DeBauche, Beaver eager for chance with Pack

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) -- The Green Bay Packers are giving Ken DeBauche and Justin Beaver a chance to be the local boys making good.
DeBauche, a former University of Wisconsin punter, and Beaver, a former UW-Whitewater running back, were among the 30 or so rookie draft picks, undrafted free agents and tryout players participating in Friday's opening day of the team's three-day rookie orientation camp inside the Don Hutson Center.
"It's a foot in the door," DeBauche said. "Not many people get a chance to actually have a shot to make the team, so Justin and I, we're both going into this optimistic. We want to do whatever we can to show the coaches that they should keep us around."
And while it makes for a nice little story that two kids who grew up as Packers fans -- DeBauche, a Suamico native, grew up 15 minutes from Lambeau Field and Beaver, a Palmyra native, wore a Packers helmet in every backyard pick-up game started at age 8 -- are now in the same locker room where legendary quarterback Brett Favre once dressed, neither one is too awed to realize the opportunity before him.
"It's a dream come true," said DeBauche, who wasn't selected during last weekend's NFL draft but signed as a free-agent with the Packers a few hours later. "To be honest, this just seems right. I never imagined playing college (football) for anyone other than the University of Wisconsin, and I never saw myself playing for a team other than the Green Bay Packers."
Said Beaver, one of more than a dozen players participating in the camp on a tryout basis: "This whole time, all I've asked for is one chance. I just want a shot. "Then, it's in my hands."
Packers general manager Ted Thompson made it clear that neither player is here simply because of his state ties.
DeBauche had a solid four-year career at UW, earning second-team All-Big Ten Conference recognition as a senior last year and averaging 42.5 yards per punt during his four-year career.
Beaver, who won last year's Gagliardi Trophy, the Division III equivalent of the Heisman Trophy, set the WIAC career rushing record with 6,584 yards and finished his career with a 249-yard effort in the Warhawks Division III national championship game victory over Mount Union.
"We don't waste people's time -- his or ours -- with stuff like that," Thompson said. "We wanted to take a look at him. That's it. The fact that he's a Wisconsin guy is nice, but it has nothing to do with what we do.
"We just thought it was a great chance to bring him up here and see how he looks in a Packer uniform."
And since the Packers released punter Ryan Dougherty when they signed DeBauche, it's clear they plan on making DeBauche the primary training-camp competition for incumbent punter Jon Ryan.
"If there was a better punter in our eyes that wasn't from Green Bay, we would've signed the other punter," Thompson said. "The fact that he's from Green Bay, it's a nice touch, and I'm sure the high school is fired up, but our ultimate job is to put the best competition out there. While I think it's nice, we don't do it to be nice."
The Packers' interest in both players was piqued at a March 5 pro day workout at the McClain Center on UW's campus in Madison. Although DeBauche wasn't able to punt all that effectively indoors -- "All my punts hit the ceiling," he said -- Thompson saw enough to bring him in for a private pre-workout about a month ago.
"Our special teams coaches are very impressed with him," Thompson said. "We'll see how it goes. We'll see 'em out there together and compete against each other. That's the plan, for us to add competition to that position and see how it works out. We have the spring and summer to see how that goes."
Beaver attended the workout in Madison as well and put up some impressive numbers, running the 40-yard dash in 4.45 seconds, bench-pressing 225 pounds 25 times, leaping 32 inches in the vertical jump and scoring well in the various speed and agility drills.
What he lacks size (5-foot-7, 191 pounds) Beaver said he believes he makes up for in heart.
"I couldn't have worked any harder to get ready for this. I'm going to give everything I got and hopefully, they like what they see," Beaver said. "It's up to me at this point. Either I'm good enough, or I'm not. That's why I've prepared so hard the last few months. It feels good to get a chance."
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)