THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 23, 1995 TAG: 9511230622
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: TOM ROBINSON
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
I revisit my notebook from my first eyeful of Ronald Curry, Hampton High School's wondrous sophomore quarterback. This is what I find:
``Lean. Lithe. Casual movements. Natural ease. Snap throws. Effortless.''
This just describes Curry's warmup before Hampton's whitewash of Granby in the Group 5 region playoffs at Darling Stadium last week.
Friday, Curry and the Crabbers meet Deep Creek, and everybody's salivating because Deep Creek beat Hampton 48-42 in a playoff thriller last year.
Many of the same outstanding players return. Curry, of course, is the most remarkable of all.
``Curry on receiving team. Also punter. Also safety. Receives punts. Not on extra-point team.''
The Granby game has started and my gaze is locked on Curry. This is a simple task, because Curry only leaves the field when Hampton kicks off or goes for a point-after kick.
It turns out Curry, on this chilly night, will not produce a jaw-dropping performance. With running backs Darryl Smith and Chris Ricks pounding through the line, Curry's superior ability remains mostly in storage.
Curry will dash for a 25-yard touchdown on a keeper, around the end like vapor, and he kneels at the back of the end zone for a short prayer. Later, he tosses a 32-yard strike off his back foot for Hampton's second touchdown.
For the most part, though, he is content to be part of the wheel.
Yet Curry's mere athletic carriage, his 6-foot-3, 190-pound physique, how he flits so coolly around a pocket - reminiscent of his model, Randall Cunningham, in his prime - the accuracy of the 50-yard spirals he launches with a flick, the crunch of plastic he creates with a tackle ... they more than herald Curry's gifts.
He is toying with these guys, it seems to me. This is man against boys, only the man is a sophomore. The imagination soars.
``Like touch football in open field. Back, trapped - escapes! Burst of speed only when has to. Instinctual. Walks off after TD, matter of fact.''
It's well-documented how the finest athletes, artists, mathematicians make what they do look easy. This is Curry, but I hesitate to say that.
Fawning over a kid athlete, particularly when the kid has two more years left of high school, seems out of kilter to me.
I apologize. The shoe fits. So perfectly that I jot down the thought that stays foremost in my mind after I leave Darling Stadium:
``How keep him interested the next two years?''
``That comes from inside,'' says Dave Hudak, Granby's coach. ``He'll keep himself interested. It's that desire the great ones have.
``He's just got to keep doing what he's doing. What is he 15? He does things the average 15- or 16-year-old just dreams about.''
As Hampton's 28-0 victory winds down, Curry stands at his safety position, juking his head and shoulders to the band's drum beat. It's the first emotion he has displayed all night, other than quick hand-slaps after Hampton's touchdowns.
``You can't allow your emotions to come out,'' said Curry, soft-spoken and polite, afterward. ``I felt the game was over then.''
They say Curry brings the same balance to the basketball court, where he is a point guard and considered one of the best sophomores in the country.
This spawns numerous comparisons to former Bethel star Allen Iverson, also a high school quarterback and point guard. But Iverson, now a Georgetown standout, only played in one game as a freshman quarterback.
Curry has been Hampton's starter from the first game last year, in which he passed for 217 yards, rushed for 76 and scored the winning touchdown in overtime.
``I don't think about that too much,'' Curry said. ``Allen Iverson's a real good player. But I want to try to be like Ronald Curry.''
That is a good thing to be, I decide.
It is just one game, one modest night. But it is enough to know that this is one prodigy fans owe it to themselves to see. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
PAUL AIKEN/The Virginian-Pilot file
Ronald Curry will lead the Crabbers against Deep Creek in the Div. 5
region final Friday.
by CNB