Peoria Pirates Second Tryout
Steve Robinson
Saturday February 23, 2002
For you see, 26-year-old Randall, whose last sports endeavor was as a basketball player at Kankakee County Community College in Kankakee, Ill., six years ago, has agreed to play for the Peoria Pirates during the team’s 2002 season.
His contract was submitted for approval to af2’s Chicago office. When his contract is approved by the league, af2’s Chicago office will assign Randall to the team.
At 6 foot-3, and 225 pounds, Randall will play wide receiver and linebacker for the Pirates, and Head Coach Bruce Cowdrey. The Pirates finished the af2 2001 season at 7-9 under former coach Gary Porter.
Randall secured the job by running the 40 yard dash with a best time of 4.5 seconds and demonstrated a vertical jump of 10 feet, 8 inches, clearing the tape.
Currently, Randall is a counselor of juvenile sex offenders for the State of Illinois. He was part of a contingent of five athletes, represented by Chicago-based sports agent Alfred “J. J.” Hollis of Hollis and Associates. A former football player at Memphis State, brought Randall and four other recruits to the Game Time II Gym for the combine.
Hollis said taking his clients to the Peoria combine is, in effect, “a test. It is a test to see where they’re at right now (physically).’
And Randall hasn’t just been auditioning for af2 teams. Hollis said he has sent Randall to the west coast to tryouts for the Arena Football League’s Los Angeles Avengers.
He said bringing his clients, like Randall, to the Peoria combine would allow Hollis to show his clients where they need to work on their game physically if they hope to land jobs as players, either with Peoria, another af2 team, or teams in other leagues.
Armed with a digital video camera, Hollis records his clients’ every move during the tryout as a means of aiding them to see where they need to fine tune in preparation to find themselves where Terrance Randall finds himself now – waiting to start training camp next month.
Prior to representing athletes looking for a field of dreams, Hollis represented actors, singers, dancers, and rappers as a talent agent before shifting his company’s focus onto athletes.
As for Randall, he was so happy to have been asked to author a contract that he could have danced home rather than ride back with Hollis afterward.
“Man, I’m on top of the world right now…on top of the world,” Randall said. “It’s a blessing…a blessing.”
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.
