Square in the spotlight
Given a chance to be a No. 1 back, Delone Carter is proving he can play
Thursday, September 22, 2005 Tim Rogers
Plain Dealer Reporter
It is a Wednesday afternoon and Delone Carter is hanging out in the Copley football field house waiting for practice to begin.
He moves from locker to locker, talking to his teammates and participating in harmless horseplay.
The mood is jovial, fueled by Carter and his engaging personality. He is being one of the guys, just the way he likes it.
“Delone doesn’t seek the limelight,” said Jim Borchik, Copley assistant principal and the father of quarterback Jason Borchik. “But, the limelight has a way of finding him. I have been around this senior class a lot, both in and out of school, and I can tell you that all Delone wants to be is one of the guys. But, you can see that he is one of the most well respected members of the school population. The kids look up to him; they defer to him.”
On this day, everything is right with Copley football in general and Delone Carter in particular.
And why not? The team is undefeated, having drubbed four straight opponents, and Carter has performed beyond everyone’s expectations except his.
“Everyone knew about Delone coming into the season,” said Copley coach Dan Boarman, whose team hosts Tallmadge (4-0) on Friday in one of the biggest games of the season. “And that’s what is so impressive about what he has accomplished.
People are keying on him every game, and he’s still averaging 12 yards a carry.”
In a season of outstanding running backs in Northeast Ohio — Akron Garfield’s Chris Wells, St. Edward’s Frank Edmonds, Glenville’s Bruce Frieson, Tallmadge’s Jamel Miller, Benedictine’s Jahmal Brown, Nordonia’s Jordan Mabin, Solon’s Brandon Shimits and Amherst’s Alex Knipp — Carter has begun the season with a vengeance, as if he had to validate the scholarship offer he accepted from Syracuse two months ago.
To watch Carter run is to watch a bulldozer raze a building. He is a tornado in spikes, whirling his way through the line of scrimmage and into the secondary, tossing would-be tacklers and stiff-arming their silly dreams aside. He makes guys miss. The ones he cannot make miss, he frequently runs over, dragging the overmatched safeties and undersized cornerbacks who seemingly have resigned themselves to the fact that they are only along for the ride.
He is 5-10 and 200 pounds of speed, strength, vision and balance, with a strong dose of desire to kick everything up a notch.
“I’m not sure what motivates Delone,” Boarman said. “I know that he understands that if he is going to be the man, then he better conduct himself like a man and that’s what he does. I think he has this burning desire to be the best he can be, on his terms. I don’t know that I’ve ever been around a kid who is so tough and violent on the field and so mature and so gentle off it. He is a joy to be around.”
The easygoing Carter does not like to talk about what motivates him. He shrugs his shoulders and smiles indifferently. After several intrusive questions he finally offers an opinion.
“Everywhere I have been, and at every level I have played, I have had to prove myself over and over,” he says quietly and without malice. “When I was in Pee Wee, they wanted me to play tight end and I wanted to run the ball. At [Archbishop] Hoban I had to wait my turn when I felt I was good enough to play right away. When I got here, it was like starting all over.
“Then, I had to prove myself to the college recruiters. They said I was too small, too slow, too this and too that. When West Virginia came in, the first question they asked me was if I could backpedal. I knew where they were going. I wasn’t interested in backpedaling.”
He is through having to prove himself now. Carter has amassed 947 yards in four games. He has rushed for 18 touchdowns and he’s caught one TD pass.
Carter’s career began at Hoban. He played behind Tyrell Sutton, all the while believing he was good enough to play alongside him, not behind him. Carter played two seasons at Hoban before transferring to Copley two summers ago.
Sutton, now at Northwestern University, went on to become Ohio’s all-time leading rusher while earning Mr. Football honors as a senior. Carter has dreams of succeeding his friend as Mr. Football.
The two speak frequently.
“I stayed one year too long at Hoban out of my respect for Tyrell,” Carter said. “I wanted to be loyal, and he wanted me to stay. But, I am glad to be at Copley. I like it here. I like the kids, the teachers, the coaches.”
Robert White is Carter’s stepfather and he has been a big influence since coming into Delone’s life about 10 years ago. He is quick to come to his stepson’s aid.
“You have to understand that Delone has been slighted at practically every turn,” said White, the man Carter later turned to a short time after his grandfather passed away unexpectedly about eight years ago.
“But, he never said anything to anyone about it, except for his mother and me.We just told him that he had to have faith and that someday his time would come. And we told him that when his time came, he would shine.”
It is not difficult to notice that Carter is popular with his teammates and classmates, and it’s easy to understand why.
“With all the success he has had and all the talent he has, he could be the cockiest guy around,” Jason Borchik said. “But, he’s not. He’s still a humble guy. He works as hard as anyone on the team, and all he cares about is winning.”
Carter credits his mother, April Carter-White, and stepfather for much of his success. He still sees his natural father, who lives in Maple Heights, but he is closer to White, a former Marine.
“I was brought up right,” Carter said. “They stayed on me pretty good about grades and doing the right thing and stuff like that.”
Said White: “We are very aware of what Delone is capable of doing and what he is not capable of doing in the classroom. We know he is not a straight-A student, but that he is a solid B-C student. And, we know he tries very hard. He studies. He gives it all he has. But, I have told him that after the first progress report comes out, if it’s not satisfactory, he can sit home on Friday nights and stare at me.”
Carter approaches academics seriously.
“He has not taken the easy route,” said Bren Wion, an English teacher. “He knows there will be challenges ahead of him in college, and he is preparing himself. He could have taken an easier class this semester, but he chose to take a British Literature course because he knows he will face that in college. He works hard at it. He participates. He has a plan. We have talked about the future and what if there was no football tomorrrow.”
Ah, but there is football tomorrow, and that's what Carter lives for. He loves everything about the game — the contact, the teamwork, the smells and the sounds.
He loves running onto with his teammates, running under Friday night’s lights and over and around opponents.
He is just being one of the guys. A special guy, but one of the guys just the same.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
[email protected], 800-683-7348
