Persistance Pays Off For Stafford
Michael Vergane
Saturday July 29, 2000
Some of them take the lack of interest by those professional teams as a sign and go on with the rest of their lives. Others, like Tallahassee Thunder quarterback Shane Stafford, take the offensive and start pounding the pavement. Or in this case, start surfing the web. When Shane left the University of Connecticut as the all-time leader in touchdown passes, he had no interest from any professional teams and found himself out of football. Then came the af2.
Late last year there was very little information circulating about the af2 and its teams. So you really had to make an effort if you wanted to find some information or arrange a tryout. With the help of his mother and father, Shane got on the Internet, got the names and numbers of the af2 coaches, and started making calls.
"I called everywhere,” said Shane. "Then Coach McDowell asked me to come down for a tryout. I told Coach I had a college receiver that is pretty good and he was a 2nd team All-American in his junior year. Coach said to bring him along too!"
Smart move by Gene McDowell because the combination of Shane Stafford/WR Carl Bond is arguably the most dangerous in the af2. A Reading native, Shane would appear to be the prototypical big-armed quarterback that comes out the Pennsylvania high schools. However, Shane loved basketball and didn`t plan on playing football in college. That was until then Connecticut Huskie Football Coach Skip Holtz offered him a scholarship and talked him into heading up north to UConn. Shane, the basketball fan, was going to play football in the Mecca of Big East basketball.
"People knew who the football players were on campus,” said Shane. “Under Coach Holtz and the staff we had then (Skip Holtz is now the Offensive Coordinator for his father at South Carolina), we were heading in the right direction and began to win. In my senior year, we ended up with the best record in school history and went to the playoffs for the first time. Basketball paid their dues in the early 80`s to get where they are. Now football is doing the same thing."
Partly because of Holtz`s success, Connecticut moves up to I-A as an independent this year. When you think of the Connecticut Huskies you don`t think of the football program, per se. But consider this. These Connecticut grads are contributing to their teams in this af2 season; Shane Stafford, Carl Bond and OL/DL Paul Ficaro with Tallahassee; and kicker/ assistant coach Dave DeArmas with Richmond. Even former assistant coach Richard Davis finds himself in the af2 as the newly hired head coach with Richmond.
Davis was Stafford`s quarterback coach in his freshman year. So after calling around the league to get a look, Shane found himself as the starting quarterback in Tallahassee. But it didn`t start out that way. TCU grad, Chris Ryan, was the opening day QB. In week two, Ryan was sacked by Jacksonville`s 300 pound defensive lineman Elijah Brown and received a severely bruised shoulder. Stafford took over the job and has never relinquished it. Although he has had his share of bad outings along the way, he has shown steady improvement. Going into the final week of the season, Stafford was 2nd in the league in passing yards and touchdowns thrown.
Along with Shane`s growing pains, some of the coaching staff has had their own share of pain as well. Head Coach Gene McDowell has battled a severe viral infection that kept him from making the trip up to the Quad City game in July. And Shane`s quarterback coach, Mike Rodrique, has had more than his share of injuries.
"Our coaches are going down like they are out there playing. From so much wear and tear on his elbow, Coach Rodrique had to have surgery. That was at the beginning of the season. Then a month later he had to have surgery again. This time to clean out his ankle. So he has been gone almost all year. As a quarterback, it`s nice to have somebody there at practice to get on you when you are doing the little things wrong."
Tallahassee failed to make the playoffs this year. But the "Connecticut Connection" of Shane Stafford to Carl Bond was one of the bright spots of the season. With the expected off-season player movement to the AFL, XFL and others, it is hard to say if the Thunder will enjoy the luxury of having these two back again next year. As for Stafford`s plans, he is keeping his options open.
"Of course the best case scenario would be to get into somebody`s (NFL) camp this fall. Realistically, I know that is going to be real tough. You have to go through the ranks. If it`s Arena One, so be it. If it`s the XFL, that`s fine. Or if it`s coming back here for another year, I don`t have a problem with that. I really enjoy the Arena game."
And the Thunder fans were glad that Mr. and Mrs. Stafford had a computer.
Michael Vergane was a writer for ArenaFan Online from 2000 to 2002.
