LARAMIE, Wyo.-Lucas Wacha is just looking for a chance.
The former Wyoming linebacker got one in the form of an invite to the 2017 NFLPA Collegiate Bowl. The next goal is an invite to an NFL training camp.
"Once you get into that camp, everyone's the same type of player," Wacha said. "It doesn't matter where you're drafted once you get to that camp. If you work hard, I think you've got a good chance."
That was a lesson Wacha took from Antonio Pierce, the former Giants linebacker who was Wacha's linebackers coach at the Collegiate Bowl.
"He didn't get drafted or anything," Wacha said, "and he didn't get a combine invite, and he was a free agent, and he went there and made noise and he played for 10, 11 years in the NFL, won a Super Bowl, a couple Pro Bowls. That's a guy that you look at and (say) anything's possible."
Wacha was a member of Team American, coached by former Washington head coach Jim Zorn. Also on the team were former New Mexico running back Teriyon Gipson, former Florida State quarterback Sean Maguire and former BYU running back Algernon Brown. The opposing Team National was coached by former Rams head coach Mike Martz and included former Houston quarterback Greg Ward Jr. on the roster.
"I got down there and we immediately started meetings and things like that," Wacha told the Casper Star-Tribune (http://bit.ly/2kqVsC0). "Every day (I would) wake up at 6:30 and go to breakfast and then I wouldn't get back to my room until 10 o'clock. So it was like an NFL-type minicamp for a whole week. It was good. I was dealing with a bunch of professional athletes that were my coaches.
"... (I was) learning from all those guys, guys that had played in the league for a while, about what it takes and the dedication that they put into that."
Wacha was named one of the team captains, a role he held at Wyoming. He started as an outside linebacker and nickel middle linebacker for Team American in a 27-7 loss. Wacha played outside linebacker his first three years at Wyoming before moving to middle linebacker his senior year.
He said he interviewed with about 10 NFL teams at the Collegiate Bowl.
"They're just saying, 'We like the way you play,'" Wacha said. "There's nothing out there with draft stock or anything like that, but hopefully just being able to get a chance and getting into that camp."
He has signed with agent Mark Henness and is training with Mike Waters at Phase 1 Sports in Las Vegas. Wacha did not receive an invite to the NFL Combine, so his focus is on performing well March 9 at Wyoming's Pro Day.
"(I want to show) That I can run and that I'm athletic and I'll be able to play," Wacha said. "That I'm smart. Hopefully they've watched some film on me and know that I actually have a good knowledge of the game, and I'm athletic, and I'm going to be able to put up pretty good numbers at the (Pro Day)."
Wacha wouldn't be the first member of his family to play professional sports. His brother, Michael, is a starting pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals.
"A couple of them brought him up, but most of them actually didn't know," Wacha said of his Collegiate Bowl interviewers.
Wacha said he finished the 2016 season, after which he was named honorable mention all-Mountain West, with "bumps and bruises," but no serious injuries. He hopes to weigh in at about 223 pounds on Pro Day.
"Just be more lean and cut up," he said.
Preparing his speeds and repetitions for Pro Day is a 180-degree turn from the football season, when the biggest focus is being ready to perform on game day.
"Basically the total opposite of what football does," Wacha said, "but you have to have those type of things with the 40 (yard dash) and the broad and the vert (jumps), just showing that you can go out there and do those things. We've been trying to hammer that home, so twice a day I'll work out and try to get better at those type of things."
Then, if someone takes a chance on him, it's all about proving himself once again.