Page 82 • Thursday, November 6, 2003
Sports
The Pendulum
Nkang powering through bigger competion
u
For me it’s the physical aspect of it. You have
sports like basketball and stuff, where if you
push somebody you get a personal foul.
—Chad Nkang, running back ^ ^
77
Andrew High
Asst. Sports Editor
Game one, second quarter.
There’s a certain rruino a marto
poetry about it, the way a ball car
rier lowers his shoulders and takes
aim at a tackier, digging in, getting
low, wanting only to ram himself
forward, not caring that the line
backer in his way wants nothing
so much as to flatten him in a
resounding blow. In that brief
moment, one body slamming
against another, it’s a collision of
wills, one of which must be bro
ken.
BAM.. the noise of the crowd
in response.
Rumblin’, stumblin’, bum
bling’ down the field, as ESPN’s
Chris Berman would say. Ball
clenched tightly by two hands,
motoring on legs not yet bruised
and bloodied by tackle after tack
le, the veins in his forearms rising
above the skin, Elon’s freshman
fullback Chad Nkang bursts into
the end zone after a 32-yard run.
But the glory of touchdown
runs isn’t what keeps him coming
back to the game.
“For me it’s the physical
aspect of it. You have sports like
basketball and stuff, where if you
push somebody you get a personal
foul,” Nkang said. “There’s noth
ing wrong with that, but football,
just the physical aspect of it, how
much your team trains shows out
there, being able to take hits,
things like that keep me coming
back, and love for the game.”
Nkang’s toughness was drilled
into him from an early age.
Growing up as the youngest of
three children in Hyattsville, Md.,
Nkang played youth football with
his older brother, playing up a
weight class because his mother
didn’t want the two brothers sepa
rated.
The team lost only twice all
year, once in the championship
game. Now, Nkang is in a similar
situation, once again playing
against athletes older than him.
“If I could do it then, then I can
do it now,” he said. “That’s a thing
I tell myself every now and then.”
Later, Nkang encountered
another individual who wouldn’t
settle for anything less than
smash-mouth football from his
running backs, his high school
football coach. A coach who, after
every practice, made the linemen
run a mile. In Nkang’s senior year
coach Roy had him running with
them.
“Coach Roy, before he came to
coach for high school, he was in
the Marines,” he said. “He doesn’t
believe in juking and all that fancy
stuff. Our drills were to make a cut
and run up the field. The most
important thing [to him] was how
many yards can you get after you
get hit. He always told us to keep
our feet moving.”
After holding his own against
bigger, stronger kids in youth foot
ball and the experience of being
coached by a mile-after-practice
Marine, you’d think a guy would
be pretty tough. Enter the running
backs coach.
“Our running backs coach had
this little thing called ‘Camp
Running backs,”’ Nkang said. “He
used to have this thing where we
would run up and down a hill with
someone on our back. So, I went
through a lot trying to prepare for
the next level. At the time I didn’t
understand why he was doing it,
but now, since he’s not here, I just
have to use what he taught me.”
If you think those people didn’t
influence Nkang, check out one of
the Phoenix practices. Late in a
practice, he’s already been going
for an hour and a half. Coming out
of the backfield to make a block,
he spots a teammate on defense,
and hits him square in the num
bers. In an instant the teammate
has been knocked off his feet and
thrown to the ground. Ohs and ahs
resound from the offensive and
defensive second teams watching
the play. At least he doesn’t have
to run a mile after practice.
Not bad for a player recruited
to play linebacker.
“They recruited me as a line
backer, and a couple of days
before the season started coach
[Al] Seagraves called me and told
me they were looking at me as a
fullback now,” Nkang said. “It
wasn’t the biggest transition, but
back in high school we used to run
a different kind of offense where I
was down in a two point stance.”
Coaches aren’t the only influ
ence in Nkang’s life. Nkang’s
family has also shaped his values.
His mother is from Trinidad.
“I have just a little bit of fami
ly there,” he said. “The ones that I
do know, we’re pretty close. I’ve
been [to Trinidad] once but that
was when I was younger. I know a
couple of them. Maybe a couple of
years ago my mom’s sister and her
children came from Trinidad and
lived with us for probably eight
months to get on their feet until
Tim Rosner / Photo Editor
Eton’s true freshmen running
back, Chad Nkang, is the sec
ond leading msher on 299yards
with 60 carries.
she got a job and they moved out
on their own. So I’m really close
to them. In the long run the people
that you can depend on is family.
You might have close friends, but
the old saying is true. Blood is
thicker than water.”
Beside football, one of Nkang’s
favorite things to do isn’t what
you’d expect from a football play
er.
“I would say either drawing or
talking to family back home. At
first, before I was coming to
school for football, I was going to
go to arts school,” he said. “Most
people think that a big football
player wouldn’t sit down and
draw something.”
Now the season is winding
down and the tackles are taking
their toll.
“For me it’s the legs because
the upper body I can defend,”
Nkang said. “Pretty much I can
dodge. A lot of tin>es when you’re
getting hit my one or two people
they go for the legs so you can’t
gain yards.”
Don’t expect any on field
artistry from this fullback though.
He’s still running right at defend
ers. .. rruino a mono ... it’s poet
ic.
Contact Andnew High at pendu
lum@elon.edu or 278-7247.
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