not regret it.

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[Troen]

Reflect on our player’s career, from their first football game to their current career in the ISFL or DSFL, and expound upon one particular story where your player faced their “welcome to the league” moment. How did the change in competition between college and the league, or between the DSFL and ISFL, initially challenge your player? Did they suffer a drop in stats or an ugly debut game? How did they rebound from it?

For me, moving from college to professional was a ridiculous wakeup call. In college, I was one of the top 3 defensive ends in the conference and competed with linebackers in racking up tackles. My average game in my senior year was something like 5 tackles and a sack, plus some other defensive play (interception, forced fumble, etc.) about once every third game. I was a good enough athlete and had experience from high school that I got dropped into coverage a few times.
From there, my DSFL season with the Buccaneers was a huge drop-off when it comes to statistical rate. My tackle and sack rate dropped a tone and I only had one other noteworthy defensive play in the form of a safety. I did greatly increase my tackle for loss rate with the help of the Myrtle Beach coaching staff and some great teammates on the defensive line, but it was still a bit of a shock to go from one of the best defensive players in my conference to just one among many good players. I think my draft position shows that I was performing at a level that the pro teams were comfortable with, but I can't look back on that and say I was happy with my production. But that being said, the professional leagues are just a different level than college and I think I've adjusted. I do what I can to be the best player I can be every day and to help out my team as much as I can.

[cho1325]

So far into his professional career, James Cho has played 3 years in the ISFL and 1 year in the DSFL.  Despite recording only 3 years in his professional career I would have to say that Cho is currently experiencing a slump unfortunately. Cho’s fondest memory is probably his rookie year in the ISFL where his team the Wraiths made it to the playoffs but was knocked out in the semi-finals. It was a bone crushing loss, and was Cho’s career best during his rookie year. Cho knows it wasn’t his lone action that caused the loss but it was a eye opening moment. This was when Cho truly realized the competition difference between the ISFL and the DSFL. Cho didn’t really realize how fierce competition got during the playoffs. This may have been due to the fact that Cho was drafted to the Dallas Birddogs the first year that the DSFL expanded. During this time the Dallas Birddogs came through with a .500 win rating which unfortunately was not enough to take them to the DSFL playoffs. This may have been why Cho truly never felt fierce competition until he tasted a crushing defeat in a meaningful game. Ever since that loss Cho has strived to develop himself both professionally and on the field to be the best athlete he can possibly be. This may have helped contribute to help the Wraiths win the Ultimus the following year.

[Goat_Whisperer]

I remember when I first came over to Portland, just a fresh college kicker out of Arizona taking the next step on his career. Anyways, during the first day in Portland, we had the first practice, there I met with everybody, all the players and coaches were nice and welcomed me into the team. From there I joined the rest of the special team players and we went on to practice in our own little group. We did some kicking and punting drills, I naturally wanted to show that I can play and perform, but I was quickly reminded that the level of competition was a lot higher in DSFL than in college.

Pseudo QB at the time and still is a notoriously accurate kicker, he basically made me look like an amateur in one of the accuracy drills, we were supposed to hit the goalpost while kicking the ball from the baseline. Guess how many times I managed to hit the goalpost? Not even once. Pseudo did it ten times out of ten. At that moment I knew I was in trouble, I had a lot of work to do.

That was my introduction and little welcome to the league moment.

[Mooty99]

Mako is coming to the end of his career so this is the perfect opportunity to reflect. Mako came to football late after growing up in London and being a keen soccer, rugby and cricket player. He found his love for football when he went along to a friend at a walk on session while attending Rice University and it all went from there really. Mako came in half way through the DSFL season but his movement to the field and for playing time was very rapid. Mako's time in the DSFL was brief but very successful, his number of carries increased rapidly and which ultimately led to winning and Ultimini with the now moved Palm Beach Solar Bears. Mako's 1st season in the ISFL was as a backup largely sitting behind Dick Wizardry for Austin's 1st winless season. Mako's welcome to the ISFL movement came in the 3nd game ever in his second season in the ISFL, he moved up to be RB1 in his second season and after a close loss in the 1st game of the season winless Austin visited the reigning champs Arizona. Austin then won their 1st ever game against the champions with Mako leading the charge.

WC 202

[Tesla]

Magnus did not get their start in football until high school, however despite that he was able to contribute immediately thanks to his borderline superhuman strength. The transfer from high school to college saw him in a similar situation. Throughout his first few seasons he was able to dominate in college by virtue of his raw strength, but an accident in his junior year saw him lag behind a bit. His senior year was thus spent rebuilding himself from the ground up to be able to contribute at the next level.

This started at the prospect bowl where despite not having a single appearance on the stat sheet he was able to contribute to the team surrendering no touchdowns on the defensive side of things. Throughout his first year with the Norfolk Seawolves despite being surrounded by tougher competition he kept up just fine. The team never surrendered more than twenty-eight points thanks to the talent that surrounded him on defense and he was even able to get some noteworthy stats of his own in the form of forced fumbles.

Honestly thanks to that the jump from college to the Developmental Simulation Football League did not hurt Magnus in the slightest as far as he is concerned. He is a nose tackle and so his concern is points allowed over anything else. Although he did see a drop off in his own statistical performance that was more by virtue of the players around him making plays before he could. Which is something he understandably welcomes.

The jump from the Seawolves to the Second Line was ideally suited to keep him in a good position as he joined arguably the best defense in the league. His first game saw them hold the Sabercats to just 14 points while Magnus put up four tackles and a sack. Which is honestly significantly better than his average performance when he was in Norfolk. I do not know if this technically fulfills the requirements of the point task, however as a well built nose tackle Magnus has been able to do what he has needed to do throughout his career.

I guess the closest thing to a welcome to the league moment was week two of season twenty-one again the Kansas City Coyotes. The Seawolves were on the road and lost 21 to 6 that game. All three touchdowns were rushing touchdowns for the Coyotes in that game, and that was also the first of many games for Magnus where he had just two tackles on the stat sheet. Being a road game against an eventual Ultimini participant though meant that Magnus was able to just roll with it. Regarding rebounding from it I can say that was the worst loss Norfolk suffered all season in terms of point differential and so I would say Magnus rebounded by just keeping at it. The general managers of Norfolk then and now have been gifted at keeping motivation high and were able to keep him motivated towards getting better which allowed them to set their regular season record for wins that season.

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[s4ndr0p]

Well, I remember a very warm welcome. When Ryeu entered this league with the S22-players-wave it did not take long for scouts to show interest in ryeu (since it was not a very large DE class). I waited patiently for the DSFL draft to come and I was surprised to get picked by the (expansion Franchise) London Royals. It was amazing, the expansion paired with the S22 player wave really built a unit in this locker room and (though i did not write a lot in the dc) it was not hard to find people you really like. I remember our Co-GM, Duke, lining me up at the linebacker position and it worked out great. Ryeu had one of the best DSFL Seasons, maybe in DSFL history, but did not get nominated to any awards nor the pro bowl because of his hybrid role in the london defense. 
When the ISFL (aka NSFL) Draft came around I knew which couple of teams were likely to take a shot at me. The surprise was not as large when the outlaws selected me. I did not like to get ripped out of the London Locker Room at first, but I'm very okay with it now. Unfortunately, Ryeu's stats weren't even close as good as they were in the DSFL and he's still struggling to get to that production but you can see significant improvement throughout the last seasons.
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[JuOSu]

PBE PT