Franchise ResourcesEven without a cape you think he is superman
Dan Roberts II, Soup as he is known by, started his football career in his living room diving into a bean bag chair after catching a football his parents threw to him. “It was hard to find Danny without a football in his hand while he was growing up”, said his father, Dan Roberts I. At age 5 Soup started playing padded football in the Milton Youth Football Program as a running back. For training his father set up trash barrels in the yard and taught him how to cut, juke, and spin away from opponents. Dan remembers the words his father told him while perfecting this drill, “Football is a game of angles. Somehow you have to take the angle away from the defender or set him up for a missed tackle.”
Dan played running back in Milton’s youth program until his 6th grade year. At that time his coach at the time, his dad, needed someone to play quarterback and put Dan into the spot. It has stuck ever since.
As Soup started his freshman year at Milton High School, he was joined by a very talented and athletic bunch of classmates. Most of which moved up to Varsity or Junior Varsity football team. Dan was the starter at QB on the Junior Varsity team his freshman year, but knew he had to do something to earn a starting spot at QB for the varsity. Dan attended the Jeff Trickey Quarterback Camp, a Nationally recognized and regarded as one of the top QB camps, all four years of high school. Here he learned the art of pinpoint throwing and reading defenses.
In Dan’s Sophomore year in high school he started at safety on the Varsity for every game along with 1 game as the quarterback. With a year of varsity experience, Soup came into his Junior year and earned the starting QB spot for the Redhawks. Soup led his team to a overall record of 22-3 in his last two years of high school and to the State Semi-Finals his Senior year.
Dan won many awards while playing football in high school including:
- SLC 1st team QB - Junior year
- SLC 1st team QB - Senior year
- SLC player of the year - Senior year
- All Area 1st team QB - Senior year
- All State Honorable Mention - Senior year
Soup was heavily recruited during his last year in high school until recruits saw how tall he was, 5’11” didn’t really work for most colleges as a QB. But Dan had a saying “Its not how big you are, its how big you play.” Dan eventually took an offer at Rochester Community College to play QB and led the team to a 9-3 record and a trip to the C.H.A.M.P.S Heart of Texas Bowl in Copper Cove Texas vs Tyler Texas University. Unfortunately, Soup suffered a Severe Concussion and strained LCL in the 1st quarter and was not able to come back again. Dan moved back to Milton and transferred to UW-Whitewater to finish his degree. Eventually married his high school sweetheart, Nichole.
Dan played a few years of flag football to stay in shape and won a State Championship in Class C, but always thought about getting the pads back on. When the Gladiators started up, he jumped at the chance to play the game he loved again. In two years as the Field General for the Gladiators, Soup has won 1st team NIFL QB and 1st team AFC All-Star with an overall record of 20-8, along with throwing 483 passes for 4,108 yards and 59 Tds.
Dan gives credit to his Offensive Line of AJ Albrecht, Trevor Bruegger, Tony Goth, Jeff Leider, and Matt Lee for his chance to make things happen. The most influential people in his progress besides his parents would have to be Coach Jerry Schliem (HS Coach) and Dennis Brunner (current O-Coordinator). “When you can look at each other and call the same play, that is being on the same page. It doesn’t matter if I throw a TD or not, they are there saying I could of done something better. Positive criticism is great! I love playing football for the Gladiators. It is a bunch of great guys that want to have fun and win.”; Dan especially wanted to thank his parents for teaching him that if you give 100%, 100% of the time that is what matters. “I attribute them for the go hard attitude and providing me with a leadership mentality.”
