Hopefuls Pack Dreams, Head to Camp : Pro Football Aspirants Get Another Chance to Impress Scouts

After years of sweat and a stadium full of dashed dreams, Derrek Peels finally got what he was working for: a starting spot on a professional football team.

For Peels it’s a chance to bring his dreams to life, to show the world--or at least the Canadian Football League players and fans--that he can be a star running back for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

Peels’ road to Hamilton has been a bus-stop like trip. He is formerly of Santa Monica High School, Hamilton High, Cal State Fullerton, Santa Monica City College, Mendocino College, Santa Monica City ( again ), the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Ottawa Rough Riders ( twice ) and the Washington Redskins.

This time around, Peels hopes to spend enough time in one place to allow his mail to reach him. After all, he is starting.

It’s likely that he wouldn’t be playing at all--anywhere--if it weren’t for Tim Leedom. Peels, a 5-foot 10-inch, 205-pound 23-year-old, was just one of many tailbacks, hoping to be seen and evaluated by scouts.

He got his chance at Leedom’s Nationwide Professional Football Search free agent tryout camp at UC Irvine last April.

And he was impressive enough to be signed by Hamilton.

Peels is a starting member of a pro team, but James Corazzini is still hoping to land his first contract.

Corazzini played soccer at South Torrance High School. He continued playing at El Camino College, then decided to take a shot at place kicking for the Warrior football team. He spent his first two seasons on the soccer team, then the next two seasons playing football. Corazzini had only one season of eligibility remaining at a Division 1 school.

Few schools, no matter how good a player is, want to give a full scholarship to someone with only one season of eligibility.

He kicked 50 of 53 extra points and 16 of 22 field goals, including a 51-yard effort, in his two seasons at El Camino.

Corazzini couldn’t afford the financial burden of walking on at a big school, so he turned to Leedom’s camp.

Leedom was so impressed with Corazzini that he has become his agent. He also has helped Corazzini get several NFL and USFL tryouts, though he hasn’t landed a spot on a pro roster.

“I know I can play,” Corazzini said. “I just need a chance to show it. I’m just as good a kicker as some of them, but I didn’t go to a big-name school.”

Tuesday, Corazzini will be in Boston for a tryout with the New England Patriots.

Tim Leedom, a 40-year-old Laguna Niguel resident, has great hopes for his 1 1/2-year-old company. Leedom, a former high school and college football player, has made his money in the real estate business.

But his first love is football.

Everything about Nationwide Professional Football Search is business-like, from the office in the brick/stucco building in the exquisitely manicured Mission Viejo business park to the smiling receptionist.

The program started as a hobby for Leedom, but it has become a fulltime venture.

“We can supply, cost efficiently, a service to teams, who say, well, we’re not going to look for the diamond in the rough,” Leedom said. “All they have to do is send out a scout to one of our camps.”

So far, there have been four camps. The most successful was the April CFL camp, which was attended by scouting representatives from seven of the league’s nine teams and the league’s chief scout. About 140 players, paying $50 each, participated.

The players were given a computer printout of their results. For some, that’s all they got.

These potential pros either came from small schools, a different sport or just received their military discharge.

They had been overlooked, or so they believed, and hoped that they had those one-in-a-million qualities for which scouts look.

“There is a certain amount of the Rocky syndrome,” Leedom said. “We are, in a way, the last way station for a player.”

There is no faking size or speed. These are the two attributes the scouts have highest on their checklists. If a player has neither, the teams won’t even bother.

At the first try out, eight of Leedom’s athletes were invited to CFL camps, though only three made the final cuts.

Leedom’s camps haven’t exactly had NFL scouts running, but Canadian teams have expressed considerable interest.

Mike McCarthy, director of player personnel for the Tiger-Cats, finds value in his program.

“There are numerous types of these organizations,” said McCarthy, who once was director of player personnel for George Allen’s Chicago Blitz and Arizona Wranglers. “Some are good and some are just out to make a buck. Nationwide doesn’t make any money, but they do a pretty good job.”

Said Leedom: “We want to be a service to the clubs. We say on all our literature, if you’re not in great shape, don’t waste your time, your $50 or your effort. We give all the negatives up front. So, when a scout gets an announcement from us they say, ‘OK, I know Tim Leedom and I know Nationwide Pro Football Search and they’re not going to have a bunch of garbage there. They’re going to have guys who are at least going to be in shape.’ ”

Leedom’s greatest concern is that his company be taken seriously as a scouting service and representative of players.

“You can show a guy the results of his test,” McCarthy said. “ ‘Look, you didn’t do this. You’re just lacking in these abilities.’ That’s what the testing is all about. You see the deficiencies right on the paper.”

But for those few players who can make it to the pro ranks, Leedom spares nothing.

“We tell the prospects that, as a football agency, it’s in our enlightened self-interest to get you signed,” he said. “We’re not going to waste his time, and we’re not going to waste our time if there’s no chance. We have to pay for the lights and the Xerox machine and the phone bill just like everybody else. So, we just want to make sure that they know this is a business relationship.”

Leedom also will offer his company’s services to represent the player--for a fee. Nationwide gets 7 1/2% of the player’s first-year contract, 5% of his second year and 2% of his third.

The majority of the players at Leedom’s camps have no chance at playing professionally. Leedom estimates that only 20% have a chance to make it.

“It’s not that they’re not good ballplayers, it’s just they don’t have the potential,” he said.

And the 20% with potential have an outside possibility of attending a team’s training camp or being signed. From that group perhaps 10%--if they get the right breaks--will sign But like Peels, who has made it, and Corazzini, who’s still trying, these players are just longing for a shot at the opportunity to play professional football. And Leedom’s camps help to give them that one-in-a-million shot.

‘We tell the prospects that, as a football agency, it’s in our enlightened self-interest to get you signed. We’re not going to waste his time, and we’re not going to waste our time if there’s no chance. We have to pay for the lights and the Xerox machine and the phone bill just like everybody else. So, we just want to make sure that they know this is a business relationship.’

--Tim Leedom