New London-Spicer's Shane Zylstra Eyes NFL Dreams With Help From Pro Brother Brandon
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Not every great NFL player is drafted. Many get there as free agents, or go to another league and prove themselves.
New London-Spicer High School's Brandon Zylstra is now a wide receiver for the Carolina Panthers. He did it the hard way, and now his younger brother Shane is looking for the same opportunity.
Brandon played at Concordia Moorhead. He was very good, but had to create his pro future.
"I don't think there was a coach or team out there that knew who I was, so for me it was, you know, I email-blasted teams, so just from like going to all these different workouts, just networking with every people, I accumulated just a bunch of emails. And so I was sending out a few hundred emails like every week and a half, two weeks," Brandon said.
He signed with the Canadian Football League, where he was very good -- leading to a contract from his hometown team, the Minnesota Vikings. That was a road observed by his younger brother, Shane, who made his own path at Minnesota State Mankato, with help from brother.
"It's a huge advantage for me because not many people have that resource that I've been able to have with Brandon," Shane said. "He's been through the ropes, did it without an agent, you know, by himself basically. So it's been really nice to have him help me go through this process."
The point is now simple: How you get there -- whether via the draft, a free agent or the CFL -- the goal is just to get there.
"You got to constantly show them that you know what you're doing, you got to be versatile," Brandon said. "Find different ways to stand out, find different ways for them to remember your name, for them to plug-and-play you, kind of, in different special teams' roles."
So younger brother takes a shot, as a big wide receiver, but he is willing to convert to tight end.
"Some of them have said they'll take me in and transition me to that tight end role, which I have no problem doing," Shane said. "I don't have like ego about it at all or anything. Whatever I'm able to do to help the team."
And oh yeah, there is a little family secret to their success. They all grew up learning a sense of balance, because they all participated in competitive water skiing.
