A sweet new beginning as I arrived at the Liberty training field for my first taste of ISFL OTA's. The locker room, the team mates, the coaches; all new and exciting. The Liberty seem to have a spark of energy about them with the most recent drafts and the new blood have really turned it up at training camp. With the influx of talent, the Liberty have really started to accelerate their efforts in being more aggressive with play calling and how they manage their schemes. The leadership is in place and throughout camp they have been incredibly helpful to make sure the new players are able to learn the calls and signals for audibles. Iknow for myself, Jimi DeSoto has been an incredible mentor. I couldn't have imagined coming into a rebuild and not having him and Goodman to guide me along. Our defense is looking scary through training camp so far and the only direction is up from here. Good luck teams about a year from now! Our coaches have really done a great job of building up an atmosphere here that is focused on always improving and really digging in and fighting for the games to come. The Liberty seem to be the perfect place for me to have landed and Ilook forward to our Ultimus runs in the future!
After a disappointing season in which the Sarasota Sailfish were unable to defender their championship the crew came back ready to work. The defense is flying around the field, the offensive line is working together to build chemistry, and most importantly Tre'Darius J'Vathon is preparing to take over as the primary wide receiver on the outside. After back-to-back 1,000 yard seasons, J'Vathon is finally being entrusted as the top receiver on the food chain. Former running mate Michael Witheblock is nearing the end of his career and has made the transition to linebacker to cover up some of the holes that were created during free agency. So now the pressure is on J'Vathon as he is the veteran of the crew and along with James Angler has the most chemistry with quarterback Mike Boss Jr. Due to this J'Vathon has taken on the mentor role as well as needing to work extra hard on the little things in his game as he prepares for the new season. Training camp has been all about working on his endurance as he sat out a healthy amount of plays last season in certain running formations. Now he is going to be used in almost every formation and every down so J'Vathon has been working hard on his cardio. It seems like such a small part of the game but J'Vathon is going to be counted on more than ever on the offense so every single detail becomes elevated in importance.
Well its another training camp come and gone for Immanuel Blackstone and frankly its starting to feel routine for him at this point. In fact people are starting to throw around the phrase "veterans day off" around him which just feels weird. He understands, of course, that the overall trajectory of his career is probably on a downward slope as he enters his 9th season in the league. Nevertheless, after his experiences on that first day, he wanted to spend training camp proving to the up and comers that he still has what it takes to be one of the best defensive ends in the league -- that he's not washed up as his critics say. So, he went as hard as he could for the full two weeks, and on top of that he was asked to spend some extra time with the rookies in their own separate training camp so that they could get acclimated to the trenches of the professional linemen. Overall, he'd say that the training camp was a success as he feels every bit as ready for the season as he ever has, but he knows that he will have to let his play do the talking as well as come to grips with the fact that he won't be able to do this forever.
Richard Mansher joined the league at the last second and went undrafted due to some Visa issues coming from Canada. Therefore, Mansher reported late and was thrust right into training camp. He started with a lot of footwork to get into shape, and from there went straight into a lot of contact. The Birddogs have minimal defensive players, and so Mansher has been a welcome addition to the team after being picked up off of waivers. They have a strong LB in Luke Watterson, as well as new draftee Hex Aqua-Key’Kiann. Ice Torrent and Lebron Brady Jr. also brought out big tackles from the DE position. Finally, Darius Severance who had his rookie season last year has been a strong role model for Mansher to learn from. Severance has quickly become one of the fastest players in the juniors. Lastly the GM has been super welcoming and helped Richard adjust to his rookie season. Even though he joined a tad late, he is confident he will be a defensive wall this season and hopefully get some good interceptions and tackles. Wide receiver Ivan Toastovich also proved tough to cover however and had a terrifying offensive streak running circles around all the above players. Rookie QB Ricky Stanzi has also been somewhat consistent and could prove a bigger threat as the season progresses. All in all, Mansher is feeling excited going into the season and hoping to help the Birddogs compete into the playoffs.
Training camp popped up on me. A bunch of us were already texting about getting ready for the season and a few more were working out with each other. Despite this, it still caught me unaware. Time slipped away from me. I was supposed to show up bright and early Monday morning. But I got my days mixed up and thought it was the following week. Didn't realize it until Thursday. They all had a good laugh at me over it.
Besides that, training camp was uneventful. We have a couple new guys so we spent a lot of time getting them up to speed. We worked hard to put in new plays. We lost Bronko to the draft last year so we have to find new ways to move the ball. He was a great release valve for us when the play was breaking down. The coaches have their work cut out for them. That's a lot of production to replace.
One of the best parts of camp was pranking the rookies. I gave Squidward Tentacles, our new receiver, a friar haircut with mutton chops. Pizzaman shaved his name into one of rookie running back's head. Then when they were out on the field, we filled all of the rookies cars with popcorn. It was all in good fun.