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Last summer, Cleannord Saintil, collector of touchdown receptions and fine jewelry alike, earned his first championship ring as a professional athlete.

He was in New Orleans with the San Jose SaberCats, who celebrated their third Arena Football League title by beating the Columbus Destroyers in Arena Bowl XXI.

“I remember it,” Saintil says now, “as if it were yesterday.”

But it’s hardly his favorite memory.

Saintil, a former Naples High star, remembers what he was wearing — an NFL cap and white T-shirt. He remembers standing and cheering from the San Jose sideline. He remembers how out of place he felt, like a senior at prom without a date.

A rookie, Saintil wasn’t one of the 20 players chosen to dress for the SaberCats that day. His nervous energy had no place to escape.

“It was hard to watch,” he says.

A year later, Saintil, who has blossomed into San Jose’s top wide receiver, is too busy catching touchdown passes to worry about his status on the team.

And if the SaberCats (12-5) knock off the underdog Grand Rapids Rampage (8-10) on Saturday in San Jose, Saintil won’t have to worry about what he’ll be wearing for the big game.

All that stands between San Jose, the No. 2 seed in the American Conference playoffs, and a return to New Orleans for Arena Bowl XXII is a victory over the sixth-seeded Rampage, its opponent in a 3:30 kickoff Saturday on ESPN.

“I’ve had to wait my turn,” Saintil says.

It seems to have been worth it.

The 6-foot-1, 190-pounder caught 100-plus yards worth of passes in eight of 16 regular-season games. He led San Jose in receiving yards (1,503) and TD receptions (35) and ranked second in catches (120). He scored at least three touchdowns in four different games.

In San Jose’s 64-51 victory over the Colorado Crush in the divisional round last weekend, Saintil made eight catches for 95 yards and two touchdowns.

This from a player who, as a rookie last year, saw action in only five games. A player who didn’t run a single route in any of San Jose’s three playoff wins.

Saintil laughs when asked to compare the two seasons. The difference, he says, is as simple as the sight of his name on the active weekly roster.

“I’m playing,” he says. “That’s the difference.”

And it’s not as if Saintil, who had 16 receptions for 181 yards last year, made a gradual move from the shadows of the depth chart to the No. 1 receiving slot.

He stormed to a 10-catch, 129-yard, two-TD performance in the San Jose opener, nearly matching his totals from the previous season in one game.

He soon emerged as the starter at the wing position, perhaps the most important spot in an arena offense other than quarterback. The wing is the high-motion man — the player who has a running start on the snap of the ball.

“He has a lot of reads — reading the field, reading the defense, running the right route,” San Jose coach Darren Arbet says. “He has to make decisions on the run, full-speed. He’s got to see the same thing the quarterback is seeing.”

Saintil struggled with the role early in the season, but by the end, he’d become the kind of player who could dominate from wall to wall.

On June 21, in the regular-season finale, the SaberCats scored 10 times in a 68-62 victory over Georgia. Saintil alone scored seven times — twice in the first quarter, twice in the second, once in the third and twice in the fourth. The seven touchdowns tied a single-game franchise record, set by James Roe in 2004.

“My mind-set hasn’t changed since Little League,” Saintil says. “I love scoring touchdowns.”

His dream hasn’t changed, either.

Saintil, who got his first taste of football at 11 — his mother wouldn’t let him play before then — with the Naples Gators, always ran routes hoping they’d eventually lead to the NFL. And he senses that he’s never been closer than he is right now.

“I figure this will be my last year in arena,” the Middle Tennessee State product says. “I just know something is about to happen for me.”

But first things first.

When the SaberCats were given their Arena Bowl XXI rings, Saintil knew right where to put his. He has a trophy case full of them.

He won a ring with the Gators in 1998, when he helped lead them to a Pop Warner national title. He won another one his senior year at Naples High, when the Golden Eagles celebrated the first of the school’s two state football championships.

He figures he has room for at least one more. And this one, you can bet, would fit him even better than last year’s ever could.

“I’m playing,” he says. “It would obviously mean more.”