“Straight to the top, non-stop.”

That’s where Bertram Sylva, 25, wants to go. And he thinks the Hawaii Professional Football League can help him get there.

“I hope this opens some eyes to the world and maybe we can get something going out here, something legit,” Sylva said. “Maybe this will open a door to the next step for the next big thing, because this is something to, you know, get everybody trying to look in and then – boom – maybe we can make it bigger, blow it up.”

Sylva was one of about 80 participants who took the turf at Aloha Stadium Saturday in an open tryout for the state’s newest sports league. Coaches ran the players through typical speed and agility stations: the 40-yard-dash, shuttle runs, T-drill and the vertical jump. One-on-ones and 7-on-7 were held in the early afternoon.

Man I miss that stuff.

It wasn’t long ago that I was the one running around those cones and sprinting, as a former high school coach once instructed me, “like a bat out of Hell.”

In 2004, I walked on to the University of Colorado football team. I felt then many of the same emotions experienced by those at the tryout, a cocktail of nervousness and excitement.

I love football. I love that football always allowed me the opportunity to set tangible goals and enjoy the feelings of self-worth when they were achieved. I love the strategy and the ability for any team to be able to win on any given day.

Mostly though, I love watching those people who truly enjoy the game – those few individuals who play for nothing more than to hear the sound of pads cracking with the pressure of two immovable forces firing off a chalky line; those reckless few who only feel complete with the sight of dew-tipped blades of grass passing beneath their facemask as their body flies through the air over a would-be blocker and into the gut of the poor schmuck holding the ball.

That’s why I had to check out the HPFL’s tryouts. What better place on Earth to find a bunch of guys who just want to have some fun than at an event where they have to pony up $40 dollars a piece for the opportunity to be screamed at, criticized, ordered around and run to death?

Football players are a rare breed. And while a budding league isn’t exactly the typical story that Civil Beat covers, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to witness this particular slice of life.

The HPFL’s president and commissioner, Carson Peapealalo, told me that he believes the four-team league will have the potential to be a feeder system into the NFL.

“Kind of like a farm league, so to speak,” he said. “We want to give them a roadmap because there was never a program for kids after high school or college.”

Peapealalo said all HPFL players must be over 20-years-old and all coaches must have a four-year collegiate degree.

“My main goal is, if I can get these kids paid at least $1,000 a game, I’ll be happy. So that’s the big goal, but we have to start small and start young and, you know, just do minimum pay until we get established and our foundation gets built up… Help these kids, give them the potential to get to the next level,” Peapealalo said.

He told me the first game would take place at Aloha Stadium in February 2011. The season will consist of six games, with playoffs and a championship, for a total of eight games.

The league is in its initial stages of development. A draft will be held with all of the players who chipped in the $40 to participate in the tryout.

I asked Sylva, who is a quarterback, if he thought he would make the team at the end of the day and he said he expected everyone would. Football requires 11 players on the field at any given time and generally, one substitute per position is considered the bare minimum. A second tryout may be held next month.

Now, it’s no secret that semi-pro and other arena-style football leagues have come and gone in Hawaii. For whatever reason, attracting an ample fan base seems an impossibility in the islands. So what fascinated me about this story was why a bunch of men in their mid-20s would even bother. Peapealalo said he expects players to start out making $50 a game. The hope is that they reach $1,000.

Even if one – or two (or even three or four) – of these kids are scouted and have genuine talent and are given a shot with an NFL team, the chances their pen makes it to the dotted line of a hefty contract are astronomical. For the vast majority of HPFL players, whether they admit it not, they will not be going to next level. There will be no tomorrow.

I wanted to know if that mattered.

I’m only 25, but I can tell you that the daily aches in my knees and neck have been more than ample to remind me how content I am to be sitting at a my desk as opposed to a steel, sweat-smeared sideline bench. My journey in college football was a long one with an abrupt ending. After walking on, I eventually earned a scholarship and had the opportunity to start at linebacker for the first few games of my junior year. Unfortunately, in the third game of the season against Florida State, I took an awkward blow to the side of the head and my career was over.

I know what football does to the body. I know about the realities that come after running top speed into a wedge of 300-pound linemen bumbling down the field, a glued mass of monstrosities, for season after season. I know what it means to play hard and have fun.

What I didn’t know was why anybody would want to take the required punishment of football when they were no longer in their prime. Frankly, I’m not sure if I would hike up Koko Head for $50 any more, let alone join a football league stacked with a pack of the fiercest competitors in the state.

After spending some time with them, though, the reason became painfully obvious: these men were on their own unique mission. This wasn’t walking on to some program at a beautiful school where my only worry was getting to class and meetings on time. They don’t play for scholarships or to be a part of an elite conference. They don’t get their meals provided or massage tables or any of the perks that have become associated with major football. They’re in it because they love it.

And because they know this is their last chance.

“I’m just hoping to actually get to hit somebody,” said Michael Diamond, who was trying out to play fullback or strong-safety. “I think all of us deep down inside want to be professional football players and this just gives us the opportunity to go out and relive high school, I guess.”

Diamond is originally from Las Vegas but has been stationed by the military in Hawaii for the past two years. He recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq.

“This is a way to rekindle the high school dreams that you had,” Diamond said. “Really though, I just want to hit people. I don’t need the glory.”

Diamond is just one example of the type of men who see the HPFL as their last shot for pig-skin redemption.

“I came to take one more chance at it,” said Matt Jenkins, 26, trying out for tight end. “Came to play some football, pretty much shut up a lot of people that told me to come out a long time ago. But, got lazy. One last shot right here.”

Jenkins said he hopes to get a tryout in the NFL if he can first prove himself here in Hawaii. He graduated from Kaimuki High School.

“We’ll see what happens… I had a chance to go to college,” Jenkins said. “But, typical local boy, got lazy, decided to party, threw that away and started working.”

Jenkins said he had plans to go to Fresno State with a chance to play football for the Bulldogs. “Would have been able to come home every so often, play against UH, would have been awesome.” But he’s past that disappointment now.

“Looking to rock some lights,” he said with a little bounce in his step. He trotted towards midfield with a grin on his face.

What it is, exactly, about football that can inspire 80 men in their 20s to get out of their bed sheets early on a Saturday morning is probably a mystery if you haven’t played the sport. The idea of inflicting such pain on the body is something that I cannot fault someone for not appreciating. But, regardless if you understand the reasoning, it doesn’t take a fan to tip your hat to a group that still has a fire for competition and no interest in letting that flame fade.

If nothing else, you can be sure the future players of HPFL will be on the field because there is no place they would rather be.

“I heard about it (the tryout) yesterday,” Sylva said. “I haven’t ran in I don’t know how many years. So it was kind of crazy just getting warmed up to run, to sprint again, you know what I mean? And I haven’t thrown a ball in forever.”

“But,” Sylva said, “It’s still there. It’s right there like it was yesterday.”

He then went on to explain the core of his reasoning as to why he decided to show up for the tryout: “I just love football,” he said.

Is there a possibility that these men may beat the odds and earn an opportunity to try out with an NFL team?

Maybe.

Will they show up and beat their bodies down on a weekly basis in order to quiet those who have always whispered in their ear that they weren’t good enough, or were too slow, or didn’t have the talent.

I guarantee it.

But, when it comes down it, while the visions of grandeur and NFL contracts provide healthy motivation, all dreams are achieved for one single purpose.

And it has everything to do with the simplicity of Silva’s statement.

“I just love football.”

(Below are some clips from the tryouts.)