ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, November 30, 1996 TAG: 9612020023
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
This is a short story.
As journalism goes, it's pretty lightweight fare.
The following is an attempt to demonstrate that football is not only a game of the swift, the hard-headed, the huge.
Football is a game played by athletes of all sizes and shapes, even those of whom coaches, ever searching for the positive aspects of every situation, say fondly, ``He's small but he's slow.''
Little guys can play big roles on the football field. Or they can be rolled over.
So if the following account should be considered an inspiration for pint-sized youngsters everywhere to develop a case of pigskin envy, it weighs heavy on the author's conscience.
Because when a 100-pound defensive back takes on a pulling guard in the open field, somebody is liable to get hurt. That somebody is most likely to be the where's-the-beef blockee and not the pulling blocker.
The little guys soldier on. They pay the price, too. Billy Clark of Giles High started the season at 5 feet 6, 110 pounds. As with all players during a grueling campaign, he's lost weight since the opening of practice. In his case, there wasn't a whole lot to lose. Now that he's down to 103 or so, his uniform droops a little, but it still fits.
Clark, a running back and defensive back, is one of the few players of any size still playing football this season, Giles being one of four survivors in the Group A, Division 2 playoffs. One hesitates to say it's a wonder he's made it this far, but
``He has taken a beating,'' Giles blocking back Chris Bales said. ``Every day. Lord, has he taken a beating.''
Clark's been playing football for years. Most of the teams he's ever played for, he's been the smallest one there. Neither he nor his parents have ever given it a second thought.
``I just like to play,'' he said. ``It's fun.''
Does Clark ever consider the consequences of a collision between an unstoppable force (a 200-pound linebacker) and a movable object (him)?
``No,'' he said. ``I just try to stay low.''
Being lowdown is one of the tricks of an extended football lifetime for the modestly sized player. So says 5-6, 145-pound Mo Vaughn, who is a starting offensive guard at Radford.
``Like Coach [Tony] DeHart says, you've got to have a lot of heart to play on the line,'' Vaughn said.
Even more so if you don't have a lot in the way of bulk. Vaughn has seen some big old boys line up across from him down there on the line of scrimmage.
``Sometimes it's a real pain,'' he said. ``But I get the job done.''
Texas cowpokes like to say that it isn't the size of the dog in a fight that's important, it's the size of the fight in the dog. Vaughn is living proof.
``If the dude is too big to drive block, then I aim for his thighs and take him right on down,'' Vaughn said. ``The running back can do the rest.''
Little guys can have big dreams.
Jason ``Missile'' Meadows of Narrows has bucked a trend and has gained weight this season. So bulked up is he, in fact, that he's all the way up to 95 pounds. If that strikes you as being a little on the light side, consider that he was barely 5 feet and 75 pounds when the season began.
That hasn't interfered with his determination to aim high.
``He told me once, `All I want to do is play for Notre Dame one day,`'' said Clayton Meadows, Jason's father. ``I told him, that's great, but you're so small He said that's what he wanted to do.''
Missile Meadows can barely see from underneath his headgear, but he won't sell himself short.
``I'm not afraid,'' he said in voice so soft that a listener is obliged to bend over to hear. ``I want to play football. I want to play for the Green Wave until I graduate.''
That brings a smile to the face of his father, who never played high school football.
``He loves his ball,'' Clayton Meadows said. ``That's all he talks about is the Green Wave and his coach. He loves his coach [Don Lowe]. You don't know how proud I am of this kid. It takes a lot of nerve for a kid his size to be bouncing off players 180, 200 pounds. It's like a bicycle hitting a truck.''
At Shawsville, 5-4, 110-pound sophomore wide receiver T.J. Sutherland knows exactly what the elder Meadows is talking about.
``It feels weird being the littlest one out there,'' he said. ``It's hard to block because other players are always taller than you are and they can get by you by just pushing you out of the way. Tackling is easier because you can get to their legs.''
Size is, after all, relative. Take the case of Blacksburg's Scott ``Scooter'' Aden, at 5-7, 150, the Indians' smallest player. Aden, who plays wide receiver, seemed surprised to find out that he was considered Blacksburg's smallest player. The thought had never occurred to him, he said.
``Unless I'm playing against [teammate] Michael Davis,'' Aden said.
Davis goes 6-2 and a solid 210 or so pounds.
Some of the smaller players play regularly. Clark, for example, has been in every Giles game this year including the playoff victories over Patrick Henry-Glade Spring and Chilhowie. Nevertheless, he's a second stringer all the way, as he was reminded by a teammate recently while Clark was going off to have his picture taken.
``Why did you leave your scrub jersey on for the picture?'' asked a teammate referring to Clark's red mesh practice target jersey.
Said Clark: ``Because I'm proud of this scrub jersey, that's why.''
LENGTH: Long : 109 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: RAY COX. 1. Narrows' Jason "Missile" Meadows (right) canby CNBbarely see from under his headgear, but he doesn't let that slow his
determination to play. 2. Billy Clark (below)of Giles High has lost
weight since the opening of practice, so, his uniform droops a
little, but it still fits. 3. Shawsville sophomore wide receiver
T.J. Sutherland says, ``It feels weird being the littlest one out
there.'' color.