Did you know that the best roast is slowly cooked? This is how Vincent McDonald (Vinnie) has been preparing for his season in Kuopio Steelers. He was lucky enough, or I would say blessed, to truly focus on his skills and improve his flexibility in the field in the past year; by getting up every morning at 5 am to train and keep his full-time job while doing so. Together making close to 400 days on his preparation, obviously, he is not keeping track of the days. Highly motivated and ready to show what he is all about we welcome WR (wide receiver) Vincent McDonald to our team in Steelers.
When we asked about his achievements, he didn’t hold back:
“In my Senior Year I played in 9 games with 649 yards and 9 touchdowns. I did this all with a sprained ACL and a partial tear in my patella tendon. I was able to have a Pro Day from a Division 3 school and be one of the top overall performers. Since then, I have gotten stronger and faster. I run 4.5 and can clean 315 LBs.”
Vinnie promises to show what he is all about while having the high motivation to succeed. He commits to surprising people, not only with his secret skills in cooking but also in the field by being faster and stronger than ever before. On his journey to be a professional American football player he has changed his mindset to the next level thinking of a journey is more important than the final product and being patient:
“Fall in love with the process and not the product. Also, control what you can and wait for your turn.”
His outstanding motivation for the game, serves many aspects of his actions, for instance making him a natural leader who wants to lead by example. He sees the game as being therapeutic in terms of proving people wrong:
“People think NYC kids cannot play football.”
“People talk down on Division 3 athletes as if we aren’t just as good, if not better than the top prospects coming out of college.“
“People telling me to give up because they think I’m better off using my degree;
I refuse to fail.”
After, receiving unbelievably bad news about Rashad Still not being able to travel to Finland we were devastated. It took us a moment to overcome the shock and start looking for his replacement. We are happy to find Vincent McDonald, to whom we put our faith and trust for the season. In this season the stakes are high… The stage is yours, Vinnie!
