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+---- Thread: *Norfolk Seawolves Rookie Spotlight (/showthread.php?tid=23096)
*Norfolk Seawolves Rookie Spotlight - J0EB - 06-15-2020
Hello everyone! I’m Matt Cross, former safety of the Norfolk Seawolves, and today I’ll be interviewing one of our newest additions to the team from the S23 DSFL Draft, Ragnar Krashwagen. Before I get into the interview, I want to give you guys a breakdown of Krashwagen. Weighing in at a solid 250 pounds, this 6’6” tight end is going to have an incredible presence in the Norfolk Offense. He was born in Sweden and graduated from Home School, a prestigious college in his home country. Now that you know a little bit about Krashwagen, here’s a look at the fun interview I had with him.
Hey Krashwagen, thanks for meeting with me here today and agreeing to this, I think it’ll be great to help get your name out there and show the rest of the league how serious you are! So here’s my first question,
Originally from Sweden, how did you first learn about American Football, and what caused you to pursue the sport over some of the more common Swedish sports like soccer (football) or floorball? Did you play any other sports before committing to American Football?
No worries at all Matt, thanks for having me on. I’m excited to get my name out there and have people learn a bit about who I am.
I’m actually pretty new to the sport. I decided to sign up to play with my school in my final high school year. We had a head coach who was from Texas, and he was super into “American Football”, so he was always recruiting very heavily. Finally, heading into my final year he convinced me to go for a tryout for the team.
What made you choose to be a tight end? Obviously your natural size and strength must’ve helped a lot in that decision, but what made you choose to be on the offensive side of the ball?
This next question kinda goes hand in hand, but as a tight end, do you like to specialize more in being a receiving threat or blocking on the line?
So I actually wanted to try out as a kicker, but we already had a 3rd year veteran kicker, so there was no space. We ran a “gauntlet” drill where you're basically running in a line and you get balls thrown to you to try to catch. I caught them all, and the coach just said “well, I guess we have a new receiver”. After that moment I did a few practices as a running back, and as a defensive back, but my tendency as a db was to catch the ball still.
When I was in university, we had 2 extremely quick wide outs, and I hit a growth spurt. It seemed to be a natural fit to move to a TE slot, and I’ve been there ever since.
Also you chose the number 53, is there any significance to that number, or was it more of just a random decision you made?
That number holds some significance to my family. It’s basically been passed down from my father from his father. Not getting too in depth about it, it basically signifies that you are what you produce, if that makes sense? The story is that my grandfather was drafted 53 overall in the Swedesh hockey league and he went on to produce some amazing things over a long career. It doesn’t matter where you are picked, it’s who picks you. Keep your head down, grind and you will see the reward.
Your name Ragnar Krashwagen is pretty unique and admittedly is very cool, is there some hidden meaning to your name that I may be missing? Or is it just purely meant to be awesome sounding?
It’s a good old fashioned mix of my roots. Ragnar is from my mother’s side, and my surname is my father’s. Nothing more than that.
As a graduate of Home School, can you tell me more about your experience playing football in college?
Sure, it was a pretty fun experience. The school is fairly unique where we are all online for classes, and that's why I chose to play football as my sport. We get together once every week for the game on the weekend, and that was a pretty good schedule to mix activity with school work.
Do you have any thoughts about where you were drafted? At pick #37, you fell into the 5th round of the draft before Norfolk was lucky enough to scoop you up. Why do you think you might’ve fallen so far? And are you going to use this to motivate you to prove the other teams wrong for passing on you? Or do you not mind your draft position?
I have no problems with my position. I’m coming from across the ocean, scouting isn’t as intense over there, and there are going to be a lot of questions. Additionally teams seem to have a knack of drafting for position needs first, then the player at that position and the first tight end didn’t go until later on. I don’t have a chip on my shoulder, but I am hungry to prove that I’m an excellent pick.
All I can say to that is that I’m very glad Norfolk was able to snatch you up. Seeing you still on the board in the 5th round was incredible to us and we definitely had you valued higher than that. We’re happy to have you on the team and excited to watch what you can do this year.
Do you have any goals for your first year?
I want to win and I think our team is in a pretty good position to do that. When the NSFL draft comes along I want to be the top TE taken. I want to be able to help when I get on the field and make the blocks, or go up and catch the ball when I’m called on.
That’s a great spirit to have. Always gotta keep up the strong work ethic and give your all out on the field. And while the NSFL Draft may still be a ways away, each step you take today will not only prepare you for it, but also affect the way teams look at you as a prospect.
What has your impression of Norfolk been so far?
The team has been very welcoming. The city has been interesting, I’ve only been here for a few days at this point, so there is a lot of exploring that I want to be able to do. I want to find a really nice coffee / breakfast place that I can hang out in the mornings.
I’m glad you’ve enjoyed it here so far! Exploring a new city is one of my favorite parts in moving too. I would definitely recommend Handsome Biscuit or Toast as nice morning hangouts. They both have some really great food and a really friendly atmosphere.
And that was the end of our discussion, it was truly a pleasure talking with Krashwagen. We’re happy to have him with us in Norfolk donning the blue and black, and we think he has excellent potential to be a breakout star as a rookie tight end. Good luck to you Krashwagen! I'll be cheering you on from Philly.
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