Freshman Safety Drew Fisher is our latest player blogger for Catdomealumni.com. Just one year ago Drew was a Senior at Gresham's Centennial High School and trying to figure out where he wanted to go and continue to play football. Drew's decision has turned out to be great for himself and for Linfield. This past season Drew was name Linfield's Rookie of the year. Drew was nice enough to share his experience of being a high school senior and trying to decide just where he wanted to make his mark.-------------------------
Choosing where to go to school isn’t the easiest thing to do. There were a lot of different voices all hitting me at one time it seemed and it really made things confusing. I didn’t stress it too much though because I knew it would all fall in place sooner or later.
Deciding on a college fell down the list on my priorities because of my senior year of school, sports, and of course good old video games. However recruiters from schools from all around continued to drop in every week which was a constant wake up call to me to start narrowing down my college choices. Schools like Southern Cal and the Florida Gators were pretty impressed I must say, but they had nothing on what is now 53 consecutive winning seasons here at Linfield so it was an easy decision. But really, schools such as Willamette, Whitworth, Puget Sound, and Western Oregon were the schools that had been talking to me the most to come play some ball for them.
Leading up to my decision on choosing Linfield some key connections played an important influence. First and foremost there are three coaches back home in Gresham at Centennial high that are some of the greatest people I have ever known that went to none other than Linfield. Of course, I always had to listen to all of their stories about the glory days at the Catdome but it always made for a good laugh so it wasn’t that bad.
I had the great opportunity to spend the first week of my summer vacation every year at Linfield for the Wildcat team football camp where I not only received an early taste of hitting some opposing players, but it was nice to get a good look at a college campus and talk to some coaches about playing football. I talked to former players, Coach Smith, and this guy who thinks he’s pretty big time that goes by Coach Fendall. I talked to Coach Fendall in person at camp a few times about coming here to play for the ‘Cats, but Coach’s real game is his cell phone. Once you’re a recruit here they really know how to reel you in. I remember Coach calling me many times and listening to lots of voice mails basically telling me good night and sweet dreams. I got calls at lunch, during practice, heck I even talked to Coach Smith while he was skiing down the mountain with his kids. It just goes to show you how dedicated and determined these guys are out here to get what they want in order to bring the ‘Cats back to Salem Virginia and reclaim that title.
After all the recruiting and a lot of thought I came to the conclusion to give Linfield a go and experience what exactly it feels like to be a Wildcat.
This first year being a part of the Catdome has been a time to remember for sure. From the grinding practices and daily doubles to finding out I’m going to Texas an hour before the bus left for PDX, there has been quite the number of memories already. Making friends with the flying Hawaiians and playing next to some future Catdome greats has been a sweet deal. It’s been a wild trip getting to play on Saturdays with guys that love to play the game and have fun as much as I do and it’s only going to get better as the years go on. The ’09 season is more than promising for the ‘Cats and it can’t come soon enough.
-Drew Fisher
Class of 2012
(photo courtsey of Linfield SID Kelly Bird)
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