Qwan’tez Stiggers sat alone in a darkish resort room, a thousand miles from something acquainted. He drew the curtains tight to block out the world so he might give attention to the avalanche in his head.
It was spring 2023, and two weeks earlier, he’d left his fiancee and household in Atlanta and flown to Canada for an alternative he by no means noticed coming — the one the place he was going to get all of it again.
Stiggers’ thoughts fixated on the clock and the phone. The former stored ticking. The latter stayed silent. He missed residence. He nervous this complete factor was silly. “You don’t get do-overs in life,” he thought. Sometimes, it’s simply too late.
“They forgot about me,” Stiggers informed himself. “Again.”
The soccer world did neglect about Stiggers. It additionally rediscovered him — however not earlier than he rediscovered himself. Now, with Stiggers on the sting of a possible spot within the 2024 NFL Draft, his story reads like a serious movement image with all of the bells and whistles.
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In that room, although, it was simply darkish.
The name Stiggers was ready on was from the Toronto Argonauts. When Toronto’s coaches received their 2023 camp tryout roster, they requested each other why the child from Georgia had no faculty subsequent to his title. They’d quickly study their new DB did obtain a soccer scholarship out of highschool, however he walked away from it, crushed beneath the load of melancholy and tragedy.
When Stiggers received to camp, he figured he’d be the primary man minimize. He’d made two associates in follow, each of whom had performed within the NFL; neither made the group. Stiggers was carried out ready. He put the lights on, grabbed some footwear and headed to the coaches’ room.
“What’re you doing here?” a puzzled coach requested when he arrived.
“What’s going on?” an irritated Stiggers replied. “Nobody called me.”
The final three years of his life had been a whirlwind. He’d gone from a heartbroken faculty dropout driving for DoorDash and washing vans to the sting {of professional} soccer within the blink of an eye, all with out ever having performed a snap in faculty. Before he received on the aircraft to Canada for his tryout with the Argonauts, Stiggers informed his boss on the truck wash to clock him out, figuring he’d want one other shift upon return. The GM of the group had first reached out to him by way of Instagram.
This couldn’t be actual. They’d forgotten about him. Just like everyone else.
Except …
“We don’t call you,” the coach replied, “if you’ve made the active roster.”
Every participant’s path to the draft is exclusive, particular and unforgettable. But for Qwan’tez Stiggers, the child who went professional straight from highschool (form of), the journey — at the least the half he’s in now — is an precise fairy story.
Kwanna Stiggers misplaced monitor of what number of occasions she’d solid her son’s title on a sign-up sheet. At least a dozen. In late 2021, with the world beginning to reopen post-pandemic, Kwanna spent hours on-line looking for something football-related within the Atlanta space that could possibly be attended in particular person.
She didn’t care what it was — a camp, clinic, exercise group, pickup recreation, fantasy league …
If it had soccer within the title, she signed up Qwan’tez. “Whether he wanted to or not,” she recollects in that stern, caring tone of affection and braveness — the one reserved for moms and their sons.
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Qwan’tez Stiggers first fell in love with soccer at age 8. He and his older brother, Qwantayvious, performed pee-wee ball for the Georgia Rattlers. Younger brother adopted older brother to The B.E.S.T. Academy, a small, all-boys public center and highschool in northwest Atlanta.
By Qwan’tez’s sophomore 12 months, he was 5 toes 5. His solely full-time position was as the kicker, one quick sufficient to chase down returners. He grew 4 inches forward of his junior 12 months and moved to defensive again. By his senior season, he was almost 6 toes tall and beginning to thrive on the sphere.
Stiggers performed for a tiny highschool, limiting publicity, and caught a brilliant late progress spurt, limiting it additional. He nonetheless managed to garner consideration from some small colleges within the area, touchdown on Division II Lane College in Tennessee forward of the 2020 season.
Then, simply earlier than the world stopped in February 2020, Stiggers’ father, Rayves Harrison, was concerned in a automobile accident that left him in a coma. Even as Stiggers headed to college within the fall, his father’s situation hadn’t improved. During a go to residence in September, Stiggers was together with his girlfriend (now fiancee), Cheyenne McClain, when Kwanna known as with the message they’d all feared. Rayves, to whom Quan’tez referred as his largest fan, had died.
Football not mattered. Nothing actually mattered. By the tip of that weekend, Stiggers had determined to stop college and keep residence to assist his household.
At least, that’s what he wished to do.
In actuality, he couldn’t do something.
“I couldn’t focus,” he says. “It was like a period of time where I’d try to do something — anything — and then a picture of my dad would just pop up in my head. Didn’t matter what it was. And it would just shut me right down.”
He started to drift. Stiggers labored for DoorDash and InstaCart earlier than touchdown at a Blue Beacon truck wash close to residence. His melancholy deepened. There have been occasions when he tried to play soccer once more; he even reached out to colleges, trainers, coaches — anybody he’d recognized from when he was recruited. No one had time.
When it got here to his place within the soccer world, Stiggers felt like a pebble on the backside of the ocean. Anxiety, worry and grief had left him in a perpetual state of feeling caught.
Kwanna continued her seek for something which may reignite the smile soccer gave her son, serving as one half of a rock for Qwan’tez that by no means budged. Cheyenne fashioned the opposite half. Sadly, she understood the whole lot Qwan’tez was going by way of.
In October 2019, Cheyenne’s sister, Jessica Daniels, was murdered. After waking to the sound of gunshots exterior her southwest Atlanta residence, Jessica received away from bed to get on the bottom and was fatally shot by a stray bullet. She was 18. Cheyenne’s world collapsed. PTSD, nervousness and waves of melancholy left her numb, a sense that was nonetheless there the morning Kwanna known as Qwan’tez to inform him his father had died.
Depression could be like a deep gap with steep sides and no ladder. Sometimes, the one approach out comes when another person falls in. When Cheyenne noticed that acquainted ache start to take over the particular person she cherished, she began climbing.
Motivated to assist Qwan’tez battle the identical kind of grief she was nonetheless making an attempt to course of, Cheyenne started working with Kwanna to help him and assist him discover pleasure once more. Which, for Qwan’tez, meant restarting his soccer profession.
Cheyenne informed him to be courageous and daring. “Never give up,” she’d say again and again when the thought grew to become too troublesome. They’d sit within the automobile each night time and discuss for hours — about his dad, about her sister, about their futures. In dropping herself within the quest to assist somebody she cared about, Cheyenne started therapeutic from her personal loss.
Qwan’tez says he’s just like the male model of Cheyenne, and she or he the feminine model of him. Together they simply match. They’ve recognized one another endlessly. Everything she likes, he likes. His passions are her passions. He loves her, and she or he loves him. Unconditionally.
How’d she handle to discover the power to decide herself up, virtually in a blink, so she might assist decide up Qwan’tez? She simply did. Her particular person wanted her. Sometimes, that’s all it takes.
“Seeing him being strong made me sit back and think,” Cheyenne says. “(I was with) someone who was (handling this), and it was sort of me having to help him become strong. And that made me strong.”
The small excuses stopped, and Qwan’tez grew to become impressed once more. He stored lifting and working. He known as anybody he knew who would possibly give you the option to assist him practice. If he couldn’t discover anybody, he did it himself. One foot in entrance of the opposite, in the future at a time.
Then, after greater than a dozen failed sign-ups, Kwanna lastly discovered a winner whereas scrolling by way of Facebook: Fan Controlled Football (FCF), an indoor, semi-pro, seven-on-seven soccer league housed in Atlanta. It accomplished its debut season in 2021, and as the 2022 season approached, Qwan’tez Stiggers was again in enjoying form.
Qwan’tez Stiggers restarted his profession by enjoying within the Fan Controlled Football league. (Jonathan Bachman / Fan Controlled Football / Getty Images)
FCF was a great distance from the NCAA or NFL, however it was soccer. And each time Stiggers buttoned his chinstrap, he felt like he might breathe once more. There was no stress, simply an opportunity to play once more. He made a group instantly and, as the youngest participant within the league, returned a decide six in his first recreation. Quickly, he earned a rep as one of many FCF’s prime defenders.
One of the coaches concerned with Fan Controlled Football in 2022 was longtime faculty and professional coach John Jenkins, who spent a big chunk of his five-decade profession within the Canadian Football League. When Jenkins found Stiggers’ story, expertise and age, he made a name and despatched some tape to a contact within the CFL.
Then, throughout a shift on the truck wash, Stiggers’ telephone buzzed. It was an Instagram message from Vince Magri of the Toronto Argonauts, asking him for some primary data and a contact tackle. Days later, a tryout contract appeared in his mailbox. Stiggers despatched it to everybody he knew, making an attempt to verify it was actual. It was.
When Qwan’tez put pen to paper, Kwanna knew two issues to be true: A mom’s drive remained undefeated, and her son was smiling once more.
“It was like, ‘OK, yes,’” Kwanna recollects. “He got his fight back.”
There’s an outdated saying in soccer: If you’re ok, they’ll discover you.
They would possibly take some time, however they may discover you. Qwan’tez Stiggers resides proof of it. He’s stated individuals have informed him he has “the perfect story,” an precise fairy story of somebody who was misplaced and located once more.
From a purely soccer sense, although, Stiggers’ story shouldn’t be in contrast to that of a whole lot of children residing in giant metropolitan areas. He was a superb soccer participant in highschool, superb by his senior season, and gifted sufficient to play at any faculty within the South. Recruiting, although, is a numbers recreation in additional methods than one, and time doesn’t await expertise. It sounds illogical, however it’s true.
One of the largest mix snubs this 12 months, imo, was Toronto Argonaut DB Qwan’tez Stiggers:
5113 203
30 1/4 arm
8 7/8 handStiggers, per supply, nonetheless presently has seven prime 30 visits scheduled. Lions are a type of seven.
— Nick Baumgardner (@nickbaumgardner) March 2, 2024
If you play at a faculty the dimensions of a needle in a football-crazed state the dimensions of a haystack, your odds of getting misplaced improve. The churn of big-time soccer is grueling, and it forgets about individuals on a regular basis.
Then once more, cornerbacks who’ve by no means performed a snap of school soccer don’t often present up at a CFL coaching camp — at age 20 — and decide off 4 passes within the first two days. Stiggers did. He moved from third-string to the beginning lineup after a teammate suffered an damage within the first preseason recreation.
“I never went back to the bench,” Stiggers says.
A pure defensive again with fluid hips, burst in his decrease half and terrific ball expertise, Stiggers performs with confidence and persistence in man protection, and he’s large enough at 5-11 and 203 kilos to hit and instinctive sufficient to play a number of positions in a secondary. Argonauts coaches went from considering this entire factor was some sort of joke to trusting the teenager as their prime participant on the again finish.
Stiggers performed 16 video games with the Argonauts final season, making 53 tackles and 5 interceptions, incomes the CFL’s Most Outstanding Rookie award. The whirlwind journey led Stiggers to the door of agent Fred Lyles, who discovered the prospect by way of contacts with the Argonauts.
Lyles, who now operates NZone Sports Management, has repped a number of gifted corners over time, gamers such as A.J. Bouye and Chris Harris Jr.
“This kid,” Lyles says, “is as good as they were.”
Lyles burned up the telephones over the winter making an attempt to get Stiggers extra consideration, which ultimately led to an invite to the East-West Shrine Bowl. Stiggers spent per week in Dallas understanding in entrance of all the NFL, greater than holding his personal. By the time the sport ended, he’d heard from all 32 groups.
This will probably be some of the distinctive tales of the 2024 #NFLDraft cycle.
Stiggers, who by no means performed faculty soccer, when from an area league to the @TorontoArgos, gained CFL Rookie of the Year, and has actual curiosity from virtually all 32 groups.
Because he by no means went by way of a… https://t.co/7WUGesA9Fk
— Eric Galko (@EricGalko) January 17, 2024
As of final week, Stiggers had seven formal pre-draft visits scheduled. He’s hoping to add extra after his professional day at B.E.S.T. Academy on March 15, one which, once more, will probably be attended by a gaggle of NFL scouts keen to study the story of the child who someway skipped faculty soccer.
He and his household, which now features a son, Legend, can’t wait to inform it to them.
When Stiggers known as Cheyenne and informed her he’d made the Argonauts, “I cried,” Cheyenne says. “It was overwhelming. We have a son, and it was just like, ‘OK, my son now has a role model to look up to.’
“(Legend) loves sports, loves football. Every time he sees a football, he’s calling for Dada.”
Stiggers’ return to aggressive soccer introduced him construction when he wanted it. He has a tough time placing his pleasure about the whole lot that’s occurred over the previous two years into phrases, as he’s nonetheless in it.
Life continues to be onerous with out his father — soccer and so many different issues remind him of occasions spent together with his dad. He’s nonetheless grieving that loss. He at all times will probably be. Only now, when the waves of unhappiness come, they serve as motivation to set a powerful instance for Legend, to make sure that he cherishes every single day spent with him and Cheyenne.
Stiggers is happy about his draft prospects and hopeful to hear his title known as this spring, maybe sooner than among the gamers who acquired an NFL mix invite over him. Mostly, although, he’s simply hopeful.
In some methods, he has soccer to thank for that. But in additional methods, the thank-yous are reserved for the family members who continued to push him towards his future, even when it felt misplaced endlessly. It seems, life does supply do-overs to those that work for them. There are methods out of that deep gap.
And so lengthy as you’ve individuals round you who’re keen to enable you up, hope could be eternal.
“I feel like he can help change the thought process of younger people,” Kwanna says. “No matter what your path is, whatever you choose to do in life … you can do it.
“Nothing is ever too late.”
(Top picture: John E. Sokolowski / Getty Images)
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