Davone Bess

Davone Jaquon Bess (born September 13, 1985) is an American football wide receiver for the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League. He was originally signed by the Dolphins as an undrafted free agent in 2008. He played college football at Hawaii.

Early years
Bess attended Skyline High School in Oakland, California and was a student and a letter-man in football, basketball, and baseball. In football, he was a first team All-City wide receiver as a junior. As a senior, he led his team to the League Championship and was a second team All-City quarterback. Davone Bess graduated from Skyline High School in 2003.

Bess grew up five minutes away from the Oakland Coliseum as an avid Oakland Raiders fan and even played a high school playoff game for Skyline High during his senior year at the Coliseum. His favorite player was Tim Brown.

Bess has stated that "sports pretty much kept me busy, kept me out of trouble, kept me off the streets." Largely raised by a single mom, Bess was the first person in his family to attend college and the first on his father's side to attend high school. Bess said of his father: "My dad pretty much wasn't there. If anyone was there it was my brother's dad, but not really because he was a big time drug dealer. He was in and out of jail himself and going back and forth so he wasn't a reliable source." At the age of 10, Bess witnessed the murder of his uncle at a birthday party.

Oregon State University
Bess lost his scholarship to Oregon State when he was sentenced to about 21 months in Byron boys ranch juvenile facility after allowing a friend to put stolen items in his car. During his time in the juvenile facility, Bess played in a seven man flag football team created by the facility. His high school coach contacted a former player who was a Graduate Assistant at the University of Hawaii and passed on video of Bess to coach June Jones who then gave Bess an opportunity.

University of Hawaii
Davone Bess joined Hawaii in 2005 and quickly gained a starting spot at wide receiver.

As a freshman, Bess caught 89 passes for 1,124 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns. Selected WAC first team and WAC Freshman of the Year.

As a sophomore, caught 96 passes for 1,220 receiving yards and 15 touchdowns. Named WAC first team.

In his junior year, he finished with 108 catches for 1266 yards with 12 TDs.

During his time at Hawaii, Bess was named to the Associated Press' 2007 All-America third team; the Sporting News, Football Writers Association of America, and Rivals.com's 2005 Freshman All-American team; and was named to the All-WAC first team in 2005, 2006, and 2007.

Miami Dolphins
Despite going undrafted, Bess earned a spot on the Miami Dolphins active roster during the 2008 NFL season. He managed to catch his first NFL touchdown in Week 7 against the Baltimore Ravens. He worked primarily as a slot receiver until starter Greg Camarillo was injured. Bess assumed starting duties beginning in week 13 against the St. Louis Rams, and became a reliable target for quarterback Chad Pennington.

Bess finished the regular season third among NFL rookies in receptions (54) behind two second-rounders—Denver's Eddie Royal (91) and Philadelphia's DeSean Jackson (62). His 54 season receptions is the second most in NFL history for an undrafted rookie (behind only Wayne Chrebet, who had 66 catches in 1995).