Chuck Weatherspoon : He’ll Serve Up Pain While Making His Gains

Dawn Weatherspoon.

She’s the daughter of Bertha and Johnny Weatherspoon. That is to say, Dawn Weatherspoon is the one child of the Weatherspoons--La Habra High School’s athletic royal family--who does not play football.

Anthony, the eldest, starred at running back for the Highlanders and graduated in 1984. The 6-foot 1-inch Weatherspoon plays for the University of Colorado. Linton, the youngest, is a 5-11, 210-pound sophomore linebacker for La Habra who may be converted to running back next season. Some say he may be the family’s most talented football player.

And then there’s Chuck.

It’s Chuckie, to family and friends--though that term of endearment is sadly misplaced. Truckie , fits better. It’s difficult to imagine 200 pounds distributed more powerfully on a 5-8 frame. His looks, from his tree-trunk neck down, have inspired comparisons to one Heisman Trophy winner--Herschel Walker--and his athletic versatility has brought comparisons to this season’s leading candidate for the award--Bo Jackson.

Which brings us back to Dawn.

Though she has never played the game, Dawn has received more phone calls from major college football coaches than a lot of teams in Orange County. Exciting? Well, kind of.

“They all say the same thing,” she said. “They ask for Chuck and if he’s not here they ask me how I’m doing. I think they want me to get to like them so I’ll tell Chuckie to go to their school.”

Recruiting is not a difficult science to figure out, as 13-year old Dawn proves. Chuck Weatherspoon is big, fast and rushes for a lot of yards--1,693 yards in 11 games this season. College coaches, therefore, call him, and when his season is done, will visit him, offering an education, stardom and whatever else they believe it will take to sign him.

Chuck Gallo, Mater Dei football coach, once said, “Recruiters don’t come to Orange County looking for running backs. They look for linemen and quarterbacks, but not running backs. This area just doesn’t produce a lot of great running backs.”

In fairness to Gallo, he made the comment in reference to Valencia’s Ray Pallares, who has set the Orange County, Southern Section and State career rushing records this season, yet has been recruited by sparingly.

Weatherspoon and Pallares know each other. They’ve never played against each other--the closest they’ve come is a scrimmage when they were playing Junior All-American--yet their names have been constantly linked this season. Any discussion of the two usually revolves around who is better.

Pallares has received more headlines--setting records will do that for you--but Weatherspoon has received much more attention from college coaches. He’s the most heavily recruited running back from Orange County since Kerwin Bell, Edison class of 1980.

He is, depending on how you view him, a power back with speed, or a breakaway runner with power. Adept at spinning and bouncing off defenders, Weatherspoon is nearly uncatchable once he gets into the open field.

Weatherspoon likes the running, but making contact puts a special glint in his eye. Not just any contact, mind you, but violent, crashing, wreck-on-the-highway-type contact. He talks about hitting the way kids, kids named Chuckie, talk about their favorite amusement park ride.

After rushing for 227 yards in La Habra’s 19-0 victory against Troy this season, Weatherspoon said, “Instead of letting them tackle me, I attack them. I just hit them, don’t worry about them and get up fast. And if they’re hurt, I hit them again.”

He doesn’t use all his energy hitting people. Some of it is channeled into another occupation--team prankster.

Where does he pull his pranks? When you are, as one reporter described him, “a 200-pound frigate,” you pull your pranks anywhere you want.

Last week, Weatherspoon thought it might be cute to send a package, air mail, into a dance class for girls. So, he and some buddies tossed a teammate, clad only in his BVDs, into the dance class.

“He was real embarrassed,” Weatherspoon said, a little embarrassed himself of almost letting out with a big laugh.

He is reserved and under control in conversation. He speaks clearly and softly, sometimes barely opening his mouth. It’s not what one expects from someone so powerfully built, or someone who has received so much praise. Accolades and drooling recruiters have a funny way of making a person a little louder, a little more proud of himself.

But then, this is Chuckie. Given the choice, he’d much rather talk about breakups, as in his favorite soap opera, General Hospital, than breakaway runs.

When he does talk about football it’s usually about the La Habra offensive line: John Robertson, Umberto Silva, Mitch Diamond, Chris Cisneros, Rob Bills, Scott Hooper and Dave Lightfoot.

Highlander Coach Bob Rau doesn’t try to figure out or classify Weatherspoon anymore. After the Troy game, Rau, flustered for anymore superlatives, simply said, “He’s great. He’s just great.”

Three times this season he has rushed for more than 200 yards. Against Fullerton, he gained 294 yards in 16 carries. Pallares gained more yards during the regular season--1,786 to Weatherspoon’s 1,478, but Pallares carried the ball 97 more times, 246 to 149. Weatherspoon averaged 9.9 yards every carry. One has more yards, the other averages more yards per carry.

Pallares said he thinks Weatherspoon is the better back. But then, Pallares has never been one to give himself much credit. Weatherspoon is pretty confident in his ability but admires Pallares’ durability.

“Ray can carry the ball 30 times a game, week after week,” he said. “I carry 20 times and I’m feeling tired. I’d like to improve on that.”

Weatherspoon might also work on his handshake, his “Nice to meet you,” and his “It’s been a pleasure,” because whenever the season ends for La Habra, a 33-0 winner over Brea-Olinda in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Central Conference playoffs, a flood of recruiters will beat a path to his door.

It won’t be a new experience for the Weatherspoons.

“We learned a lot from what Anthony went through,” Johnny Weatherspoon said. “It got to the point that there were coaches from Cal sitting on our porch, knocking on the door to tell the coaches from Arizona their time was up.”

High on the family’s list for judging colleges will be the school’s willingness to allow Chuck to play football and baseball. A Mr. Jackson of Auburn, Ala., seems to have gone through a similar dilemma.

Weatherspoon and Jackson play center field, and both can steal bases, lots of bases. Weatherspoon tied for the Orange County lead last season with 27.

There is one basic difference between them. Bo Jackson has his picture taken for the papers. Chuck Weatherspoon shoots the pictures. Well, that should be the picture. In the Los Angeles Raiders’ game against the Bengals last week, Weatherspoon clicked a shot of Marcus Allen scoring the winning touchdown. The shot was published in The Times.

“Taking pictures is easy.” Weatherspoon said. “You just have to fool with three things on the camera then you take the shot. It’s not that hard.”

Nothing seems to be difficult for the Weatherspoons. You know about the brothers, well, Dawn is a four-sport athlete at Rancho Starbuck Junior High.

What’s their secret?

“The kids stay active, and they EAT,” said Johnny, who received a degree in chemistry from Savannah State College.

When Anthony was living at home, Johnny said the family went through two to three gallons of milk a day.

“Eat, sleep, do their studies, play sports and eat,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s a secret. Being a chemist, at least I can make sure that what they’re eating is correct and healthy.”

Johnny is president of the Highlander booster club. He never played football himself. He might have liked to, judging from his offspring he probably would have been pretty good. But there was one problem. Attending high school in Jesup, Ga., Johnny had the misfortune of being too smart.

“While I was going to school, they used to have me substitute teach,” he said. “It was a lot cheaper than hiring a real substitute teacher. Who knows? I might have been good, but I was always busy teaching.”

He’s still teaching his kids. Many times questions directed toward Chuck are answered by Johnny. He had Anthony, and will have Chuck, write down all the pros and cons of each college he visits so he isn’t swept away by a lot of promises and smiles.

Unfortunately for some local schools, Johnny has advised Chuck to go away, far away to school. If you’re wondering, Johnny doesn’t consider Los Angeles (UCLA, USC) far away.

“I believe a person matures so much more when he goes away to a school,” he said. “They’re forced to mature, and make their own decisions.”

Chuck says he hasn’t even thought of where he’ll go. Nebraska and Oklahoma have been in contact, as has Colorado, as has, well, there are just too many.

Which brings us back to Dawn Weatherspoon.

She doesn’t see what’s the big deal. Coaches call and tell her how wonderful her brother is, and friends of hers come over, they say to see her, but actually to see her brother because, “They think he’s really cute.”

“Nothing’s really changed. Everyone talks about how great my brothers are, but they’re still just my brothers. And everyone talks about how big they are, but they don’t look big to me.”

No. It’s just that everybody else looks so remarkably small.

Chuck Weatherspoon/ Game by Game

Opponent Score Rushes Yards Warren 20-3 13 86 Cal High 27-0 12 105 Saddleback 0-34 15 137 Lakewood 21-0 13 132 Loyola 7-24 12 55 Sonora 28-0 23 223 Buena Park 43-16 15 163 Fullerton 39-17 16 294 Troy 19-0 23 227 Sunny Hills 20-0 23 141 Brea 33-0 18 130