THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, October 5, 1996 TAG: 9610050221
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICH RADFORD, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 76 lines
Marty Conner has fashioned a solid career at Norfolk State out of making all types of catches.
It was when he had to catch himself, however, that he had difficulty.
While horsing around with friends last April, Conner lost his balance and tried to break his fall with his right arm.
The arm broke instead.
``I'd never really been hurt in my life,'' said Conner, a senior wide receiver. ``Then the doctor tells me I wouldn't be able to play football again until mid-October.''
Had Conner stayed with that rehabilitation schedule, tonight's game against Central State of Ohio (7 p.m., Foreman Field) would have been his season debut.
Instead, Conner was in the lineup for the Spartans' season opener and has nine catches in NSU's first five games, three for touchdowns, tying him with Darius Blount for the team lead.
A steel plate with six screws holds Conner's radius bone together. The plate was surgically inserted the day after he broke the arm. Because of a bone spur that has since developed on his elbow, Conner cannot straighten the arm - at full extension it forms a 165-degree angle. He will require post-season surgery to remove the bone spur.
But Conner wasn't about to miss his senior season, even part of it.
``When the doctor told me if I took my rehabilitation seriously I might be ready sooner, I rehabbed all summer,'' Conner said. ``A week before preseason drills, I asked my orthopedist for a release to play. He said if I'd asked a week sooner, he wouldn't have given it.''
The broken arm was just part of a most difficult offseason.
The week before Christmas, Conner returned home to Collins, Miss., where his father Willie was semi-comatose after fighting liver cancer for three years.
``My brother Kevin was already there and when I walked in my dad was in real bad shape,'' Conner said. ``He couldn't really talk. But when I'd say things, I knew he could hear me and understand because he would take a deep breath.
``Kevin and I decided to stay with him that night. I was sleeping at the foot of the bed and Kevin slept beside him. Five minutes after I laid my head down, he stopped breathing.''
Willie Conner would have turned 49 three days ago.
``Everything happens for some type of reason,'' Conner said. ``That's why I look at my arm and figure there was a reason for this. Maybe I was putting too much emphasis on football.''
Maybe it happened so Conner would better appreciate the career he intends to seek. Asked his major, Conner said, ``Sports medicine. Funny, huh?''
He recently began to accumulate the necessary training hours for accreditation by the National Athletic Trainers Association. He assisted a trainer at last week's Indian River-Nansemond River football game and will continue to do so at local high school games when the opportunity presents itself.
But his Saturdays are reserved for NSU football. Heading into tonight's game, Conner has 119 career receptions for 1,595 yards, ranking him third in catches and fourth in yardage on the Spartans' career charts.
Nice numbers when considering he has never been the Spartans' primary target. For Conner's first three seasons, All-American James Roe was NSU's leading receiver. This season, it's Blount, who has 32 catches for 425 yards.
``Marty is our primary receiver on only one play,'' head coach Darnell Moore said. ``It's Marty's job to read the defense and go where the defenders aren't. He does a great job of finding the gaps in a coverage and adjusting.''
This season he's adjusted to something other than opposing defenses.
``If I stretch both arms out for a ball, the right one comes up a few inches short of the left,'' Conner said. ``I've had to learn how to catch the ball differently. And I try to use my body to cradle passes more often.''
``I don't care if he catches it with his teeth,'' Moore said. ``Just as long as he catches it.'' ILLUSTRATION: MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/The Virginian-Pilot
The scar on Norfolk State wide receiver Marty Conner's arm bears
witness to the steel plate surgeons inserted to repair his radius
bone. by CNB