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By JOE PETRUCCI [email protected]
Monday, November 18, 2002     Page: 6B

PLAINS TWP. – Stefan Schroffner is a successful 29-year-old who works in
management at a major health care company and holds an MBA in finance from the
University of Notre Dame.
   
But on Sunday, he was inside the Wyoming Valley Sports Dome, willing to put
all that on hold to give himself a shot at a dream he had long since
abandoned.
    Schroffner was one of three players whom new Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers
head coach Lary Kuharich said he’s interested in signing after the team’s
first local free agent tryout camp.
   
“Out of this thing I can honestly say I’m going to sign players, which
would be some of our 35 we bring to camp,” said Kuharich, on the job just six
days.
   
Although only 25 hopefuls attended Sunday’s two sessions – the morning
workout was for linemen and fullback/linebackers and the afternoon session was
for quarterbacks and receivers/defensive backs – Kuharich was pleased with the
talent he saw and said the smaller tryouts can be more advantageous to both
players and coaches.
   
Schroffner, who was a starting kicker at Notre Dame in 1993 and 1994, has
been out of football since 1995. He pursued his graduate degree and “started
working in the corporate world.” He’s is the director of product management
at Cigna in Bloomfield, Conn., where he’s worked for the past five years.
   
“I decided I never really gave it an honest shot,” said Schroffner, a
native of Punahou, Hawaii, who connected on all 30 of his extra-point attempts
in ’94 and played for the Irish in the 1995 Fiesta Bowl.
   
“I love my job, I love what I do. But I don’t want to look back 10 years
from now and say, `I’m 40 years old and never gave it a shot.’ That’s kind of
my take on life. Life’s too short.”
   
Schroffner was accurate kicking mock extra-points and field goals inside
the dome on Sunday, aiming at a makeshift goalpost on one of the facility’s
synthetic walls, with tape used as a crossbar and the wall’s ridges as
uprights. On kickoffs, he kicked the ball around 50 yards, about 15 yards
short of what would be needed to hit the rebound nets in a game situation,
which is ideal.
   
“I’m confident in my accuracy,” Schroffner said. “I need to get my power
back. I used to kick the ball a lot further. I can kick it straight,
end-over-end every single time. But I need about 10 or 15 more yards on my
stroke.”
   
Kuharich was also very interested in fullback/linebacker Glester Thorpe, a
former hurdler at the University of Pittsburgh, and Terry Owens, a wide
receiver/defensive back who played collegiately at Kutztown University and has
been looked at by NFL and Arena Football League teams.
   
It appears Kuharich will not wait until a certain point to sign players.
Last year, the Pioneers signed their first player, Carl Major, on Nov. 20.
   
“If I see somebody, I compare them to who I know I can play,” Kuharich
said. “The other thing is I don’t know who’s on our team. I’m not schooled on
(who was here last year). That’s what I’m going to address this week.”
   
Kuharich plans on spending a good portion of the next month on the road,
scouring AFL tryouts and holding private workouts.
   
Sunday’s tryout was also an opportunity for Kuharich to see last year’s
Pioneers assistant coaches in action. Mark Arcure, Joe DeMelfi, Mowie Harris
and Al McElroy helped run drills such as the 40-yard dash, agility sprints and
225-pound bench press and position work.
   
Kuharich said he expects to have another local tryout before Christmas and
perhaps a third “best of the best” workout in February.