(S24) - PT 4 - Trial by Fire

[sakrosankt]

There were some interesting stages I went through in my career, in all different levels I played in. Deciding to enter the DSFL draft and getting drafted to the Kansas City Coyotes, were I played my first professional season of football was the beginning. After one year, I entered the ISFL draft and got drafted to one of the two expansion teams, the Sarasota Sailfish. I was immediately called up and was – after just one season playing in the minors – in the big league all of a sudden. As a WR the situation wasn’t easy for me. We had some minor holes on the roster, but WR for sure was none of them. With Dexter Banks II and Rayne Gordon I had two of the very best players in front of me. I was glad I even got the chance to play WR3 on that team, but the lack of a franchise QB by that time was not really easy to overcome. We started into the season with Zack Vega, and did surprisingly well. I wasn’t really seen in games with big catches, but we did play pretty well. Later in the season we traded for Rose Jenkins, which was a big upgrade to Vega, but has already announced to retire at the end of the season due to already getting too old to play on a proper level. We made the playoffs in the end, but having two of the best wide receivers in front of you as a rookie is hard to overcome.

After the first year, things turned around pretty quick. Banks II changed to QB, which opened up WR2 on the depth chart for me. I also was way further in my development to play on the pro level, which could be seen in the stats.