As the National Football League executive approached the podium at the 2007 NFL Draft, Mike Walker waited to hear his name called. The former UCF receiver had waited hours to hear a team call his name.
Midway through the third round, with the 79th overall selection in the draft, the Jacksonville Jaguars took a chance on the Orlando native, signing him to a four-year contract.
His hard work had paid off, but it did not happen overnight.
Two years prior, Walker would be found in the UCF weight room pushing and fighting through a workout with the rest of his teammates, each preparing for a 2005 season that showed promise.
The Knights were on a roll, despite a few early bumps in the road, and were poised for a trip to the inaugural Conference USA championship game.
Walker, then a junior, was proving to be a game changer and was skyrocketing up the UCF record books. He ranks third in school history in receiving yards and fourth in receptions, holding the single season receptions record with 90 in 2006.
But then something happened that would throw a wrench into all of his plans.
With two games left in the regular season, Walker got the news that he ruptured his ACL and would be out for the C-USA title game as well as the first bowl game in UCF history.
Walker went through three surgeries in the span of one month, mostly because of excess swelling as well as an infection he got while in Hawaii with the team at the bowl game.
It seemed as if his promising future was coming to a screeching halt.
But in 10 short months, he was back on the field, suited up and ready to do battle.
“He is a warrior,” said Tim Salem, UCF special team’s coordinator who coached Walker in 2006. “You wish you could have a hundred Mike Walkers on your team.”
No struggles on the field can compare to the loss of his father, who had lost a two-year battle with colon cancer in December 2008. Compounding the loss of his father was the murder of his close friend less than two weeks earlier.
He found ways to cope with the loss of those whom he held so dear.
“I picked up bowling,” he said. “My stepfather was a big bowler, so I bought a ball and some shoes, and I go a few times a week now. It is really good for me.”
He changed his last name to Sims-Walker just before the 2009 preseason, to honor his father, Michael Sims.
Walker found an escape in bowling, and he also did some traveling and visited with family. Through all of his endeavors, he found time to give back to the community.
He found the time to come down to UCF during the summer of 2009 and put in work in a very familiar setting.
“It is always good when any of your former players can come back and gets a chance to lift some weights in the weight room or go out on the field to catch some balls with the younger guys,” Salem said. “They get the chance to see an NFL football player that’s making a living doing something we all think is fun.”
Since becoming a bigger part of the Jaguars’ offense in 2008, Sims-Walker has become a favorite target for Jaguars quarterback David Garrard.
With the Jaguars’ defense in shambles, the offense found itself playing from behind more frequently and that has led to an increased passing game.
“It feels good to have a bigger role,” he said. “I’m still working and trying to create as big a role as I can.”
Sims-Walker started the 2009 season at a fast pace, breaking 80 receiving yards in four of the first six games of the season. He set a career high with two touchdown receptions against the division-rival Tennessee Titans, but was benched one week later for breaking team curfew during a Week Five game in Seattle. He responded well, catching a season-high nine passes for 120 yards the following week.
This season, Sims-Walker has struggled and has battled some injuries as well as the emergence of team-leading receiver Mike Thomas.
But he has contributed with sure hands and key third-down catches, to the tune of 36 receptions for 466 yards and four touchdowns.
Even though Sims-Walker has graduated to the NFL, he hasn’t forgotten his roots. He is still a Knight at heart.
This past summer, he was on-campus to host the first-ever Playmaker 11 Scholarship ceremony, where he awarded 10 finalists with a $100 book stipend and one with a $1,000 stipend.
During his 2009 summer visit, he walked the halls of the athletic buildings chatting with everyone he could.
What he really misses, though, is his former teammates.
“We all worked hard together and did everything on and off the field together,” he said. “We become like brothers after so long. I made a lot of friends and met a lot of people, and I got even a best friend out of college.”
Even though he is swamped with meetings and practices in Jacksonville, he still has a vested interest in the football program at UCF and thinks that O’Leary has the team moving in the right direction.
“We might not be a BCS Top-10 team, but we are sending players to the league,” Sims-Walker said, “And with players in the NFL, that is motivation to the young guys when you come back and workout with them.”
Nobody is happier to see Sims-Walker’s success than Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Jack del Rio, who is ecstatic to see him finally break out of his shell and come into his own.
“We knew from Day One that he had to potential to be something special,” he said. “He has overcome a lot on and off the field and has really matured as a player and an individual.”