Turning it into something good

Brawley football legend copes with Mountain West season delay to 2021.

Casey Kline is a fighter.

While he led the Brawley Wildcats football program as the varsity staring quarterback and outside linebacker his junior and senior seasons, he had to overcome 2 grueling shoulder injuries.

Even when he couldn't play under center, he was too good to keep off the field; as he proved to be an impact player at other positions on offense.

He was always there when his team needed him the most, even when he was hurt.

On October 27th of 2017, amidst the annual Imperial Valley League title chase, one of Kline's shoulder injuries kept him from playing quarterback against the Imperial Tigers.

But, he stepped up as a wide receiver that night, securing 2 1st half touchdown catches that turned out to make the difference in the Cats 7 point victory.

Now that he's moved on to a full ride scholarship with the Boise State Broncos, Kline is facing another obstacle; the Coronavirus.

In the midst of competing for a starting linebacking spot, the Mountain West Conference announced 1 week ago it's decision to scrap the Fall season and try to push it back to the Spring.

Kline took the news in stride.

"So, I personally don't think that anyone was too overly surprised. I think that overall, we're just going to have to get to a point where you accept that we're living in you know, like pretty much unheard of times, that no one thought we would be going through. And to get as ready as you can and then whenever you are called to play, you just got to play."

Since the pandemic started taking off back in March, Kline never lost his desire to compete.

From that time to now, he's never wavered in preparing for the chance to play.

Since he reported to Boise for voluntary workouts, Kline has continued to work with the linebackers in the weight room and participated in 7 on 7 team practices; even having to wear gloves and masks during any drills that involved any kind of contact.

As disappointed as he and his teammates are about the decision to postpone, Kline is trying to take this negative and turn it into a positive.

"I think it's still an advantage, to get that much stronger and that much quicker, and that much more mentally prepared as far as the playbook goes to actually play football. But, so I'm going to take advantage of it, because part of me sees it as an advantage. At the same time, we all wish we were getting ready to play this month. We should be in the middle of Fall camp now, So, it's a bummer regardless. But, we might as well take advantage of it and get as physically right as you can before we play football again."

The tentative Spring schedule for the Broncos is still to be determined.