Bobby Olive Expects Destroyers to be Arenabowl Bound
Tom Ando
Saturday March 24, 2001
 Bobby Olive is #1 for the Destroyers Image courtesy of Jeff Marshall |
Olive had to adapt to the arena game before becoming a star. "It was real interesting because I remember the first time I was in a situation where I was doing a forward motion, and I`m used to being in a stationary wide receiver stance. It`s just different. The walls; that`s a huge difference, getting [run] into the wall. Then you got the nets, catching the ball off of the nets -- and the throws are a lot quicker."
Olive appeared in seven games in 1999, catching 55 passes for 458 yards and five touchdowns. Although the Destroyers went 1-13, Olive was one of the few shining stars.
In 2000, the Destroyers needed something to give them a boost, and they looked immediately to Olive, who was switched to Offensive Specialist. "I had very high expectations [coming into last year]. I set very high goals for myself, particularly last year, because I knew I`d be the go to guy, so I was really looking forward to having a big season."
A big season is exactly what Olive had, breaking team records with 106 receptions for 1184 yards and 15 touchdowns, but early in the season, the team was not sharing the same success. The Destroyers started off 0-5, then hired Ray Bentley as coach, and before they knew it, they were in the post season with a 5-9 record. As a result, Olive has huge expectations for this year "I expect this team to do a lot better, I expect this team to win the Arena Bowl."
With Olive, and fellow star-wideout Darrick Branch returning, Olive and the offense have reason for high expectations, but those expectations got even bigger with the addition of All Arena receiver Carlos Brooks. "I expect to be the best offense in the league. I expect personally to have big stats, even better than last year, I expect to be the MVP of the league. I want to be All
Arena."
Bobby Olive is entering his third season now, and has no desire to stop. "I don`t really have a time table, as long as I still enjoy playing football, I`ll play till I`m 50 years old, and right now, I`m still having fun playing it."
"Touchdown" Tom Ando is a free lance writer from South Buffalo, NY and has been covering the Arena Football League in one capacity or another since the 2000 season, when he was 17 years old. Tom Currently writes for Sports & Leisure Magazine in Buffalo covering the NLL's Buffalo Bandits and NCAA Division I football. In 2001, Tom was the only writer in the country to cover the Houston "Travelin' " Thunderbears, where he befriended his mentor John F. "Hondo" Hahn.
