ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, September 18, 1996 TAG: 9609180074
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
STEPHEN PHELAN, a former walk-on, has come a long way to play a prominent role in the Cavaliers' secondary this year.
On the eve of preseason football practice, an upbeat Rick Lantz sat on the terrace overlooking Scott Stadium and said there were six players he felt confident could play this year in Virginia's secondary.
Two weeks into the season, Lantz can't say if Stephen Phelan was among them.
``Phelan might have been in that mix,'' said Lantz, the Cavaliers' defensive coordinator. ``I'm not 100 percent sure.''
What he will acknowledge is he never would have predicted Phelan, a walk-on from Montgomery, Ala., would start and play every snap against 2-0 Maryland.
``If somebody had told me that, I would have asked what they were smoking,'' Lantz said.
After all, virtually all of Phelan's playing time before this season had come on special teams, highlighted by blocked punts in 1994 against Wake Forest and last season against Virginia Tech.
``I felt, coming into summer practice, that they would have to give me a shot to compete for a position,'' the senior said. ``I think I performed pretty well in the spring and had real good scrimmages.''
If Phelan figured prominently in the Cavaliers' plans, however, it was a relatively recent development.
``I didn't think he could play here - even after a couple of years,'' said George Welsh, UVa's head coach. ``He was short and didn't have great speed [and] had trouble making plays. But he's a lot better now. The last couple years, it's amazing. I don't know what happens.''
Phelan is only slightly bigger than he was when he arrived at UVa in 1993 - 5 feet 10 and 185 pounds, as opposed to 5-9, 175 - but he has lowered his time in the 40-yard dash from 4.7 seconds to 4.5. He credits a program called plyometrics.
``It's mostly jumping, bounding,'' Phelan said. ``It's not extensive, hard, heavy weights. It's more your quick, reflex-type muscles that you're working on. Anything's possible through hard work.
``People think speed is a natural gift. But, if you go out there and work on it conscientiously, you can get a lot faster. Look at [Olympic sprinter] Michael Johnson. The guy keeps going down by three, four tenths of a second.''
Phelan hasn't spent all of his time in the weight room or at the track. He has a 3.7 grade-point average and is the only UVa football player who lives on ``the Lawn'' in one of the rooms reserved for distinguished students and other campus leaders.
Phelan had a 4.0 average and scored close to 1,200 on the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) at Trinity Presbyterian School in Montgomery, Ala., where he was named city small-school player of the year.
``I felt I could play Division I football and it was something I wanted to prove to myself,'' said Phelan, who had family ties to the University of Alabama. ``But I didn't want to go to Alabama or Auburn because the football atmosphere down there is almost unhealthy.''
Phelan learned about Virginia - or, rather, about its head coach - from Chet Moeller, the public-address announcer at his high school. Moeller played for Welsh at Navy and was an All-America defensive back in 1975.
``Virginia offered me the best mix of academics and athletics I could find,'' Phelan said. ``Academics was always most important to me. I knew that would take me the furthest in life.''
Phelan was awarded a grant in the spring of 1995, but received no money last year. He went on scholarship again this fall, joining fellow former walk-ons Rafael Garcia, Patrick Kerney and Bryan Owen.
Like Owen, who started Saturday at wide receiver, Phelan thought his best bet at playing time was as a kicker. He was a tailback, defensive back, punter and kicker for Trinity Presbyterian and scored 37 touchdowns in his high school career.
``It was really hard for me just to kick,'' Phelan said. ``Once I got here, I made the decision that I wanted to be out there more than a couple of plays a game. Defensive back was my true love.''
Phelan had been a cornerback almost exclusively until August, when Joe Rowe returned from academic suspension. Rowe's progress enabled the Cavaliers to move Phelan and another former cornerback, Joe Williams, to safety.
When Williams suffered a groin pull in the opening game, Phelan was summoned in the first half against Central Michigan and had a diving interception - the first pickoff of his career - when the score still was close. The injury kept Williams out of the Maryland game.
``I'm a strong Christian and, when I see what's happened, I feel like the Lord has had a hand in it,'' Phelan said. ``When I was moved to safety before the season, I didn't know how good a move it was for me. But I understood the defense and I always considered myself a smart player.''
Williams will return to the lineup Saturday against Wake Forest, but Phelan has showed the staff he is not a liability. It's conceivable he could be invited to return in 1997.
``He's a pretty good football player,'' Welsh said. ``It's another example of perseverance, of a kid going through the winter program even though he didn't have a grant, coming out every day and working hard. Good thing he stayed with it.''
LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Phelan.by CNB