VIEW FROM SIDELINES

By TOM BALOG

Keilen Dykes could only root on Arizona Cardinals

The former Chaney standout spent his first NFL season on the Cardinals’ practice squad.

TAMPA — Keilen Dykes stayed at an upscale hotel overlooking Tampa Bay with a waterfront view of spectacular sunsets from his room, enjoying Super Bowl XLIII week in the Florida sunshine, all expenses paid, as a rookie practice squad player with the NFC champion Arizona Cardinals.

“It’s just a thrill for me to be here, even though I’m not going to play. I still get to meet people and do interviews,” said Dykes, 24, last week.

“For a kid from Youngstown to play in big college games, BCS games, first year in the [NFL], going to the Super Bowl ... It’s beautiful. You look over the water and you see all that stuff you can’t see anywhere else, really,” said Dykes, who signed with Arizona as an undrafted rookie free agent defensive tackle last spring after a stellar career at the West Virginia.

Dykes watched Super Bowl XLIII Sunday night from the Arizona sideline in his warmup clothes, as the practice squad players do, whenever they attend any game.

He said the atmosphere was frenzied during the ebb and flow of the first half.

“It’s wild down there, it’s like a roller coaster ride, up and down and all around,” Dykes said in a text message at halftime.

The pre-game ceremonies, which happened right in front of the Cardinals sideline, had him charged up to play.

“When [Jennifer] Hudson sang the national anthem, I got goose bumps. I thought I was about to play,” he said, with a laugh sign.

The 2003 Chaney High graduate who grew up on the West Side, set himself up for this future by attending night school during his senior year and then summer school, to improve his academic standing for a football scholarship to West Virginia.

“Youngstown is just a stepping stone,” said Dykes, a four-year varsity player who was the All-City defensive player of the year as a senior. “Look at me, look at Brad Smith.”

He thinks success similar to what he and Smith, a third-year wide receiver for the New York Jets, are living as NFL players is less attainable for today’s Chaney students in light of the rampant disorder in the hallways.

The common chaos at Chaney, including assaults, has been documented on the banned YouTube video of a hallway fight last year and threads on the Vindicator Web site discussion boards. It has been compounded, Dykes believes, by the decline of the Cowboys’ football program, evident in the team’s 2-17 record over the past two seasons.

“When we had good football teams, we had discipline on the football team and it seemed like it filtered throughout the school,” Dykes said. “It seemed like it rubbed off on the students. I don’t like the stuff that’s going on there. I wouldn’t send my kids there.”

Dykes thinks it was a mistake for the Board of Education policy and political in-fighting to block the hiring of Alan Mikovich, a former Chaney assistant coach and player, when former Chaney head coach Ron Berdis retired.

“Get ‘Coach Mick’ in there or get a Chaney guy who played there, who was coached by Berdis or [former coaches Ed Matey or ‘Red’ Angelo],” Dykes said. “Then you can get Chaney back where it belongs. Because they know what it takes — hard work and dedication.

“I believe all the other Chaney guys are feeling what I’m feeling, they just aren’t saying it yet,” Dykes said. “It’s going downhill and it shouldn’t be like that. Not at Chaney.”

Dykes would encourage the Chaney students to look up to graduates like himself and Smith and Anthony Floyd as examples to follow, just like players and students in the past looked up to former Cowboy football greats like Michael Zordich, Jerry Olsavsky, Matt Cavanaugh, dating all the way back to Frank Sinkwich, Youngstown’s only Heisman Trophy winner.

“When I was in high school, Brad Smith was out there [playing for Missouri] doing his thing. We need to do more than just coming back there one or two days,” Dykes said. “We should have a [football] camp, or something.”

Dykes’ next goal is to make the Cardinals’ 53-man active roster next year, so he can make a full salary instead of the $5,200 a week he earns as a practice squad player. He doesn’t know what he will be paid from the Cardinals’ share of Super Bowl earnings.

The Cardinals coaches are seeing the same qualities in Dykes that he developed while playing for his coach at Chaney, Ron Berdis.

“I’m excited about him because ... he really loves the game,” said Arizona defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast.

“He works really hard as a practice squad player getting our offense ready. That’s helped his development. He’s going to get an opportunity to do a lot of things in the preseason and we’ll see where it goes from there.”

XTom Balog, a Youngstown native, covers the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.