This is it for Argi Radani. This is his comfort zone.
The pressure of being Dunedin’s starting quarterback, the intense practice and preparation for tonight’s Class 5A, District 8 opener against Tarpon Springs, the quest to win an appeal to play his senior — none of that makes Radani quiver.
Confronted with tremendous challenges, from leaving war-torn Albania as a child to transitioning from eight-man football to the 11-man version, he firmly stands. This is not pressure, he insists. This feels so good.
“I’m just so glad to be out there with my teammates and have the chance to play,” Radani said.
Radani’s path to becoming Dunedin’s quarterback wasn’t typical. In 2000, Radani’s parents, Ardiana and Gezim, along with his older brother, Arti, fled Albania for America in the aftermath of the Kosovo War. Argi Radani stayed behind with his grandparents. He was supposed to reunite with his family after a few months, but the plan was delayed after Sept. 11. Instead, Radani waited two more years.
He knew nothing about the American version of football when he arrived.
“Soccer was it for me,” Radani said. “At that time, I thought that was the only sport that existed in the world.”
Radani started playing flag football when he was 11. The past two years, he became the master of an alternate football universe as the starting quarterback for Clearwater Academy International, which plays an eight-man version of the game.
Eight-man football affords students at small schools such as Clearwater Academy to play a game from which they otherwise would be excluded. The biggest differences are there are three down linemen. On offense, having fewer players opens up the field and results in more scoring.
Radani took advantage, throwing for a combined 92 touchdowns the past two seasons and leading Clearwater Academy to a state championship in 2012.
But the 6-foot-1, 185-pounder longed to see if he could make the transition to the more traditional 11-man football at the public school level.
“I’m a senior and I just wanted to see what it would be like to make that jump to the next level,” Radani said. “If I didn’t, I felt like I would have spent my whole life wondering what if.”
He decided to play for Dunedin, his zoned school. That meant saying goodbye to Clearwater Academy, the only school he had ever attended and where his mother is a teacher.
“It was a huge change,” Ardiana Radani said. “But Argi wanted to experience something else. I understood that and allowed him the freedom to make that choice.”
Radani adapted to the game quickly. He was named the Falcons’ starting quarterback in the summer and threw for a pair of touchdowns in a preseason jamboree.
“It was going to take a while, but Argi is getting more comfortable playing this kind of football,” Dunedin offensive coordinator Joel Slawinski said. “We ask a lot of our quarterbacks, with making reads, and Argi is getting that down. There’s a difference in the two games, especially with the pass rush. It can be hard having six or seven guys coming at you all at once. That was difficult, but Argi is starting to get the hang of it.”
After sitting out the first two regular-season games to resolve questions about his eligibility, Radani returned last week in a 36-6 loss to Class 7A No. 1 East Lake.
“There was an adjustment, especially with the speed of the game,” he said. “And there definitely were some nerves because I didn’t know what to expect in that first regular-season game. But I’m getting more comfortable. I’m just glad to have the chance to play and hopefully I can go out there and have a great season.”
Contact Bob Putnam at putnam@tampabay.com. Follow @BobbyHomeTeam.