THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 31, 1996 TAG: 9610290141
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 19 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, COMPASS SPORTS EDITOR
LENGTH: 65 lines
Larry D. Austin Jr. isn't one to be slowed by a sprained ankle.
Or two.
Sitting on the Chittum Field bleachers, Austin is itching to get to practice, but Norview football coach David Heath ordered treatment and a couple of days off the pair of ankles Austin injured two week ago in the Granby game.
Austin grumbles. Missing out, even on practice, doesn't sit well with the senior tailback/cornerback, who doesn't like sitting much at all. Even two positions isn't enough for Austin, who says he'd fall asleep on the sidelines if he couldn't be part of the action.
``I'd get tired of playing the same position the whole game. I like being switched up. If I just played defense, I'd get tired of that,'' he says, grasping his scratched red helmet.
``Sitting and watching the offense score'' is not for him, he says.
Makes sense, considering scoring is Austin's speciality. That's why the banged-up ankles hurt all the more last week, as Austin was ranked second in the area in scoring with 12 touchdowns.
After sitting out Friday's game with Churchland, he's fifth, 20 points behind Keith Burnell of Western Branch.
Being the go-to back is a new role for Austin, Norview's leading rusher with 822 yards off 137 carries. Last year he split time with Dwayne Potts, and Austin finished with 480 yards. But Potts graduated leaving Austin to carry the ball.
``The coach asked me in the offseason if I'd be able to carry the ball 25 times a game because I had injured myself in track,'' he says. ``Now sometimes I look to the sidelines, but there isn't anybody to come in for me. I've got to do it.''
Four times he's eclipsed the 100-yard mark, and against Wilson, he carried for a season-high 214 yards with four touchdowns. The week before versus Oscar Smith, his 20 rushes accounted for 135 yards with three touchdowns and one concussion.
``My first one,'' he says proudly.
Despite starring on Norview's offense, Austin, 5-foot-10 and 165 pounds, says he knows college coaches are eyeing him for defense. He's already mulling over an offer from Duke, which has told him maybe he could play both ways. ``Last year he didn't have real good footwork,'' said Pilots coach David Heath. ``Now he's become such a good open-field tackler, and with all the man-to-man coverages these colleges are playing, that's big.''
Austin, also a sprinter on the Pilots' track team, has picked up on his improvement, too. ``I used to let offensive players play in front of me,'' he said. ``Now I know to look for the ball.''
Austin is easily qualified academically with a 3.2 GPA and college boards over 1,000. A math and science buff, he plans to study engineering.
That's his future, he says, not football. ``When I was a little kid, I wanted to play for the Buffalo Bills,'' his dad's favorite team, he says. But now, he figures, football is his ticket to a college scholarship. Just receiving mail from Division I schools holds a thrill.
``I made it my goal,'' he says. ``Last year I used to watch Dwayne Potts get letters, and I said that's going to be me.''
Now it is. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MIKE HEFFNER
Norview High School tailback Larry Austin runs with the ball against
Indian River during a recent game.
KEYWORDS: HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL by CNB