 "Photo: Photo by Ryan Williams")
Every time his phone rang, Rodney Hales was afraid to see who it was. With each call, his nervousness grew about that one call, the one that would determine his football career for the next year.
February 13 was the day Hammerheads Coach Stephen Fillmore would be calling all the players from training camp to inform them if they made the cut or not.
“I was more scared than anxious. I told everyone not to call my phone that day,” Hales said.
Hales had just finished up training camp with the Hammerheads and he was unsure whether he had secured his spot on the team or not.
“I had my doubts, but I was 50/50 on whether I had made it or not,” Hales said.
When the right call finally came Saturday evening, his doubts were finally cleared up: Hales had made them team.
I was just amazed and really happy to know I could play at the professional level at my age,” Hales said.
Hales’ age and size played a roll in his unique experience with his now-fellow teammates.
“The guys tossed me around like a rag doll. In individual drills, I was going against a 430-pound guy and he just grabbed my shoulder pads, pushed me to the wall and let me flip right over it. Then he [the other player said, ‘Gotta do something Rook,’” Hales said, laughing over the memory.
Hales is the only 19-year-old and is by far the youngest on the team, which opens him up for teasing from the older, more experienced players.
“They call me ‘Rookie’ or ‘Rook’ all the time and I’m always getting teased, but they also tell me I have potential,” Hales said.
In training camp, Hales had to adjust from his high school offensive playing experience to professional defensive playing.
Hales described the training camp as “a lot quicker than high school” and admitted to “having trouble learning the defensive plays.” He faced players much larger than him and quickly learned to keep his hands up to keep from getting hit in the face so much.
“One offensive lineman, Joshua Ane, is an ex-NFL player. He helped me out a lot. He gave me a lot of pointers on how to get around big guys like him,” Hales said.
Hales is excited about his first game as a Hammerhead and looks forward to traveling with his new team.
The experience has given him hopes of moving on to the NFL one day and playing for his favorite team, the Colts.
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