NCAA Soccer | From unknown to underdog: Qwan’tez Stiggers’ storybook rise as an NFL Draft prospect

Qwan’tez Stiggers sat alone in a darkish lodge room, a thousand miles from something acquainted. He drew the curtains tight to dam 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 a possibility 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 previous stored ticking. The latter stayed silent. He missed house. He anxious this whole factor was silly. “You don’t get do-overs in life,” he thought. Typically, it’s simply too late.

“They forgot about me,” Stiggers informed himself. “Once more.”

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 decision Stiggers was ready on was from the Toronto Argonauts. When Toronto’s coaches acquired their 2023 camp tryout roster, they requested each other why the child from Georgia had no school subsequent to his identify. They’d quickly be taught their new DB did obtain a soccer scholarship out of highschool, however he walked away from it, crushed beneath the burden of despair and tragedy.

When Stiggers acquired to camp, he figured he’d be the primary man lower. He’d made two buddies in observe, each of whom had performed within the NFL; neither made the staff. Stiggers was accomplished ready. He put the lights on, grabbed some sneakers and headed to the coaches’ room.

“What’re you doing right here?” a puzzled coach requested when he arrived.

“What’s happening?” an irritated Stiggers replied. “No person known as me.”

The final three years of his life had been a whirlwind. He’d gone from a heartbroken school dropout driving for DoorDash and washing vehicles to the sting {of professional} soccer within the blink of an eye fixed, all with out ever having performed a snap in school. Earlier than he acquired on the airplane 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 staff had first reached out to him by way of Instagram.

This couldn’t be actual. They’d forgotten about him. Identical to all people else.

Besides …

“We don’t name you,” the coach replied, “if you happen to’ve made the energetic roster.”

Each participant’s path to the draft is exclusive, particular and unforgettable. However for Qwan’tez Stiggers, the child who went professional straight from highschool (type of), the journey — no less than the half he’s in now — is an precise fairy story.

Kwanna Stiggers misplaced monitor of what number of instances she’d solid her son’s identify on a sign-up sheet. A minimum of 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 may very well be attended in individual.

She didn’t care what it was — a camp, clinic, exercise group, pickup sport, fantasy league …

If it had soccer within the identify, she signed up Qwan’tez. “Whether or not he wished to or not,” she remembers 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. Youthful 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 yr, he was 5 ft 5. His solely full-time position was because the kicker, one quick sufficient to chase down returners. He grew 4 inches forward of his junior yr and moved to defensive again. By his senior season, he was almost 6 ft tall and beginning to thrive on the sector.

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 faculties within the area, touchdown on Division II Lane Faculty 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 automotive accident that left him in a coma. Whilst Stiggers headed to highschool within the fall, his father’s situation hadn’t improved. Throughout a go to house in September, Stiggers was along 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.

Soccer not mattered. Nothing actually mattered. By the tip of that weekend, Stiggers had determined to stop faculty and keep house to assist his household.

A minimum of, that’s what he wished to do.

In actuality, he couldn’t do something.

“I couldn’t focus,” he says. “It was like a time period the place I’d attempt to do one thing — something — after which an image of my dad would simply pop up in my head. Didn’t matter what it was. And it could simply shut me proper down.”

He started to float. Stiggers labored for DoorDash and InstaCart earlier than touchdown at a Blue Beacon truck wash close to house. His despair deepened. There have been instances when he tried to play soccer once more; he even reached out to varsities, trainers, coaches — anybody he’d identified from when he was recruited. Nobody had time.

When it got here to his place within the soccer world, Stiggers felt like a pebble on the backside of the ocean. Nervousness, concern and grief had left him in a perpetual state of feeling caught.

Kwanna continued her seek for something that may reignite the smile soccer gave her son, serving as one half of a rock for Qwan’tez that by no means budged. Cheyenne shaped the opposite half. Sadly, she understood every part Qwan’tez was going by.

In October 2019, Cheyenne’s sister, Jessica Daniels, was murdered. After waking to the sound of gunshots outdoors her southwest Atlanta house, Jessica acquired off the 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 despair left her numb, a sense that was nonetheless there the morning Kwanna known as Qwan’tez to inform him his father had died.

Melancholy will be like a deep gap with steep sides and no ladder. Typically, the one approach out comes when another person falls in. When Cheyenne noticed that acquainted ache start to take over the individual she liked, 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. “By no means surrender,” she’d say time and again when the concept grew to become too troublesome. They’d sit within the automotive each evening and speak 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. Collectively they simply match. They’ve identified one another without end. Every part she likes, he likes. His passions are her passions. He loves her, and she or he loves him. Unconditionally.

How’d she handle to search out the power to select herself up, nearly in a blink, so she might assist decide up Qwan’tez? She simply did. Her individual wanted her. Typically, that’s all it takes.

“Seeing him being robust made me sit again and assume,” Cheyenne says. “(I used to be with) somebody who was (dealing with this), and it was type of me having to assist him change into robust. And that made me robust.”

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 be capable to assist him prepare. If he couldn’t discover anybody, he did it himself. One foot in entrance of the opposite, someday at a time.

Then, after greater than a dozen failed sign-ups, Kwanna lastly discovered a winner whereas scrolling by Fb: Fan Managed Soccer (FCF), an indoor, semi-pro, seven-on-seven soccer league housed in Atlanta. It accomplished its debut season in 2021, and because the 2022 season approached, Qwan’tez Stiggers was again in taking part in form.

Qwan’tez Stiggers restarted his profession by taking part in within the Fan Managed Soccer league. (Jonathan Bachman / Fan Managed Soccer / Getty Photos)

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 staff instantly and, because the youngest participant within the league, returned a decide six in his first sport. Shortly, he earned a rep as one of many FCF’s high defenders.

One of many coaches concerned with Fan Managed Soccer in 2022 was longtime school and professional coach John Jenkins, who spent a big chunk of his five-decade profession within the Canadian Soccer 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 fundamental data and a contact deal with. 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, sure,’” Kwanna remembers. “He acquired his combat again.”

There’s an previous saying in soccer: In the event you’re ok, they’ll discover you.

They may take some time, however they’ll discover you. Qwan’tez Stiggers resides proof of it. He’s stated individuals have informed him he has “the proper story,” an precise fairy story of somebody who was misplaced and located once more.

From a purely soccer sense, although, Stiggers’ story is just not in contrast to that of a number of youngsters dwelling in giant metropolitan areas. He was a great soccer participant in highschool, superb by his senior season, and gifted sufficient to play at any school within the South. Recruiting, although, is a numbers sport in additional methods than one, and time doesn’t look ahead to expertise. It sounds illogical, however it’s true.

One of many largest mix snubs this yr, imo, was Toronto Argonaut DB Qwan’tez Stiggers:

5113 203
30 1/4 arm
8 7/8 hand

Stiggers, per supply, nonetheless presently has seven high 30 visits scheduled. Lions are a type of seven.

— Nick Baumgardner (@nickbaumgardner) March 2, 2024

In the event you play at a college the scale of a needle in a football-crazed state the scale 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 faculty soccer don’t normally 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 sport.

“I by no means went again to the bench,” Stiggers says.

A pure defensive again with fluid hips, burst in his decrease half and terrific ball abilities, Stiggers performs with confidence and persistence in man protection, and he’s sufficiently big at 5-11 and 203 kilos to hit and instinctive sufficient to play a number of positions in a secondary. Argonauts coaches went from pondering this entire factor was some form of joke to trusting the teen as their high 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 Excellent Rookie award. The whirlwind trip led Stiggers to the door of agent Fred Lyles, who discovered the prospect by contacts with the Argonauts.

Lyles, who now operates NZone Sports activities Administration, has repped a number of gifted corners through the years, gamers akin to A.J. Bouye and Chris Harris Jr.

“This child,” Lyles says, “is nearly as good as they have been.”

Lyles burned up the telephones over the winter making an attempt to get Stiggers extra consideration, which finally led to an invitation to the East-West Shrine Bowl. Stiggers spent per week in Dallas understanding in entrance of your entire NFL, greater than holding his personal. By the point 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 school soccer, when from an enviornment league to the @TorontoArgos, gained CFL Rookie of the 12 months, and has actual curiosity from nearly all 32 groups.

As a result of he by no means went by 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 so as 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 wanting to be taught the story of the child who by some means skipped school 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 now have a son, and it was identical to, ‘OK, my son now has a task mannequin to look as much as.’

“(Legend) loves sports activities, loves soccer. Each time he sees a soccer, 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 every part that’s occurred over the previous two years into phrases, as he’s nonetheless in it.

Life remains to be arduous with out his father — soccer and so many different issues remind him of instances spent along with his dad. He’s nonetheless grieving that loss. He all the time will probably be. Solely now, when the waves of disappointment come, they function motivation to set a robust instance for Legend, to ensure he cherishes day-after-day spent with him and Cheyenne.

Stiggers is worked up about his draft prospects and hopeful to listen to his identify known as this spring, maybe sooner than among the gamers who acquired an NFL mix invite over him. Largely, although, he’s simply hopeful.

In some methods, he has soccer to thank for that. However 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 without end. It seems, life does supply do-overs to those that work for them. There are methods out of that deep gap.

And as long as you have got individuals round you who’re keen that can assist you up, hope will be eternal.

“I really feel like he may also help change the thought means of youthful individuals,” Kwanna says. “It doesn’t matter what your path is, no matter you select to do in life … you are able to do it.

“Nothing is ever too late.”

(Prime photograph: John E. Sokolowski / Getty Photos)