us our best chance,'' he said. "But I wasn't really thinking about trying to earn a scholarship.'' At least not as a college quarterback. "I couldn't throw great, but I could get the ball where it was suppose to be,'' said Abbrederis, whose top re- ceiver was Theo Maglio, now at UW-Stevens Point. Maglio recently caught three touchdown passes in a win over the University of Dubuque. As a quarterback, Abbrederis did excel in ex- ecuting the option and that appealed to the UW coaching staff which was looking for a scout team quarterback to simulate an opponent's offense in practice for the No 1 defense; especially with an option team, Wofford, on the 2009 schedule. "I had a pretty good week at quarterback be- fore that game,'' said Abbrederis, who otherwise
36 » VARSITY SEPTEMBER 27, 2012
struggled as a walk-on. "It wasn't too much fun just being a scout team guy. There were a couple of times where I thought I'd go into track, but a couple of guys talked me into staying with it.'' UW quarterback Jon Budmayr was one of those teammates who encouraged Abbrederis to stay with football through spring practice. By then, he had moved to wide receiver and he was beginning to open some eyes with his ability to get behind the defense; something which he did with regu- larity. "I still had my growing pains that first year,'' Ab- brederis said. But he has been blossoming ever since as a big-
time college receiver. And that quarterback train- ing and awareness – falling in line with what Az-
