DELAND – Opportunities are meant to be taken advantage of.
Such is the case this morning (Jan. 12) for Josh Ward, who hopes to make a credible case for a NFL roster spot on one of the 32 teams in a few months. He’ll be doing so with his play in the Tropical Bowl, which will be held at Spec Martin Memorial Stadium (Stetson University) in DeLand (Fla.).
The kickoff for today’s Tropical Bowl is 10 a.m. You can watch it by going on flofootball.com.
The American Heritage (Delray Beach) Stallions alum played for four seasons at Akron, with his finest season coming as a senior. This past fall, Ward tallied 47 tackles, 2.5 sacks, and a pass breakup in 12 games played for the Zips, with his best performance coming in his final collegiate game against Ohio (7 tackles, 1/2 sack) on Nov. 26, 2019.
Listed at 6-foot-2, 225 pounds, the linebacker has always been ferocious on the field by giving his all on every play. Ward’s coaches and teammates at Akron loved that level of consistency from him, despite the fact the Zips were the only FBS to finish 0-12 this past season.
There’s another thing that has been consistent about Ward since his playing days at American Heritage several years back. The Zips alum’s joy of playing the game and his appreciation of life have been infections to those around him.
Ward spoke with Marcel Ulrich of ZipsNation.org back in March 2019 about that and more.
“I feel that every day you have to smile about something. If you aren’t smiling, you’re doing yourself a disservice,” Ward said to Ulrich. “If I get beat on a play, I can’t take that to heart because the rest of my day’s going to be bad. If you put on a smile, you can move on from disappointments a lot faster. My whole goal in life is to try and be
a light. If I can do that, I think I can help my team. At the end of the day, this is a wonderful opportunity I have (playing football). So, I just can’t take any setbacks too serious.”
Suffice to say, all-star game experiences are meant for players to be as jovial and loose as possible. From all accounts, it has been the case for Ward throughout this past week of practices for the Tropical Bowl.
“Everyone here has been really cool,” Ward said. “It’s been a big blessing. I’ve learned so much from the coaches and players.”
Ward will be wearing No. 43 for the American Team. His head coach for the Tropical Bowl is R. Todd Littlejohn (safeties/special teams coach for Prairie View A & M).
How did Ward find out about the Tropical Bowl invite?
“I was sent an email shortly after the season ended,” Ward said.
After the Tropical Bowl ends, there will be a series of daily workouts at various locations for Ward. And sometime over the next several weeks, Ward will get another chance to impress NFL scouts at Akron’s Pro Day.
While it’s not likely he’ll get drafted by an NFL team in April, Ward knows there is more than one way to make it to the pinnacle level of football. And he has a nice fallback option just in case his playing days happen to be over after today’s Tropical Bowl.
“It’s good to have a back-up plan,” Ward told Ulrich during his in-depth interview session in March 2019. “I was thinking about law school, but the more I looked into it, it just seemed like there were a lot of lawyers out there. So, I went and talked to my advisor, and he thought sales would be a good fit for me. I can use my personality in sales. When I moved over into sales, life became a lot simpler. And a lot of opportunities are opening up for me, so I think I made the right decision for my career.”
PHOTO CREDITS: Akron Zips Foootball
