(S24) - PT 4 - Trial by Fire

[AW13]

PBE PT

[Cheech65]

Growing up in a football family, Clark Boyd was taught the game from a young age. Initially, he played quarterback for pee-wee leagues. Once he entered high school, he was made a backup. After gaining some mass and growing a few inches up, Clark switched positions to tight end, and never looked back. His senior year, he made All-Group, All-Conference, and All-State teams, and committed to his local school, Rutgers University. In college, he had moderate success, usually taking quick and short routes to score. His best season came his junior year, but the drop off in stats as a senior hurt his scouting efforts, causing him to decide very late on whether or not to pursue a professional career. Obviously, he chose yes.

He was added from waivers to Myrtle Beach, where he saw his debut in S22. That first game was an eye opener. The Bucs took on the Portland Pythons, and Clark saw 2 catches for 6 yards, and a single rush for no gain. His time off the field had taken its toll. Not only was he new to the scheme, he was TE2 to boot. But, as the season progressed, his skills returned and improved. In the last game of that season, against the Norfolk Seawolves, Clark managed 4 catches for 38 yards and a touchdown. The following season, he was called up to the Sarasota Sailfish.

Once again, the season opener left Clark shell-shocked. Once again the skill and play level were overwhelming and Clark, as a pro rookie, only made 1 catch for 8 yards. Again, the grind of a professional team brought his level of play up. In Week 16 against the Baltimore Hawks, he made 6 catches for 58 yards and 1 touchdown, leading the team's receiving core in all 3 categories.

Season 24 is proving difficult. As perhaps the weakest receiver skill-wise on the pass-heavy Sailfish team, Clark has seen a stagnation in his performance. But the season is far from over, and he is looking to step it up as playoffs loom.

[Ace]

SHL CW https://simulationhockey.com/showthread....pid2897565

[Birdman]

SHL Affiliation (LordBirdman)

[Crodyman]

Wasrabi Gleel has always been a dominant player, from the time he first put on pads in peewee football as a 5'11 9 year old, to when he suited up in high school for the Windsor Yellow Jackets as a 6'3 linebacker/TE, to his college days at Dartmouth. The big question heading into the DSFL draft was whether or not he could continue to produce and compete at a high level in this league. There were many doubts about his speed, but after a solid performance in the Prospect Bowl led him to be taken in the 8th round by the Minnesota Grey Ducks, Wasrabi has silenced the doubters with his ability to bring down the ball carrier anywhere on the field. He currently sits at the #2 spot behind Alejandro Chainbreaker for most tackles in the DSFL.

His biggest "welcome to the league" moment would have to be the final preseason game against the Norfolk Seawolves. In that game, Wasrabi proved to himself he could play at a high level in this league when he picked off arguably the best QB in the league--Ramza--and returned the ball all the way to the house for 6 points. After that, all the anxiety melted away like a pad of butter on a hot cob of freshly picked Vermont sweet corn. The last kernel--to continue the corn metaphor--of doubt in Gleel's mind is whether or not he can become an elite player in the ISFL--certainly he's off to a good start.


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[GotDatWeeFee]

For Rashad Hilliard, his first welcome to the league moment was game one of season 23 for the Grey Ducks. There were a lot of things that built up to this moment going wrong. Hilliard had never played a regular-season game at cornerback in his entire career, and this first game was against Norfolk who went on to win the Ultimini that year. He was destroyed that game, Norfolk threw for 3 touchdowns and over 160 yards. He recorded no stats other 5 tackles and was on the field the whole game. That was his turning point, he was down as low as he could get in terms of self-performance and realized he needed to step up his game. After getting a few more games under his belt he went on to have one hell of a rookie season. Posting seven interceptions and placing second by one point for the defensive back of the year award. That isn’t all though he started out the second year strong competing as one of the top three defensive backs in the league and it could be argued he is the best cornerback in the league right now. We will see how season two plays out, but I only expect upward progress for Rashad Hilliard.

[kingsleigher]

James Hoffman’s DSFL debut wasn’t exactly a coming out party for the rookie Myrtle Beach cornerback. After a pretty solid preseason from Hoffman in which he recorded five passes defensed through the first three games, he was abysmal in the Buccaneers’ Season 24 opener. While Hoffman did manage two record a couple of PDs, the rookie looked lost for most of the game as the Kansas City Coyotes passed for nearly 300 yards and both of the Coyotes’ starting receivers eclipsed 100 receiving yards.

To add insult to injury, Hoffman was completely outshined by fellow rookie defensive back, Teddy Utterstruzen, a player picked far later in the draft than Hoffman’s 11th overall. Utterstruzen started hot in preseason with a couple of picks and kept that momentum going into Week 1 against Kansas City when he led the team in tackles and had a pick late in the fourth quarter that sealed the win for the Buccaneers. Hoffman’s atrocious performance was also bailed out by linebacker Dexter Jackson, who had a whopping four passes defensed and an interception midway through the first quarter that set up Myrtle Beach to increase their lead to two scores.

The next few weeks weren’t much different for the rookie corner, as he struggled to acclimate to the speed of the DSFL after successfully locking down so many opposing wideouts in college. Frustration set in as Myrtle Beach was blown out by division rivals the Tijuana Luchadores and the Norfolk Seawolves by 16 and 23 points respectively. Hoffman voiced his frustration on social media and blamed himself for the losses, acknowledging his poor performance as being the weakest link in an otherwise stellar defense. With some encouragement from teammates and extra time spent in the film room, Hoffman was able to turn his cold stretch around as the Buccaneers went on a three-game winning streak, during which the defense held their opponents to an average of 12 points per game.

Myrtle Beach now faces a two game stretch featuring the Coyotes and Luchadores, both teams that Hoffman previously said had “toasted him like a marshmallow.” When asked whether or not these upcoming games would be personal to him, Hoffman said, “I’m not really concerned about making anything personal. I’m really just focused on making sure I do everything I can to help my team succeed. ‘Cause right now, this division is so tough that every game is important. So I’m not gonna let anything personal get in the way of that, no. I’m just trying to get the W.”

[Cynoblaze]

My first game as a player in the league took place in the prospect bowl. I was on the Tiburon Landsharks, I was pretty nervous going into the first game to be honest but if I remember correctly the game went well. The Landsharks had a good stretch of games until it all fell apart at the end. I was drafted by the Minnesota Grey Ducks 50th overall. I was very excited to start the preseason on my first DSFL team. Cleg had very little to do in the passing game but he racked up 13 pancakes in 4 games. But for my actual first game in the DSFL I feel like my player had a decent game for the stats he had at the time. The Minnesota Grey Ducks played the Dallas Birddogs to start off their season and the Ducks lost 24-27. I feel like my player, Cleg Manclaw, had a decent game with the stats he had at the time. Cleg recorded 2 catches for 11 yards and 1 pancake. I was very upset at only getting one pancake, I thought Cleg would perform a bit better than that, but as the season has progressed, his stats have gotten better and better. I hope to get at least 30 catches and 25 pancakes by the end of the season but I hope I outperform my predictions!

[angeloc]

You want a story about struggle, a story about being punched in the mouth when you think the league is your oyster and you will bend it to your will? Well man do I have a story for you. So I, for the most part stayed in the shadows in the lead up to this current DFSL draft, collecting a mass amount of TPE waiting to be drafted I would then use all that collected TPE to make a dominate DT in the DFSL. While I think i'm getting closer and closer to there now I thought it was going to happen much much sooner. So, because of reasons I have already expanded upon in previous articles I actually didn't get to use all that TPE I collected for the preseason and DFSL week 1. So I went into the DFSL completely under developed and as I was about to find out, I wasn't exactly making the most ideal of builds to be a dominate DT off jump street in the DFSL. So I thought okay, maybe I would struggle but I would be fine, oh no, no no no, at the start of the DFSL season their were games I failed to even record a tackle, a single tackle. I started so poorly the fact I got sacks in back to back games was a reason to celebrate, as finally I was recording stats and not just struggling to get basic tackles. The more I have learned about this sim the better my player has become and the better and smarter I am for it.

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[bjkman]

I have had a really hard time and a really long journey to get to where I am today. Scouted by pretty much only one team, the Tijuana Luchadores, and sat on until the 4th pick of the 14th round. Everyone calls me a draft steal and I deserve to be called that. I started from the absolute bottom, became a top scorer and an award nominee. I was a 4-time award nominee in the DSFL, and again after waiting a painfully long time to be drafted. The wonderful Sarasota Sailfish took their ISFL record-breaking kicker and punter as the 2nd pick in the 10th round of the ISFL draft. I was not brought up right away, and was given another opportunity with Tijuana, we won the Ultimini and I was so excited to take my talents up to the major leagues... AND... I do as worse at kicking as I do my first year in the DSFL. The team ends up missing the playoffs. That hurt. This year is going pretty great, we are at the top of the standings, and I am one of the top kickers far this year as well. I will certainly get another awards nomination, but if I do not take home an award. It will be another year of fighting.

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