ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, November 29, 1996 TAG: 9611290040
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
THE DEFENSIVE TACKLE earned a starting position after three years as a walk-on at Virginia Tech.
Every NCAA Division I-A program has them. Walk-on kickers, walk-on defensive backs, walk-on wide receivers.
Kerwin Hairston isn't the only walk-on defensive tackle in football, but you won't find many starting for a Top 25 team.
``It's amazing, really,'' said Hairston, a fourth-year junior at Virginia Tech. ``I've come a long way and been through a lot.''
This is not what Hairston would have envisioned in the fall of 1992, when he was a 6-foot-2, 205-pound tight end and linebacker at Fieldale-Collinsville High School.
``If somebody had told me I would play defensive tackle, I'd have laughed,'' Hairston said. ``Tight end, maybe. But I wasn't that big.''
And, for most of three seasons, Hairston didn't play.
He was on Tech's junior varsity in 1994, and his varsity experience before this season consisted of 21 plays, all in the Hokies' 77-27 romp over Akron last season.
``But I traveled all year,'' he said. ``They put me on scholarship. That made me feel better. There were some good players ahead of me who were leaving. I was pretty confident. I knew, once I got a chance to play, that I could do the job for them.''
Exit J.C. Price and Jim Baron, last year's starters. Enter Charley Wiles, the Hokies' first-year offensive line coach.
``He made a lot of plays in the spring,'' Wiles said of Hairston, ``but he'd never done it before in game situations. You didn't know how he would perform when the lights came on.''
Wiles got his answer Sept .28 at Syracuse, when Hairston caught the coach's eye with his performance in relief of starter Brad Baylor.
``After that game, I told him and Brad that they would be co-Nos.1 and 2 on the depth chart and that Kerwin would start the next week because he had played better at Syracuse,'' Wiles said. ``From that point on, he's been really solid for us.''
It was a good thing, too, because Baylor was suspended by head coach Frank Beamer after his indictment Nov.6 on an abduction charge. Since then, the position has been manned by Hairston, backed up by freshman Carl Bradley.
Hairston never has come up bigger than in the Miami game on Nov.16, when a first-quarter sack helped set the tone for the afternoon. He was awarded one of the game balls after the Hokies' 21-7 victory.
``He got us started on defense, really,'' Wiles said, ``but I think what the guys were doing was recognizing him for what he had done up until that point.''
Hairston had another sack Saturday in the Hokies' 31-14 victory over West Virginia, although he will be kicking himself for failing to hold the ball when he had a chance for an interception in the first quarter.
``It seems like the ball was batted 20 yards in the air,'' Hairston said. ``It took so long to come down that I had a lot of time to think and look where I might be able to go with it. I heard about it from the guys for a couple of days.''
Hairston is one of the guys now, but for several years, he belonged to a small corps that included fellow walk-ons such as defensive end Danny Wheel. They are among four walk-ons to start for Tech on defense, joining end John Engelberger and linebacker Steve Tate.
Hairston also drew strength from his family, which supported him during the tough times in 1994, when he was getting his head pounded on the scout team and not seeing much hope for the future.
``After that spring, I thought about quitting,'' he said. ``It was about a month after I decided to return that they offered me a scholarship.''
Needless to say, Hairston took the Hokies' offer, although he says he turned down a scholarship from VMI following his senior year at Fieldale-Collinsville. Tech attracted him because he had a number of friends at the school.
``This man, Sherrill Frith, got in touch with them,'' said Hairston, who one year later was joined at Tech by Frith's son, Chris. ``I guess he saw me play against Martinsville [and Frith's son] and liked what he saw.''
There still was the matter of finding a position for Hairston, who did not turn 16 until after his final football season at Fieldale-Collinsville. He began his Hokies career as a defensive end, but grew and built himself into a defensive tackle, though a tad undersized at 6-2 and 272 pounds.
``He's really a lot bigger than you think he is,'' Wiles said. ``If we're listing Waverly Jackson [Tech's other starting tackle] at 6-3, then Kerwin's just a shade under that.''
Besides, if size made a difference, Hairston might have given up 67 pounds ago.
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN KIM STAFF Virginia Tech defensive tackle Kerwinby CNBHairston (left) was in on just 21 varsity plays before this season.
Hairston had a sack in the Miami and West Virginia games.