C-Mac
05-04-2005, 06:58 AM
GRETZ: A Very "Big" Long Shot
May 04, 2005, 6:34:13 AM by Bob Gretz
When your life story includes time spent in a refugee camp, then a rookie mini-camp didn’t figure to be much of a problem.
Don’t tell that to Will Svitek, however.
“Yeah, I’m not so sure about that,” Svitek said with a smile. “I don’t remember a lot about the refugee camp my family was in, but I know coming in here, trying to learn this offense, right now, it’s harder than anything I ever had at Stanford.”
How Will Svitek came to be at the Truman Sports Complex last weekend for the Chiefs rookie camp is an amazing American success story. It’s one that has not yet had its final chapter written.
That will come in the next few months and years as Svitek tries to make a spot for himself in the NFL. Whether or not we ever see the 6-6, 300-pounder in a red and gold uniform for a regular-season game remains a long shot. A sixth-round draft pick, making the move from the defensive line to offensive line and to a position he’s never played before, well, there’s a lot of learning and practice time ahead before Svitek has any chance of cracking the roster.
But he has three things going for him: his background/personality, the Chiefs history with late-round offensive linemen and offensive line coach Mike Solari.
Let’s start with Solari, who is considered one of the best offensive line coaches in the business. His strength is his ability to teach the fundamentals of the game. Given the fact that Svitek’s only experience on the offensive side of the ball was at tight end, he’s lacking any and all background in playing tackle. He couldn’t have a better coach to help him make the transition.
At Stanford, Svitek arrived as a tight end, was moved to defensive end and played both positions in two games during the 2002 season. He was moved back to defense for his final two seasons. It was at the East-West Shrine Game back in January that NFL teams began talking to him about playing tackle. Although he worked on defense during the game, he spent some of the practice work taking snaps on offense.
It was 10 years ago that the Chiefs used a seventh-round draft choice on an athlete who had spent time being juggled back and forth between offense and defense during his college career. As they went to training camp in 1990, the chances of Dave Szott making the roster were slim and none. Of course, Szott not only made the roster, but he also became a starter and spent the decade playing left guard for the Chiefs.
Szott was a very good athlete (he was one of the top high school wrestlers in the country before he went to Penn State.) Svitek is also a very good athlete. As a teenager, he won national decathlon titles, while also playing high school football and basketball. On his workout day for NFL scouts back in March, he was timed in the 40-yard dash at 4.93 seconds, bench pressed 225 pounds 33 times and had a vertical jump of 32 inches. All are outstanding numbers, but the speed and jumping numbers standout for a guy that weighs over 300 pounds. Szott was also helped by his scrappy personality. Ditto Svitek. There were three altercations during the rookie mini-camp and he was involved in all three.
Svitek’s greatest asset is very simply who he is and what he’s already accomplished in his life. He was born in Czechoslovakia, the fourth of four boys for Milan and Eva Svitek. His father was a hammer thrower on the Czech national track team. Milan chafed under the Communist rule that ran the country and the lifestyle it created.
One night, when Will Svitek was just two years old, the family left their home near Prague, drove nearly 100 miles under the cover or darkness and walked across an unguarded area of the border between Czechoslovakia and Austria.
“We couldn’t tell anyone what we were going to do,” Svitek said. “Not even other people in our family knew what was going on. We left with the clothes on our backs.”
The defecting Sviteks spent eight months in a refugee camp in Austria. “We lived in these little cabins, the whole family in one room,” he remembered. “I don’t have a lot of memories of that time, but I do remember that we were living in this very small place and there was no room to move.”
Eventually, the family immigrated to the United States, landing in Pasadena, California. Nobody in the family could speak English and the family was stuffed into a cramped apartment, but Milan and Eva immediately went to work, taking menial jobs and getting the family back on its feet. Eventually, they moved to Ventura County, where their youngest became the typical All-American boy, getting involved in sports of all sorts.
Svitek had the football skills and grades at Newbury Park High School to earn a scholarship to Stanford. He’s already earned his bachelor’s degree in political science. He arrived in Palo Alto as a 235-pound freshman and kept getting bigger. He was 255 pounds in his second year, 270 pounds in the third, 280 pounds by his fourth year and last year, he played at just under 300 pounds. Right now he’s just a tad over 300 pounds.
He has the brains, the brawn and the athletic ability to overcome the odds. The Chiefs have seen it done before. Will Svitek has done it before.
“I just wanted to get in here, get my head in the playbook, work on the fundamentals on a daily basis and get after this,” Svitek said.
May 04, 2005, 6:34:13 AM by Bob Gretz
When your life story includes time spent in a refugee camp, then a rookie mini-camp didn’t figure to be much of a problem.
Don’t tell that to Will Svitek, however.
“Yeah, I’m not so sure about that,” Svitek said with a smile. “I don’t remember a lot about the refugee camp my family was in, but I know coming in here, trying to learn this offense, right now, it’s harder than anything I ever had at Stanford.”
How Will Svitek came to be at the Truman Sports Complex last weekend for the Chiefs rookie camp is an amazing American success story. It’s one that has not yet had its final chapter written.
That will come in the next few months and years as Svitek tries to make a spot for himself in the NFL. Whether or not we ever see the 6-6, 300-pounder in a red and gold uniform for a regular-season game remains a long shot. A sixth-round draft pick, making the move from the defensive line to offensive line and to a position he’s never played before, well, there’s a lot of learning and practice time ahead before Svitek has any chance of cracking the roster.
But he has three things going for him: his background/personality, the Chiefs history with late-round offensive linemen and offensive line coach Mike Solari.
Let’s start with Solari, who is considered one of the best offensive line coaches in the business. His strength is his ability to teach the fundamentals of the game. Given the fact that Svitek’s only experience on the offensive side of the ball was at tight end, he’s lacking any and all background in playing tackle. He couldn’t have a better coach to help him make the transition.
At Stanford, Svitek arrived as a tight end, was moved to defensive end and played both positions in two games during the 2002 season. He was moved back to defense for his final two seasons. It was at the East-West Shrine Game back in January that NFL teams began talking to him about playing tackle. Although he worked on defense during the game, he spent some of the practice work taking snaps on offense.
It was 10 years ago that the Chiefs used a seventh-round draft choice on an athlete who had spent time being juggled back and forth between offense and defense during his college career. As they went to training camp in 1990, the chances of Dave Szott making the roster were slim and none. Of course, Szott not only made the roster, but he also became a starter and spent the decade playing left guard for the Chiefs.
Szott was a very good athlete (he was one of the top high school wrestlers in the country before he went to Penn State.) Svitek is also a very good athlete. As a teenager, he won national decathlon titles, while also playing high school football and basketball. On his workout day for NFL scouts back in March, he was timed in the 40-yard dash at 4.93 seconds, bench pressed 225 pounds 33 times and had a vertical jump of 32 inches. All are outstanding numbers, but the speed and jumping numbers standout for a guy that weighs over 300 pounds. Szott was also helped by his scrappy personality. Ditto Svitek. There were three altercations during the rookie mini-camp and he was involved in all three.
Svitek’s greatest asset is very simply who he is and what he’s already accomplished in his life. He was born in Czechoslovakia, the fourth of four boys for Milan and Eva Svitek. His father was a hammer thrower on the Czech national track team. Milan chafed under the Communist rule that ran the country and the lifestyle it created.
One night, when Will Svitek was just two years old, the family left their home near Prague, drove nearly 100 miles under the cover or darkness and walked across an unguarded area of the border between Czechoslovakia and Austria.
“We couldn’t tell anyone what we were going to do,” Svitek said. “Not even other people in our family knew what was going on. We left with the clothes on our backs.”
The defecting Sviteks spent eight months in a refugee camp in Austria. “We lived in these little cabins, the whole family in one room,” he remembered. “I don’t have a lot of memories of that time, but I do remember that we were living in this very small place and there was no room to move.”
Eventually, the family immigrated to the United States, landing in Pasadena, California. Nobody in the family could speak English and the family was stuffed into a cramped apartment, but Milan and Eva immediately went to work, taking menial jobs and getting the family back on its feet. Eventually, they moved to Ventura County, where their youngest became the typical All-American boy, getting involved in sports of all sorts.
Svitek had the football skills and grades at Newbury Park High School to earn a scholarship to Stanford. He’s already earned his bachelor’s degree in political science. He arrived in Palo Alto as a 235-pound freshman and kept getting bigger. He was 255 pounds in his second year, 270 pounds in the third, 280 pounds by his fourth year and last year, he played at just under 300 pounds. Right now he’s just a tad over 300 pounds.
He has the brains, the brawn and the athletic ability to overcome the odds. The Chiefs have seen it done before. Will Svitek has done it before.
“I just wanted to get in here, get my head in the playbook, work on the fundamentals on a daily basis and get after this,” Svitek said.