Saints grad loving life in Green Bay
• You could say Pawtucket native and St. Raphael graduate Jean-Daniel Roussel has made Green Bay, Wisconsin a second home for himself.
Roussel, 25, is in his second season suiting up at cornerback for the Green Bay Blizzard, a professional indoor football team. In May 2015, Roussel got a taste of NFL life when he was invited to the Green Bay Packers’ rookie minicamp.
“We play right across the street from Lambeau Field. As close as St. Ray’s is to McCoy Stadium, I’m even closer to where the Packers play,” Roussel said.
It didn’t take long for Roussel to realize what a tight-knit community Green Bay is. The most noticeable perk comes whenever he’s out and about and happens to bump into a member of the Packers’ coaching staff.
“Being a familiar face, I’ll say hi to them and they’ll ask how I’m doing,” Roussel said. “Hopefully the Packers give me a call and say, ‘Come down the street and workout for us.’”
Strapping on a helmet at this stage of his life gives Roussel joy to no end. Following a stellar college career where he set a Sacred Heart record with 17 career interceptions, the real world beckoned with a job in the marketing department at Brown University. While Roussel still had a chance to be around sports, it was no substitute for the real thing.
“I would watch the Brown lacrosse team take the field with so much confidence and swagger and say to myself, ‘These guys are like my age. What am I doing playing the warmup music before their games?’” Roussel said. “Working at Brown was a great opportunity, but, at the end of the day, I had to follow my dream. I tell people all the time that I never would want to be a 50- or 60-year-old man at a barbershop saying, ‘In my day, I would have done this or that differently.’
“I want to make sure I exhaust everything in my system before I really give it my all in the corporate world,” Roussel added.
The road back to Green Bay and the Blizzard came after a short-lived 2015 stint with the Orlando Predators of the Arena Football League. Citing that he missed football elements such as the camaraderie, the hustle and the competition, Roussel, with the help of his agency in March 2016, put feelers out there. He first heard from the Montanabased Billings Wolves, so it was off to see what this eighton-eight, 21-players-dress-ongamedays indoor football experience was all about.
The 5-11, 180-pound Roussel recorded one interception with the Wolves before getting released. Aweek later, Green Bay called. He closed out the 2016 season by appearing in six games with the Blizzard, making 24 tack- les and notching three INTs.
“Even though it’s a different brand of football, it’s still the same area and the same people who I made friends with,” Roussel said.
With a full offseason of training under his belt, Roussel returned to the Blizzard for the 2017 season. To date, he’s appeared in 12 games with 30 tackles and two interceptions. Green Bay won’t be playoff-bound with a 2-12 record with two games left in the regular season.
“There’s a lot of turnover in this league. The players are big and fast, hence it’s all about timing, precision, and spacing,” Roussel said. “There’s also a huge difference between receiving an active game check and a nonactive one.”
Roussel has no plans to give up football anytime soon.
“You never know what can happen,” Roussel said. “I know my name is in the (Packers’) system, but it’s about being in the right spot at the right time.”
Once Roussel checks out of the Green Bay hotel he’s staying in, he’ll return to Rhode Island with an eye towards working a few summer football camps.
“I love to see kids running around and learning the game of football,” Roussel said.
• Per Mount St. Charles boys’ basketball head coach Henry Coleman, the MSC Boys’Hoops Summer League is back for a third year. Participating teams include Mount, Davies Tech, Blackstone-Millville Regional, North Smithfield, Tolman, Shea, Woonsocket, Cumberland, Lincoln and Ponaganset.
The curtain gets raised on June 26 for the 10-game regular season with playoffs starting the first week in August.
• Former Lincoln High standout and URI baseball player Jad Prachniak was recently named the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Baseball East Coach of the Year for the third time in his six-year tenure as head coach of Division II West Chester University. In addition, Prachniak’s efforts were also recognized by the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) as the organization’s Coach of the Year.
Prachniak's Golden Rams captured the Atlantic Regional tournament and carried an impressive 41-11 record into Monday night’s game against Lindenwood (Mo.) in the winner’s bracket of the double-elimination NCAA D-II National Championships.
• Trevor Marques, 2016 Lincoln High graduate, played a key role in the Wheaton College baseball program advancing to the Division III College World Series. The freshman righthander drew the starting pitching nod in last Friday’s World Series opener against California Lutheran University, tossing five innings of two-run ball (one earned) with seven strikeouts.
Marques’ finest moment this spring came May 19 when he tossed a completegame, four-hit shutout with a career-best nine strikeouts in Wheaton’s 6-0 win in a NCAA regional contest. All told, Marques appeared in 14 games (five starts) and went 3-2 with one save and a 2.89 ERA. He struck out 53 in 43.2 innings.
• Celtics president Danny Ainge can travel down one of two distinct paths this summer.
He can enhance the current nucleus that reached the Eastern Conference but ultimately proved no match against LeBron James and his band of merry Cavaliers. Or, will Ainge put on his trading cap and deal inexpensive talent on the current roster?
Isaiah Thomas, Avery Bradley and Marcus Smart have one year remaining on their respective deals, all of which are below market when considering last summer’s astronomical rise of the NBA salary cap. In theory, they would be attractive to many teams.
The feeling here is that while the Celtics have made impressive strides in recent seasons, they’re still years away from entering the same rarified air as Cleveland and Golden State. You need superstars to reach that level. Boston as currently constructed features a mixture of stars and role players. That’s not nearly enough to unseat the Cavaliers..
Want an indicator as to the next direction for the Celtics? The direction Ainge decides to go in with the No. 1 pick in next month’s draft will tell us if the current core gets another crack at LeBron or whether the time has come to make serious alterations.