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Former FHS star Dwayne Foddrell suits up for minor league Virginia Lions
Dwayne Foddrell is a terrible route runner, so to speak.
He left Fauquier County in 2004 and zigzagged the country looking for a spot to settle in as an athlete.
Now, after five years, that roundabout route has brought him right back here to Fauquier, where he finally feels well-positioned. He’s playing for the minor league Virginia Lions of the LaBelle Community Football League (LCBL) and he’s hoping to catch a break.
“I’m placing my future in this football league’s hands,” Foddrell said Saturday after the Lions won their first game as an organization. “I definitely feel something good is going to happen.”
After graduating from Fauquier High in 2004, Foddrell’s athletic aspirations brought him to California. He intended to run track at Long Beach City College, but after six months at the school he returned home before the season’s start.
Soon after, Foddrell went to Athens, W.Va., to join the Concord University football team. One semester later, though, he moved back to Fauquier County, and did so without packing his dreams of a future in sports. Instead, Foddrell focused his time on working at a Pepsi Bottling company and raising his son.
Now, his recent connection with the Virginia Lions has rekindled his hope for a life as an athlete. He’s playing safety for the Lions and hoping that will help him find a new route to stardom.
“We’re going to get a lot of exposure,” Foddrell said. “I want to get a good look. Anything can happen.”
According to its Web site, the LCFL is designed for just that. It provides players “a forum to display and refine their skills as they make an attempt to reach a professional level of the sport.” Virginia Lions co-owner/president Steven Grimes said players from the LCFL are recruited by the AFL, CFL and NFL each year.
“It’s the real deal. This league is pretty legit," Grimes said. "Their hope is to make it the official minor league to the NFL."
Two strikes
Foddrell is especially encouraged about his football future after the Lions beat the Western Mass Blitzin Bears, 22-20, Saturday.
The Bears entered as frequent division champions in the North American Football League, in which they formerly played, but the first-year Lions rallied from a 20-6 deficit to win at Liberty High’s Kip Hull Field in Bealeton.
“It feels good,” Foddrell, 23, said. “Football is what I love and I’ve been wanting to play again. It’s the best thing going for me right now, other than my son.”
His son, Jaidyn, actually helped plot Foddrell’s route back to Fauquier.
“The day before my flight to California I found out I was going to have a kid,” Foddrell said. “I didn’t want to be out of my son’s life at a young age. With school full time, track full time, and having that in the back of my head, at age 18, there [were] a lot of reasons I came back.”
After returning home from Long Beach City College, Foddrell headed to Concord University for the 2005-06 school year. He said he played spring ball with the football team, but didn’t like the situation, so he left after one semester and returned to Fauquier County, thinking he had exhausted his opportunities as an athlete.
“I felt like I had already had two strikes against me,” Foddrell said. “I knew I wanted to play again, but it was just getting the opportunity and I didn’t know how to go about it.”
Then, Zach Terrell, the Virginia Lions quarterback, told Foddrell about a tryout session for the minor league team this spring. Foddrell joined the squad soon after.
He knew Terrell from their high school playing days. Terrell quarterbacked Manassas Park to a state title in 2004 and went on to star at running back for Liberty University.
Foddrell was on a similar path at Fauquier High. He broke out as a junior running back, rushing for 1,125 yards, making the all-Northwestern District team and carrying Fauquier to a runner-up finish in the Region II playoffs.
Then he fractured his fibula as a senior quarterback.
“It kind of pushed football schools away,” Foddrell said. “That’s why I ended up running track. I had never run track before that, but I started getting looks from schools.”
Foddrell helped the FHS boys win the Class AA state team title, placing first in the 400 relay, fourth in the 100 and fifth in the 200. That put him in the fast lane to Long Beach CC as a track athlete.
Football was Foddrell’s first love, though, which makes his recent return to the gridiron even more exhilarating.
“It’s like a dream to have a chance to play football again,” he said.
He’s not the only former Fauquier Falcon thrilled to be back on the football field, either.
Wish Grant-ed
Brandon Grant has become more accustomed to socket contact than football contact...See the Wednesday print edition of the Fauquier Times-Democrat for the complete story.
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