Quarterback Southwick is persistent for winless L.A. KISS
As an arena football quarterback, Danny Southwick knows how to throw on the move and shift while looking to complete a pass.
It’s also safe to say Southwick knows how to move in another sense of the word.
Away from the game, it’s been a bit ridiculous. Just within the past two months, Southwick has played for three teams, Portland, Seattle and, most recently, Los Angeles.
In the Arena Football League, there is chaos in each game, a high-tempo pace. Southwick does his best to control it.
Even when his wife, Tilly, gave birth to their first-born son, Liam, he did his best to stay calm.
On April 11, two days after Southwick threw for six touchdowns and three interceptions in a 47-43 loss to Portland in his first game with the Spokane Shock, Tilly gave birth to Liam.
“It’s been nuts,” Southwick said after practice at Santa Ana College on May 29.
He hopes he can stay with the L.A. KISS and do his best to lead the team to its first win of the season. It would end a losing streak of 15 games.
Southwick was in position to give the KISS that W. He brought the team back from a 21-0 deficit, but he couldn’t quite finish it, as his final pass went for an interception in the end zone to end the game, and the KISS were left with a 41-35 loss to the Jacksonville Sharks at Honda Center in Anaheim.
Southwick will try again on Sunday when the KISS play host to the Portland Thunder. That’s the team Southwick started with during this whirlwind season.
Throughout his life, Southwick has learned to make the most of the opportunity. That’s also his mentality for each pass attempt, wherever that might be.
Who would have thought a Mormon would end up as the starting quarterback of a team named after an iconic rock band?
“It’s an everyday thing for me,” Southwick said of being a practicing member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “I don’t really think about it. It’s part of who I am.”
Southwick is not one to complain. He said he loves being back in Southern California, as he played in college nearby at one of his four stops, Occidental.
But he also stays true to his beliefs.
“There were girls dancing in cages last year?” he said about the home games. “Yeah, that wasn’t the most Mormon thing.”
From that, it’s easy to see Southwick has a sense of humor. He’s learned to laugh at most things in the past, and even at what’s going on now.
He makes jokes about UC Irvine, where he is close to earning an MBA.
“I’m the greatest quarterback in the history of UC Irvine,” he quipped. The Anteaters, of course, don’t have a football team.
Perhaps he gets some of his wit from his stepfather, retired talk show host Larry King, who attends some of the Kiss games.
Southwick maintains a good relationship with the renowned broadcaster. King has seen Southwick move and move.
After starting at Timpview High in Utah, he went on his LDS mission to Texas. He had committed to play at Brigham Young University after the mission, but changed his mind.
He went to Oregon State. After a stint there, Southwick left to play at Dixie State University in St. George, Utah. He’s grateful his journey led him there. That’s where he met Tilly.
He continued to bounce around, however, transferring to Utah, before going back to Dixie, then finally finishing at Occidental, in Eagle Rock.
“I didn’t finish college until I was 26,” he said. “I think I have less wear and tear on me than the average 33-year-old.”
Southwick admits to being a bit of a “knucklehead” by not staying at one college. But it also taught him persistence, which he still displays.
Even after all the college stops, Southwick improbably landed a contract with the Oakland Raiders in 2010. He caught their eye after he threw to wide receiver Austin Collie for his pro-day workout.
After failing to make the roster in Oakland he went on to play for the AFL.
Being on his third team this season, and playing for a winless team, is not what he expected. He said that wasn’t exactly his dream. But his desire has always been to be the best.
He believes he can achieve that with the KISS.
“I have had a lot of twists and turns, and a lot of that has been self-inflicted,” Southwick said. “But I have always wanted to be a great quarterback. I have learned lessons that have taught me that. I don’t ever want to stop. I feel like I’ve gotten better every year. I don’t think I am close to where I want to be.”