Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 25, 1995 TAG: 9511270019
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEWPORT LENGTH: Long
The great effort the leader of Giles High football team's defense put into the simple act of rising to his full 5-foot-10 height after last week's playoff game with Radford called to mind an individual of advanced age.
But many 80-year-olds can get around better than this kid on this particular November Saturday.
At first blush, it seemed a great tragedy was being played out in agonizing detail right before our very eyes: The opening day of deer season two days away and Brandon could hardly walk. Tough break, big fellow.
But Brandon had another plan.
``All you have to do is ride up the mountain and sit or lie down beside a tree,'' he said. ``That's why they have rifle season. You don't have to do anything.''
Steele had done enough as the Spartans hammered the Bobcats 20-7 in the opening round of the Group A, Division 4 playoffs. It was the second occasion that Giles had whipped Radford this year, but all concerned steadfastly maintained that getting the best of emotionally revved Radford was a more vexing problem the second time around.
Steele is a 230-pound middle linebacker and a three-year starter on a team that will, after Saturday's 1:30 p.m. engagement with Lebanon, have played for three straight Group A Division 2, Region C championships. Wherever on the field the loudest report of popping pads and the biggest cloud of dust, there Steele is likely to be.
Steele has been a most memorable Spartan.
``Brandon is a jerk on the field,'' said his pal and teammate Jimmy Smith while describing many hideous practice-time collisions. For amplification, Smith provided what he said were "Steelian" tackling sound effects, complete with growls, grunts and snorts.
This brought howls of laughter around the farmhouse kitchen at Steele Acres, where Steele and Smith were working on physics problems. The audience included Brandon's younger siblings Micah, a ninth grader, and Scarlett, a fourth-grader, who were chatting, and Brandon's mother, Vickie, who was keeping a huge pot of chicken and dumplings warm while icing two boxes of cupcakes.
Brandon stories came out faster than the icing being slathered on the cupcakes.
``Brandon never played with a car, he never played with a truck, and didn't really have a childhood,'' his mother said. ``They wouldn't let him because they wanted him to play football.''
``They'' being his older brothers Stevie and Patrick, teammates at Emory & Henry now. Brandon was a big kid (even if everybody did call him ``Little Brandon'' or ``Little Tuggie,'' for Little Tugboat) and his services were deemed essential to filling out a lineup. Brandon didn't mind.
Well, not usually.
``Brandon would come in from playing with them crying and his father would say, `Don't you come in here crying like that,''' Vickie Steele said. `` `If you can't take it, don't play.'''
The Steele boys were expected to be able to take a lot of football-related pounding because the patriarch of the family was a sandlot coach for whom all four boys have played.
Stevie, Patrick, and Brandon played together at various times. On occasion, the ``together'' part was really just a figure of speech.
Once, Brandon and Patrick got into it during a game. Brandon accused Patrick (the defensive end) of doing a poor job of containing the opponent's sweeps. Patrick shot back that everything would be fine if Brandon just learned to tackle better. Back and forth it went until halftime.
``Then Dad said, `Both of ya'll run,''' Brandon said.`If you have that much energy, you need to run some of it off.''
Then there was the time Brandon broke his knuckle on Patrick's skull and the doctor told him, ``I'm not worried about your hand, what I need to take a look at is Patrick's head.'' Or the time a bunch of them including all three brothers tried to hogtie 10-year-old Brandon down at the barn. Brandon went nutso.
``I could hear them coming up the hill, `He's gotten loose! He's gotten loose!''' Vickie Steele said. ``Then I saw Brandon chasing them up the hill, no shoes on and his socks flopping back and forth.''
``All of us went and hid behind Mom,'' Micah said.
Not to convey a false impression or anything, because Brandon is a cultured and civilized young man. Witness his grades (third in his class, only one grade lower than A in any six-weeks period since the fourth grade and that was a B), his interests (he sings in the school symphonic choral ensemble and produces prize-winning works of art), and his spirituality (a devout Baptist, he went on a missionary trip to St. Vincent in the Caribbean this summer and is a regular in Spartan prayer circles before games).
Steele's spiritual side is easy to understand when you've seen the kind of life he leads, living in one of the world's prettiest valleys, with deer on the mountain behind and trout in the creek that burbles past his grandparents' place down the hill. That and being a member of a family that is as tight as families come has evidently helped him to see the big picture.
``I have enjoyed having Brandon as a student and I enjoy having students like him,'' said Giles football coach Steve Ragsdale, who also taught Steele algebra-trigonometry and calculus. ``He asks a lot of questions and he's interested in what's going on. And he's always thinking ahead, thinking about the possibilities, thinking about what could be.''
The immediate possibilities, providing the Spartans can get past Lebanon and win two more games, is trying to nail down another state championship - the second in three years for Giles. Beyond that, Steele wants to play college football, preferably at the Division I level. Colleges won't have to worry about him qualifying academically.
They won't have to worry about him being able to play football, either.
by CNB