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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, August 9, 2003

It's time to play, not party, says Lelie

By John Marshall
Associated Press

HOUSTON — Ashley Lelie tried something different to get ready for his second season as a wide receiver with the Denver Broncos.

He isolated himself on a Caribbean island.

With no television and waves lapping against the shore as his only distraction, Lelie spent the weekend before training camp thinking about nothing but football.

"I just had to go clear my mind," said Lelie, a Radford High graduate and former University of Hawai'i standout. "We had the whole offseason to party and think about everything, and I wanted to just get my mind focused on just football. In the years before I put football first, but I didn't really put all my energy into it."

It's paying off.

Lelie has arguably been the star of training camp the first three weeks, making spectacular catches almost daily. Rod Smith and Ed McCaffrey are listed as Denver's starters, but Lelie is clearly the future.

"Catches nobody thinks he can make, he's making," Broncos safety Kenoy Kennedy said. "Even sometimes DBs are getting their hands on the ball and he's finding some way to hang on to it."

The Broncos had high expectations for Lelie after drafting him in the first round last year. But Lelie struggled with the complexity of the pro offense and with no longer being the star of his team.

"Being the man in college, then coming into the NFL and starting from the bottom and not really making plays in the beginning, my confidence was really low," he said.

All it took was one reception to get Lelie going.

Late in a close game with New England on Oct. 27, the Broncos needed to convert on third-and-8 to keep the Patriots from getting the ball back. Instead of looking for the sure-handed McCaffrey or tight end Shannon Sharpe, quarterback Brian Griese told Lelie the ball was coming his way.

Lelie caught the pass and turned it into a 40-yard gain, helping the Broncos secure a 24-16 win.

That one play boosted Lelie's confidence and gave the Broncos' coaching staff faith that he could make plays in crucial moments.

"Once I started to get into the flow of things and Coach (Mike Shanahan) started gaining confidence in me, then I started gaining confidence in myself and I started making plays," Lelie said.

He caught his first touchdown pass against the New York Jets on Dec. 8, then had his first 100-yard receiving game two weeks later against Oakland. He finished with 35 receptions for 525 yards and two touchdowns.

"Some guys step up and other guys don't. He's stepped up," Shanahan said.

But he's not through.

As the Caribbean Sea sifted sand through his toes that weekend at the beach, Lelie looked back at his rookie season. He thought back to the parties after he left Hawai'i and the times during the season when he worried about having more time for himself.

It was then that Lelie decided to put all of his energy into football.

"When I went down to the Caribbean, I actually got to thinking to myself that I'm only going to be able to play this game for maybe five or six years, if I'm healthy," Lelie said. "I told myself to just give it the best five or six years I've got and I can go party all I want for the rest of my life."