In different ways, the Sanders twins had to be patient and wait their turn at Lincoln Park.
Now the senior brothers are making their presence felt as the Lions push to reach the IHSA playoffs.
Naasir Sanders was a two-way starter last season at receiver and safety, finishing with 215 receiving yards, six interceptions and four tackles for loss.
But then the 6-1, 200-pounder suffered a torn ACL on Nov. 1, robbing him of the opportunity to showcase his skills to college coaches at camps before his senior season.
Roidell Sanders played some defense last season while also backing up then-senior Cam Toussaint, one of the Public League’s top quarterbacks.
Now Roidell is running the Lions’ offense and Naasir is a force again on both sides of the ball as his recruiting heats up.
“So I was just rehabbing this whole offseason,” Naasir told the Sun-Times. “Stepped foot back on the field in August and and have just been putting in work ever since. … I’ve been working harder and harder every day, making the days count, especially in my senior year.”
He has 340 receiving yards and five touchdowns for the Lions (4-3) to go along with three interceptions and six pass deflections.
That hasn’t gone unnoticed. Naasir picked up his first Division I offer this week from Howard and has a gameday invitation from Eastern Michigan.
“I was depressed and kind of sad watching my brother go to camps and me barely moving around and all that,” Naasir said. “[But] I’m here now.”
Roidell was sad, too.
“It was very tough,” he told the Sun-Times. “Like Naas said, when I went to mini-camps, he was just sitting there … just watching me looking very like, ‘Why I can’t do this right now?’ Like, ‘I miss the game so much.’ …
“I felt very bad because I never want to see my twin [or] anybody else tear their ACL in a football game. I always want people to be safe out there and just compete to their hardest.”
Roidell is doing that now that he’s Lincoln Park’s starter. A dual-threat quarterback, he has passed for 840 yards and nine TDs while running for 208 yards and two scores.
The 6-1, 190-pounder gives credit to Toussaint for his development.
“I learned how to be a leader from Cam,” Roidell said. “I learned a lot of stuff from Cam, like how to make the reads, progress — many different things.”
The on-the-job training was key because — though the Sanders brothers both have been playing football since they were 5 — Roidell didn’t line up at quarterback till high school. Now, like his brother, he’s getting college interest with Division III programs Judson and Maine Maritime at the top of the list.
Lions coach Andres Flores appreciates what each of the twins brings to the table.
As for Naasir, “I call him my tone-setter,” Flores told the Sun-Times. “He’s a fiery guy, he’s the one who gets everybody up. His passion for the game is just unreal. There’s times in practice, even in the summer … we had to tell him to slow down on a couple things and … he’s like, ‘I only know one way.'”
Flores figured opponents would be glad to see Toussaint leave and understandably so. But they didn’t reckon how good his successor could be.
“I think a lot of teams are probably looking at us like, quarterback’s gone, [No.] 4’s gone,” Flores said. “So now it’s open season. And we were all saying, ‘No, Roi is just as good.’ I think if you put him on any other CPS team and, in all honesty, a lot of suburban teams, he’d probably start.
“Cam was just that good, and right now [Roidell] just picked up where Cam left off.”