A mentor is always an important part of football and growing as a player. Everyone has someone to look up to but not always do they actually get to work alongside their mentor in order to get better. As Jason Garciaparra was working toward the DSFL draft while at Georgia Tech, a former NSFL player came back to start up a strength and conditioning school to prepare athletes for the draft. The Armored Kings Gym, ran by none other than Armor King, was originally just a place that Jason would go to in order to work out to a specific routine, but became something so much more. During a workout, Armor King approached Jason and recognized his great skill as a person and decided to train up the young athlete himself. Tools of the trade and how to handle not being as successful as you hope were important lessons that Armor King gave to Jason Garciaparra since he did not want him to suffer the same fate that he did back in Colorado. It was an important lesson to be taught after the strong role that Jason played for the Yellow Jackets now that he would be joining all of the other great players in the league. Through that work, Jason was able to keep a mentor that he still keeps up with to this day.
Blago Kokot's mentor has been Blago Kokot. Blago Kokot early on realized that the only person who is able to guide Blago Kokot to the stars is Blago Kokot. When Blago Kokot had a problem with buying a car or something football-related, the only person Kokot trusted was Kokot himself. This relationship started years ago when Kokot was still living in Croatia. Back then, the game of football was not as big it is now, and it's still not big in Croatia. Back then, you did not have easy access to Youtube and whatever else platforms with football-related content, so Kokot could not look for inspiration from anywhere else. He had to rely on himself and his wisdom. When other kids were swimming or playing with toys, Kokot was at the nearby field kicking whatever items he could find. Running joke in the town was to check for lost items from the field near Kokot house as Blago had the habit of taking anything not chained to a wall or the ground for his kicking practice. When the time came to leave Croatia, Kokot had prepared himself by making sure everything is taken care of and he can focus on football. Being your mentor has made Kokot extremely tough mentally and it shows, he is a veteran player with plenty of experience.
Thanks Slothman07!
First, a shout-out of gratitude to @Billybolo53 for tolerating me frequently involving his player in my own player’s story so often, especially since I never quite exactly “asked.”
By now I’ve written plenty about my personal head-canon, how Cuco Clemente was a player that Spike really idolized as he was working his way up through college and the DSFL. Spike was excited to go to Sarasota mostly because of the opportunity to learn as much as he possibly could directly from Cuco, and hopefully pick up where he left off once he called it a career. I’ve tried to flesh out this story a bit more on Spike’s wiki page, although it’s still a work in progress. The ability to do things like this and create these emergent narratives based on things that happen in the sim is what really hooked me on the ISFL and sim leagues in the first place! Outside of the sim, the people I met in Norfolk right as I was starting out were a huge help to a sim league newbie who was feeling a little overwhelmed at first. Definitely @negs, the GM who drafted me, we hit it off right away during scouting, so I was glad to become a Seawolf on draft night. And my fellow rookie, @g2019, who took to sim leagues so fast you’d think he’s been around for years, became a good friend just about immediately. @SchwarzNarr is always quick to answer even the smallest questions, @MN_Moosey makes top-notch draft graphics, and @Tesla is one of the most delightful people I’ve ever encountered, and a fellow knife enthusiast besides! There’s many more of course, who hopefully know who they are even though I don’t have the space to mention everyone individually! I just love this community and I hope to remain a part of it for a long time to come!
I got two people in mind. My first is maybe Eleven Kendrick-Watts, he was one of the leaders in the KCC area before I was called up. Since then it's been probably my GM Russ. I love Russ he's really helped me not only with my build but also as a user and as a person in general. I met him when I first started in the ISFL back in May 2020 (more late June/July 2020, anyways) and since then he's been able to do a ton of things. The most notable one to come to mind was getting me to ask a girl out to homecoming. It worked too! He's a real gem in this league that I hope everyone sees at one point or another, because he's a backbone to here. I've become more confident as a person and I've learned so much about the league just from him. He's been a person I can vent to and I've learned to express my feelings more because I used to hide them a lot but he's helped me come out of that shell. He's a personal mentor, friend, and brother to me. Anyways, thanks Russ for everything, love you man, if you do see this.
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I was lucky to have some really good mentors when I started out in this league. My DSFL GM’s @J0EB and @Blasoon did a fantastic job showing me the ropes, making my DSFL career enjoyable, and most importantly teaching me how to have continuous fun in this league. What they both taught me, along with all of Norfolk in those days, was that you have fun in the league through the people. The users behind the player names. There’s much more I could say about them as well, but I’d also like to highlight another user. I would be remiss to speak about mentors without bringing up @SchwarzNarr, and if she isn’t tagged many times in this PT, that is only due to her name not being known in the recent times as much, but I would say Schwarz is the greatest mentor in league history. She devoted countless time to acclimating new players to the league, training new users for high level involvement through the Norfolk war room, working with new DSFL GM’s as they go through the waiver process for the first time, and teaching rookie mentors how to do their jobs correctly. There’s probably much more she also did, but for a long time she helped the league function well, and although I myself am much less involved than I was in the past, I hope that one day she feels inspired to be around the ISFL more, because it certainly feels different without her.
Well my first two personal mentors are definitely the reason I stuck around in the league, and they are @Dewalt27 and @CLG Rampage ! They were the GM of the Grey Ducks when I was first drafted into the league during the madness that was S22. Although I would’ve likely made my way into any war room, DeWalt and CLG took a shot on me and gave me access to the War Room in my first season.
CLG ended up teaching me how to test the Sim engine, which at that time was Draft Day Pro Sports Football 2016. In hindsight, I kind of wished I didn’t care so much about the sim, but at that time, I felt it was really what helped separate me from the rest, and ultimately a big part of why I wound up going in the first round of that insane draft class. I’ve really enjoyed watching the two of them continue to grow, and be great members of our community. |
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