Pirates enjoying bye week
Steve Robinson
Friday June 25, 2004
As it turns out, lineman Enoch Smith, married with three youngsters, two boys and a girl, ages 10, 6, and 8, respectfully.
Smith has used the two byes for family time. That has been rare what with practices, team meetings and dinners. So the Smith relish the time spent together as a family unit.
This family has agreed that while Enoch is playing, wife Taleisha would continue her education, pressing toward a criminal justice degree she wants to parlay into a career as a lawyer. By the time his playing days come to an end, Smith said, Taleisha should have completed her degree and Enoch will go back and get his degree in criminal justice from Southwest Missouri State University.
“While he’s playing right now, football is very important,” Taleisha said. “The wife and the family have to have patience and understanding. They have to understand that he has to have the time he needs to have with the team.
By the same token, she continued, players with families “have to learn to manage time more efficiently. By that, I mean that the player knows he has to make time for practices, but also for family.”
Smith, 28, has given himself a mandate of getting on with a Canadian League or NFL team by the time he’s 30.
If he makes that goal, he will stay in football. If not, he will hang up his cleats and dedicate himself to law enforcement with no regrets.
Felons in Chicago, you are on notice: Smith has already passed the exams required by the Chicago Police Department.
“I just awaiting my options,” Smith said. “And while football is here, I am going to take advantage of it and do what I can.
Husband And Father First: Peoria has not been Smith’s first shot in af2. Last season, he played briefly with the Tulsa Talons, but family considerations caused him to leave Tulsa shortly after getting there discovered that then-Talons head coach Skip Foster had him playing on the front line both ways after Smith had tried out for and thought he had earned the running back-defensive back slot.
He was working as a deputy sheriff in Springfield, Mo., when he signed on with Tulsa, but being 300 miles away from Taleisha and the kids make the situation worse.
“I had to make decisions,” Smith said. “I had to be a husband and father first and foremost.”
“Football Makes You Happy”: Pirates defensive specialist Frank West also feels among the fortunate to have an understanding spouse where his career aspirations are concerned.
West, 33, was a part of Peoria’s af2 ArenaCup championship team and then, in an attempt to switch from playing to coaching, became a volunteer coach on last year’s 5-11 team. But this season, conditioning and wife Nicole’s blessing have given West a renewed lease on his game.
“I told my wife at the end of last season that I was thinking of coming back (as a Pirates player), and she said, ‘go for it. Football makes you happy.’”
Smith, like West, passes the ball, as it were, to Taleisha, when it comes to who really makes being a football family really work. “Put a good woman beside you and you can’t go wrong,” Smith said. “What can I say? I wouldn’t be to do this without her.
“The family pretty much is my encouragement for doing it,” Enoch said. “They are first and foremost in my life. Without them, I wouldn’t be doing it at all. When my wife tells me I should go play and keep trying, that is support. The family’s pushing you to go with it makes you want to continue.”
League Update: The Manchester Wolves fired Rik Richards last week, replacing him with assistant coach Ron Hill. When the Wolves entered the league in 2002, and the team was still playing in Massachusetts as the Mohegan Wolves, their coach was former Pirates head coach Gary Porter
Steve Robinson, a freelance writer since 1984, has written about the Peoria Pirates since the Pirates were members of Indoor Football League, beginning in 1999. He covers the Pirates currently for the Bloomington IL Pantagraph.
