Jinx, Schminx - Storm Sophomore Ready for Year Two
Adam J Locascio
Tuesday March 11, 2008
You can’t see it. You can’t fight it. It’s not an injury that can be taped up. It’s not something that can be “scoped” or iced.
Unfortunately, there’s no vaccine for the sophomore jinx.
There have been so many athletes in so many sports who set their bar ridiculously high after a larger-than-life rookie season, only to be met with the inevitable plunge to Earth. In some cases, athletes prove that their rookie season was just a fluke and mediocrity is actually the norm. In the case of Tampa Bay Buccaneers receiver Michael Clayton, it’s much worse than mediocre.
And while Clayton’s stench still hovers around Tampa Bay, football fans in the area are probably a little worried about Storm quarterback Brett Dietz as he enters his second season.
Dietz literally came out of nowhere. Well, “nowhere” is a stretch, but Kansas City is more accurate. Desperate for a quarterback, the Storm went to the Brigade’s practice squad for Dietz after injuries to John Kaleo and Stoney Case. Trailing Columbus 13-7 in the first half of Week 9, Dietz came in for an injured Kaleo and rallied the Storm to a 34-32 victory – the Storm’s second win of the year. The Storm went 8-1 down the stretch to earn the third seed in the playoffs. Dietz earned Co-Rookie of the Year Honors.
From out of nowhere, Dietz is now the starter and is 10-2 over the past two seasons. And now, Dietz is a sophomore. But the man who wears number “1,” doesn’t sound too rattled about year number “2.”
“There are more expectations because I’m not a rookie anymore,” said Dietz. “As far as everything else goes, I don’t think there’s any other pressure. Anything else is self-inflicted.”
Sophomore years, in general, have been pretty good to Dietz in the past.
“My first real girlfriend was in my sophomore year in high school. She was my first real relationship,” said Dietz of Emily, who still lives in Kentucky. Coincidentally, Emily was the second girl he ever kissed.
He’s also had some luck with some other “seconds.”
“My second car was a 2001 Hyundai Tiburon.”
What do you remember about that car?
”I still have it. It’s got 107,000 miles on it and a beat up door but it’s still crankin’.”
If anything, sometimes he likes the second time better than the first.
“I like sequels. I like ‘Back to the Future II,’ but I don’t think it’s the best,” said Dietz. “I didn’t see ‘Spider-Man 2’ because I hated ‘Spider-Man 1.’ For some stupid reason, I’m thinking ‘Pirates of the Caribbean 2’ was better than 1.”
And even in Arena football, there are some sequels. To hear Dietz talk, it seems he has a fondness for “second-comings” in all facets of life.
“The best thing about the af2 (the AFL’s developmental league) is the fans. The fans treat you like an AFL player and they don’t care if you’re making $250 a game. The kids treat you like a superhero even though you’re barely making any money,” said Dietz.
“It sure isn’t the bus rides.”
Apparently, every sequel has its flaws.
Dietz won’t treat his sophomore year in the AFL any different than last year. Further, his teammates aren’t treating him any differently either.
“They had confidence in me last year, and I don’t know why. I guess they figured they had nothing to lose.”
Helping to dispel the sophomore jinx, in Dietz’s second game of his second season, he completed 21-of-34 passes for 190 yards and seven touchdowns against the Georgia Force on Friday night, despite getting knocked around by the Force defense, which Dietz acknowledges were some of the hardest hits he’s ever taken as a quarterback.
“The second hardest hit I ever took in my life was the first time I was blind-sided in pee-wee football in the playoffs. I was probably 13,” said Dietz. “You know how when you turn on the TV and you don’t have your cable hooked up? I saw snow and my vision was discolored.”
So maybe there is hope. For anyone who is superstitious, it seems that Dietz has a way of embracing the second time around. For Dietz, maybe being Buzz Aldrin is better than being Neil Armstrong. It’s just that his “steps for mankind” are usually taking him away from a 300 pound lineman who is trying to make him part of the turf.
“It just comes down to me being myself. I can’t get out of my comfort zone because if I do, things start to go astray. That’s where sophomore jinxes come from,” said Dietz. “The second year, they think they have to be so much better and do things that they didn’t do the year before. That’s when problems occur.”
“I know teams are going to look at me more seriously this year. It’s not any more pressure. I am just going to do the same thing that I always do.”
Adam J. Locascio is a financial advisor in the Tampa Bay area and a Board Member of the Tampa Bay Storm Surge Fan Club. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Phoenix and is a six-year season ticket holder for the Tampa Bay Storm.
