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Football: Family, friends cheer on ex-Lely star Octavien with Chiefs


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Lely High coach Steve Pricer has a picture of Steve Octavien in the Trojans locker room. He wants the players who wear the school’s colors this year — and beyond — to realize that football after high school is within their grasp.

The young man in the photo’s proof of that. And then some.

After starring for Lely as a do-it-all teenager, Octavien played two seasons of junior college ball before spending three years at Nebraska as an outside linebacker. He’s now in camp with the Kansas City Chiefs as an undrafted free agent, looking to become the first Lely grad to make an NFL roster.

“The whole Octavien family has been through this school,” Pricer said. “It would be a great thing to see him make it.”

The answer will come soon enough, as NFL teams enter the stretch run of the preseason. Rosters must be trimmed to 75 by Tuesday before being set at 53 on Saturday.

Octavien is one of 81 players who were still in camp Monday and had made five tackles in Kansas City’s three preseason games. He registered one tackle in Saturday night’s loss to Miami in Dolphin Stadium, where a contingent of roughly 20 family members cheered for the Naples product.

“He’s had a long road to get here,” said Dayana Octavien, Steve’s sister. “To come out of that and have an opportunity to play at the highest level says a lot about him.”

After being plagued by injuries, the 6-foot, 235-pound linebacker played in every game for Nebraska as a senior, leading the Cornhuskers in tackles, tackles for loss and QB pressures.

Dayana Octavien, for one, knows the pressures that come with competing at a high level. The former University of South Florida standout recently made a bid for the Olympics, where she failed to qualify in the discus.

And she knows the stress involved.

When the family met Steve in front of the team bus following Saturday night’s game, Dayana Octavien said her brother didn’t let on that he was feeling the heat. She said that’s just his nature.

“We never talk about sports,” Dayana said. “He just said he was happy to see us and asked that we keep him in our prayers.”

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Go, Steve, go! You are a great example of what determination and hard work can accomplish.

#1 Posted by jsgnaples on August 26, 2008 at 11:04 a.m. (Suggest removal)



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