photo courtesy of wusports.com

From small town Baileyville, Kansas to the NFL the path has been marked with hard work and determination and former B&B Falcon, Cody Heiman earned an opportunity in the NFL with that work ethic. 

Heiman who graduated from Washburn University where he spent the last five seasons playing college football for the Washburn Ichabods got a call from multiple teams about signing as an undrafted free agent with them. As the NFL draft was winding down on Saturday, Heiman came to the decision to sign as an undrafted free agent with the Green Bay Packers. 

"Still didn't know going into the last couple rounds if I was going to get drafted or not. Whenever I saw that I wasn't going to (get drafted); I ultimately decided that Green Bay was probably the best place for me to be at" said Heiman. 

As to why Heiman feels Green Bay is the best fit he said "I think I have an opportunity to compete up there for a position and I know they have a very good record with undrafted free agents." 

Heiman has experienced success at all levels of competition in his career with his work ethic leading the way as he wrapped up his Washburn football career ranking 12th in school history in career tackles with 251 (101 his senior year), while grabbing five interceptions and earned first team All-MIAA honors his senior year. Cody also was named to the MIAA academic honor roll five times and graduated with a finance degree. In high school Heiman was a multi-sport athlete finding success in all sports and helping B&B Falcons win two 8-Man football State titles and two more State runner-up finishes, while he also competed in the 8-Man All-Star game and Kansas Shrine Bowl. 

As Heiman perhaps for the next part of his journey in the sport of football he credited growing up in the community of Baileyville and the family atmosphere of his hometown and the Washburn football program for making him work hard to achieve the opportunity in the NFL. 

"I really attribute a lot of my success as the person I am today. I grew in a community that you know you always work hard, you had to work hard. That carried me to Washburn...and it was a family atmosphere there just like it was at home. Both of those schools really made me who I am today" said Heiman. 

The next chapter in Heiman's football career starts next week in the NFL as part of the Packers rookie mini-camp May 5-7th and then their OTAs (organized team activities) are May 23-25, May 30-31, June 1, June 5-6 and June 8-9.