It’s officially over! My time in Minnesota felt like it flew by extremely fast. It feels like just the other day, I was named as the co-GM of my friend Jamar Lackson just the other day. Realistically, it’s been something like 6 months since I became GM. I’m not sure what makes it feel so fast. Maybe it’s the constant roster turnover in the DSFL, or maybe it’s just because time flies when you’re having fun. Regardless, it felt like it absolutely flew by. My time GMing in the DSFL has been the best part of this horrible pandemic. This horrible year that we’ve all endured was made a bit better for me by finding this league, and it was made a lot better by finding a brand new community that I never expected to find - the Minnesota Grey Ducks (also the ISFL in general, to an extent). My journey towards becoming a GM was a bit different than most. Most DSFL GMs start off as prodigies. They come in and make awesome spreadsheets, maybe make a breakthrough in sim testing (at least in the DDSPF 16 days), and just generally make a large, immediate impact in the war room (shout out to my boys Gragg and painted). My experience was … not exactly the same as this. I started off mostly inactive. Dewalt did what he could to try to get me engaged. He would DM me every once in a while asking what he could do to help me get active. I never knew what I needed to do, but for some reason, I kept telling him that I was fine and didn’t need any help. I went into the ISFL draft at 71 TPE, I believe. Maybe 77 or 78, I don’t remember exactly. I’m not entirely sure what happened next, but eventually I actually became a slightly well known user in the Minnesota Grey Ducks server! I didn’t know exactly how to make it into the war room of the team, so I remember I sent a DM to TVC and let him know that I was interested in joining the war room once there was an opening. I knew that they had just added something like two new war room members that offseason, but for some reason, he decided to just let me in. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that we were about to scout the large S25 class, but I’ve got to thank him for getting the war room chapter of my sim football career going. I somehow ended up being named the “Head Scout'' of our team that offseason, in an r/NFL class. I’m not sure why he trusted me with this role, but apparently he saw something in me. I was nervous beyond belief. I was tasked with organizing our scouting for the biggest class in league history outside of my own class, S22, and I was also expected to be one of our best scouts, in my first season scouting ever!! In a complete surprise to me, I actually excelled in this role. Apparently TVC and Jamar knew what they were doing when they allowed me to take on such a big role in the war room. Things happened, and the next thing I know, Jamar chooses me to be his co-GM. This is where things got really fun for me. Like I’ve said many times before, my time GMing the Minnesota Grey Ducks was definitely the greatest part of my quarantine. Even through the more questionable moments in my tenure, I never regretted taking the job.. I enjoyed taking the reins in one of the DSFL’s most open and wild locker rooms. I also enjoyed taking part in the slight rebuilding of our locker room, once we came to the conclusion that it wasn’t up to the standard that it needed to be, and I’m sure that Russ, Crody, and the future leadership of the team will continue down that road that we started. We really tried our best to get our team up to the standard of the rest of the DSFL, and I think that we accomplished this task, or at least got ourselves onto the right track. I had several goals when I became a GM of the Minnesota Grey Ducks. I wanted to continue to develop great players. I wanted to make sure that our team was a place that new users wanted to be. And later on, I wanted to make sure that I got the team on track to move in a slightly different direction, culture wise. Most of all, I wanted to have fun, and make sure that the players that we chose to be a part of our team also had fun. I think that for the most part, I accomplished the goals that I had set out for myself. Now it’s time for me to start the next chapter of my ISFL journey, now that I’m Bayley’s co-GM on the Chicago Butchers! Trying to fill in Muford’s shoes is a tall task, but I think that I’m up to the challenge. If I can have even half as much fun as I had while I was the GM of the Minnesota Grey Ducks, then I can’t wait for my future in the league.