Random thoughts about Pro Day

After about ten weeks of training, the 'track meet" began today at 8:00 a.m. This 'track meet' was put on for the NFL scouts and coaches to give them an up close and personal view of former collegiate football players. The track meet included such events as the 40 yd dash, 20 yd shuttle, 60 yd shuttle, 3-cone drill, vertical jump, broad jump and bench press and then position drills. The players were also given a written test to assess their critical thinking abilities.

For alot of these guys this was a second or third chance to showcase themselves. Many of these players were fortuanate enough to play in an allstar bowl game or go to the NFL combine. So, today's Pro Day was just another opportunity for them to improve upon any drill they didn't do as well as they would have liked to previously. However, for a few guys like Mickey (M2), it was their only chance to show something of themselves that was never revealed throughout their college career.

For M2, this Pro Day became not only a stage for him to show his athleticism, but it also symbolized an effort to give birth to a dream that has been part of him since he was born.

For me, observing this process of training and preparing for this one event seemed like watching someone being pregnant for nine months, going into labor, and finally giving birth to something they created. It required patience, hard work, and lots of mental focus. And as a bystander the only thing I could do was offer my support and prayers.

So for the past two months, M2 has been patient, worked hard and stayed centered on what he knew he had to do to prepare for this day. He didn't miss a workout, meal, nap, stretch, massage or anything else required of him to train for this day. His days were long and bedtime came early so he could start over again the next day. This went on six days a week with one day off. He had a few down days where he was hurting a bit and couldn't train like he wanted to, but he kept focused on the long term goal of being healthy and performing well at Pro Day.

So after a long drive back from Florida, he had only two more days to basically just go through a warm up and do some accellerations. His training was over and he appeared to be in peak condition for the biggest job interview of his life to date. I know that sometimes with highly trained athletes there is a fine line between getting injured and staying healthy especially close to 'peak time'. So it was a relief now that all he had to do was show up and perform the way he was trained to for the last two months.

It is now Wednesday evening as I am writing this, Pro Day has long been over and I already know that Mickey was able to do everything he had trained to do. He will be able to remember his Pro Day and feel no regrets. He told me he is sore right now, but there is no surprise there since all of his numbers in every event placed him in the top five of all the tight ends coming out this year. His 4.62 40 yd dash placed him in the top five. His bench press of 28 reps placed him second, his vertical jump of 37.5 placed him 4th. His broad jump of 10'11'' placed him first, 20 yard shuttle of 4.25 placed him second, 6.70 in the 3 cone drill placed him first and his 11.19 in the 60 yd shuttle placed him first in that drill. According to his dad he also did quite well in his receiving drills. Not bad for a kid who has flown under the radar for too long.
Hopefully, this puts him on the radar screen for some team who needs a solid, hardworking, dependable and did I mention "athletic" tight end.

Compare his Pro day stats to the combine numbers at http://www.steelersdepot.com/2010-nfl-combine-results-tight-ends/

Also check out this cite: http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2010/03/17/for-penn-states-shuler-nfl-is-a-matter-of-legacy/

Sorry to be so long winded, but it has been awhile since I have written and I wanted to let everyone who has supported Mickey know about his progress.