S26 UW
8) Chuck was born and raised in Round Rock, Texas, just outside of Austin. He grew up playing soccer at the Round Rock Multi-Sport complex, the American home of FC Barcelona. While he was a solid player, he ultimately did not have much of a future in the sport. He discovered a love for BBQ in middle school and became too fat to play anything except goalie, which was a natural fit for Chuck, and where his nickname of big boy Chuckie comes from. He converted to football when he took a weightlifting class his freshman year of high school for an easy A. The Stony Point HS football team needed more offensive lineman, and the gym teacher was the head coach of the team. Chuck, as the strongest freshman in the class, was recruited to play football and quit the soccer team. He finally found his athletic stride and performed well for his school, and in Texas, football is a way of life.
As he grew older, he began to dislike living in the state of Texas. In an interview with his high school's newspaper, he was quoted saying "Everything's bigger in Texas? More like, every ego's bigger in Texas." Despite receiving some interest from the typical schools that any four-star recruit from Texas would gather, Texas, A&M, Baylor, TCU, etc, he wanted to go to college in a place as Un-Texas-y as possible. He wanted football to be a fun thing to do that might be a potential career path if he continued to excel, not the only thing that mattered in life where it was make it to the league or bust. He settled on Dartmouth because he liked their colors and thought going to a University in the Ivy League would be far enough away from Texas that the culture would be different. Also, Dartmouth would let him long snap, which was his dream position. In his four years at Dartmouth, he excelled once he found his footing, and lead Dartmouth to and Ivy league title, and received both first team All-Ivy and All-American accolades.
He went on to be drafted to the Portland Pythons of the DSFL in the 6th round, first pick. Chuck had a fantastic rookie season, being nominated for Offensive Lineman of the year, and having the second most pancakes in the league. Chuck then switched to Defensive Tackle. This position is where Chuck truly found his form, as he earned Defensive Tackle of the year in a landslide. This performance earned him a call-up to the Arizona Outlaws, where he happily plays to this day.
433 words
9) What keeps me interested in the league? Well, it definitely isn’t making the playoffs (please kill me). Frankly, this league is full of amazing people who have made my 3+ seasons here extremely fun. This league is a great outlet for my competitiveness; having played sports my entire life, I am naturally a very competitive person, but recently graduating college and having neither the skills nor time to dedicate to an adult sports league, sim sports seems like the natural solution. From my early days in the league, before even being drafted, I hung out in the Royals LR (gross, I know) and met cool dudes like Mag, Plat, and a ton of people who are now IA. Being drafted to Portland was a huge surprise for me, as they barely scouted me. There I met TONS of awesome people like qWest, Arkz, South, LP, lespoils, Rusfan, and probably a ton more that I am forgetting. Then being drafted to Arizona felt like becoming part of a second family; Crunk, Whiz, Saba, Moose, Brnx, and many others Make having some of the worst sim luck in the league bearable.
This league has such an incredible sense of community in it. Even with the users I do not necessarily get along with, I still have a fun time arguing with them in the YouTube stream chat during games and in the awards committee. I think it’s the people who I am not on a team with who have made this league so much fun. Being able to discuss a fake sport on the internet felt weird at first, but now that I have bought into it, it’s quite enjoyable. Having my own player whose achievements I can take pride in and brag about almost fulfils my childhood dreams of becoming a pro athlete.
So, I guess you can say this is a social league with a dot football problem, at least for me. The only improvement I could see from a social perspective is adding more and more players, so I can keep meeting awesome people! With a rumored reddit class coming up, hopefully we can have another S22 esque class and add in so many new players that the league has to expand as well. Adding new teams will only increase the number of active players in the league, as there will be more ISFL starting spots for them to work towards, which hopefully will increase DSFL player retention.
409 words
8) Chuck was born and raised in Round Rock, Texas, just outside of Austin. He grew up playing soccer at the Round Rock Multi-Sport complex, the American home of FC Barcelona. While he was a solid player, he ultimately did not have much of a future in the sport. He discovered a love for BBQ in middle school and became too fat to play anything except goalie, which was a natural fit for Chuck, and where his nickname of big boy Chuckie comes from. He converted to football when he took a weightlifting class his freshman year of high school for an easy A. The Stony Point HS football team needed more offensive lineman, and the gym teacher was the head coach of the team. Chuck, as the strongest freshman in the class, was recruited to play football and quit the soccer team. He finally found his athletic stride and performed well for his school, and in Texas, football is a way of life.
As he grew older, he began to dislike living in the state of Texas. In an interview with his high school's newspaper, he was quoted saying "Everything's bigger in Texas? More like, every ego's bigger in Texas." Despite receiving some interest from the typical schools that any four-star recruit from Texas would gather, Texas, A&M, Baylor, TCU, etc, he wanted to go to college in a place as Un-Texas-y as possible. He wanted football to be a fun thing to do that might be a potential career path if he continued to excel, not the only thing that mattered in life where it was make it to the league or bust. He settled on Dartmouth because he liked their colors and thought going to a University in the Ivy League would be far enough away from Texas that the culture would be different. Also, Dartmouth would let him long snap, which was his dream position. In his four years at Dartmouth, he excelled once he found his footing, and lead Dartmouth to and Ivy league title, and received both first team All-Ivy and All-American accolades.
He went on to be drafted to the Portland Pythons of the DSFL in the 6th round, first pick. Chuck had a fantastic rookie season, being nominated for Offensive Lineman of the year, and having the second most pancakes in the league. Chuck then switched to Defensive Tackle. This position is where Chuck truly found his form, as he earned Defensive Tackle of the year in a landslide. This performance earned him a call-up to the Arizona Outlaws, where he happily plays to this day.
433 words
9) What keeps me interested in the league? Well, it definitely isn’t making the playoffs (please kill me). Frankly, this league is full of amazing people who have made my 3+ seasons here extremely fun. This league is a great outlet for my competitiveness; having played sports my entire life, I am naturally a very competitive person, but recently graduating college and having neither the skills nor time to dedicate to an adult sports league, sim sports seems like the natural solution. From my early days in the league, before even being drafted, I hung out in the Royals LR (gross, I know) and met cool dudes like Mag, Plat, and a ton of people who are now IA. Being drafted to Portland was a huge surprise for me, as they barely scouted me. There I met TONS of awesome people like qWest, Arkz, South, LP, lespoils, Rusfan, and probably a ton more that I am forgetting. Then being drafted to Arizona felt like becoming part of a second family; Crunk, Whiz, Saba, Moose, Brnx, and many others Make having some of the worst sim luck in the league bearable.
This league has such an incredible sense of community in it. Even with the users I do not necessarily get along with, I still have a fun time arguing with them in the YouTube stream chat during games and in the awards committee. I think it’s the people who I am not on a team with who have made this league so much fun. Being able to discuss a fake sport on the internet felt weird at first, but now that I have bought into it, it’s quite enjoyable. Having my own player whose achievements I can take pride in and brag about almost fulfils my childhood dreams of becoming a pro athlete.
So, I guess you can say this is a social league with a dot football problem, at least for me. The only improvement I could see from a social perspective is adding more and more players, so I can keep meeting awesome people! With a rumored reddit class coming up, hopefully we can have another S22 esque class and add in so many new players that the league has to expand as well. Adding new teams will only increase the number of active players in the league, as there will be more ISFL starting spots for them to work towards, which hopefully will increase DSFL player retention.
409 words
![[Image: 63604_s.gif]](https://signavatar.com/63604_s.gif)
