1987 PREVIEW : VALLEY FOOTBALL : HIGH SCHOOL PREVIEWS : Social Change : Once Shy and Reticent, Crespi’s White Now Exudes Confidence

Russell White walked the halls of Crespi High, suddenly a player bereft of his moves. Charging linebackers were easy to elude compared to the feeling of isolation that hounded him.

White knew that a deft head fake and subtle shift of the hips would leave a defender lunging at air. But the moves he now needed had yet to become part of his repertoire.

His classmates at the parochial, all-boys school in Encino were nothing like the youngsters he knew growing up in San Fernando. These boys were rich, from private schools, and they spoke a different dialect of English from the slang he used on the streets.

It didn’t help that he saw nothing but white faces around him. He was new, black and scared. It would be a long time before he could say he was chillin’ at this place.

“The first day I came here I was really confused,” he said about his arrival at Crespi. “The other kids were from private schools and I thought they were smart and would find out I wasn’t smart.

“I left all my friends behind and felt like I didn’t want to be here. The teachers and students were friendly, but I felt out of place and lonely.”

He wanted to quit but knew he’d get no sympathy at home: The decision to attend Crespi was at his mother’s insistence. Besides, “I was brought up to finish what I started,” he said.

Now, two years after his arrival at Crespi, that tentative 14-year-old has stepped aside to make room for the biggest name on campus. There’s no strut in his step, but White no longer clings to the shadows. Two years ago, he feared attention. Now, he feels no shyness about wearing a $250 custom letterman’s jacket that bears an embroidered image of the Big Five Conference’s player of the year and announces to the world, “With the ball, I do it all.”

Last year as a sophomore, White nearly did. A 6-0, 190-pound running back, he led Crespi to the Big Five Conference championship and a 13-1 record with an extraordinary season that managed to exceed the heady expectations that accompanied his arrival.

White led the state in rushing and scoring while barely breaking a sweat in most games. His 2,339 yards and 31 touchdowns led the state and are California records for a sophomore. Although he never carried more than 19 times in a game, he only failed to crack the 100-yard mark once. He averaged 12 yards a carry and 10 of his touchdowns came on plays of 61 yards or longer.

Coach Bill Redell admits he has exaggerated the quality of Crespi football to promote the program but insists his predictions of greatness for White are well-founded. Before taking the field for the first game last season, Redell turned to an assistant and said, “We may be looking at one of the great players of all time.”

A year later, Redell’s enthusiasm has not waned.

“I didn’t mean he was one of the great players right now, but he has the potential to be one of the best,” he said.

White appears on no college prospect lists, which are reserved for seniors. But only his age prevents him from being rated among the best prospects in the nation.

“If he were a senior, he’d be a first-team All-American,” said Max Emfinger, who runs a recruiting service from Houston, Texas. “There wouldn’t be any negatives to put in the computer. Most everything would be a plus: speed, height, weight. He would rate off the map. I’ve had people tell me he’s the best running back on the West Coast as a junior and some are saying he was that last year as a sophomore.”

With accolades such as those, it’s easy to see where White gets his confidence. But there is more to his development than football glory. Those closest to him say his victories in the classroom have been just as important.

“When he came here he was shy and tentative,” Redell said. “But you can see the confidence he has by the way he handles himself. This is the right place for him to be.”

That wasn’t the word two years ago when people questioned whether White could handle Crespi’s college-preparatory curriculum. Those suspicions were fueled when his mother, Helen, kept him out of a freshman game because she was dissatisfied with his grades.

It got so that the only question White heard on campus was, “How are your grades, Russell?” At one point, he complained to his mother, “Mom, they don’t even say hi, they just ask about school.”

But the idea of White as a below-average student is a myth, according to Crespi officials.

“Russell struggled because he had to adjust to the college-prep classes,” Vice Principal Greg Gunn said. “I don’t think he had the academic background some of our kids have. It took him a year to get acclimated and by his sophomore year, he was a B student. He’s a real sharp kid.”

White, who has worked with tutors since he enrolled, carries a 2.8 grade-point average and has blossomed in the classroom, according to his teachers.

“The first semester last year he had to give an oral report and he was scared to death,” said Brett Louis, White’s western civilization teacher. “He delayed it a couple times and when he gave it he spoke slowly and didn’t make much eye contact.

“By the end of the year he made an incredible turnaround. He led the class in a discussion and showed he had confidence standing up in front of a group of people. He even started the report off with a little joke.”

White is proud of the adjustments he’s made. “There was no turning point. It was something I did myself. It just faded over me and now I’m glad I’m here,” he said.

Kermit Alexander, White’s cousin, listens to reports of the youngster’s social emergence wearing a gratified look. The former defensive back with the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers is an assistant coach at Crespi and advised Helen White to send Russell there.

Alexander is more than a concerned cousin and coach; he qualifies as a definitive role model after traveling similar ground when he attended Mount Carmelite High in the 1950s.

Raised in a racially mixed neighborhood in South Central Los Angeles, Alexander took a crash course in sociological adjustment when he enrolled at Mount Carmelite, a predominantly white school administered by the Carmelites, the same order of priests who run Crespi.

He conquered struggles with his schoolwork and later his classmates exposed him to new pastimes.

“I went to Mount Carmelite and learned how to surf,” he said. “We drove around in Woodys and played volleyball at the beach. I lived in two worlds, in the projects and at Mount Carmelite.

“It was a big change for me. I got my first F and my dad almost killed me. But I made the adjustment.”

Alexander sees similar growth in White.

“He’s more confident in his schoolwork and with his classmates. He’s matured and he’s getting more social. It’s two years of a high-class, exemplary education. It proves we made the right decision when his mom and I decided to send him to Crespi,” he said.

Russell’s development, his mother said, has been complicated by another famous relative: Charles White. The Heisman Trophy winner and running back with the Rams is Russell’s uncle. While Russell seems to have benefitted athletically from the White bloodlines, the contributions from that side of the family end there, according to his mother, who in 1980 divorced Russell’s father, Roosevelt, who is Charles’ brother.

Russell has little contact with his father and when he talked with Charles at last season’s Big Five Conference championship game at Anaheim Stadium, it was their first contact in nearly 10 years. When Russell started playing youth football, he wore No. 12, Charles’ number at USC. Before the end of his Pop Warner career, Russell had switched to No. 4.

James Robertson, who coached White on a youth track team in Los Angeles, is Helen’s boyfriend and a familiar face around the White household. The Charles-Russell connection might make good copy, but the relationship exists only in the media, he said.

“They’d like it to be there because it’s a good story line. But the relationship is just not there,” Robertson said.

Said Helen: “There’s no calling of each other, no communication. He probably didn’t even know that Russell was going to Crespi unless he read it somewhere.

“Our biggest frustration is that people identify him with Charles. Our biggest fear is that people will ask about that latest episode.”

That latest episode refers to Charles White’s battle with drugs. While playing for the Cleveland Browns, White admitted to cocaine abuse and two weeks ago was arrested in Brea in a drug-related incident.

That news distressed Russell but he has little to say about it.

“People might think in the future that Russell will do something like that,” he said. “But there’s nothing to say about it. We’re not that close.”

The Crespi-White relationship is hardly a one-way street. No other athlete has brought Crespi as much attention since the school opened 28 years ago.

The bleachers at Crespi became too small to accommodate the White watchers last year, and the school expects bigger crowds in 1987. The Nov. 7 Loyola game has been moved to Pierce College and the Oct. 1 game against Taft also may be moved there.

When the Celts take the field Friday against Redlands, they will bring a No. 1 ranking in the nation with them. The National Prep Poll ranked Crespi the country’s best and USA Today ranked the team second.

Three years ago, the season before Redell returned from a stint as coach in the United States Football League, Crespi was 0-9-1. The reason for the turnaround is White, Redell said.

“Russell has put Crespi on the map,” he said. “The single most important reason for what we’ve done is him. Without Russell White, we were one of the top teams last year. With him, he made us the best. He’s the man.”

And the best part about White is he needs so little coaching, Redell said. White’s biggest problem so far has been learning to carry the ball under his right arm instead of his left.

“I tell my coaches, ‘Don’t tell him where to run.’ You don’t over-coach a great talent. I don’t think John McKay taught O.J. Simpson a helluva lot,” he said.

Because White made the game look so easy last season, expectations for this year have skyrocketed. Redell added to the anticipation by calling White the team’s most improved player.

“I know it seems a little strange, but it’s true. He’s stronger and understands our offense well. A lot of our guys have improved, but he’s improved the most,” he said.

Opposing coaches might find that hard to believe. They’ve already seen enough of White.

“He’s the best high school back I’ve seen anywhere,” said Notre Dame’s Kevin Rooney, who has coached for 14 years. “His ability to break it on any play makes you have nightmares. And he impressed me with his toughness. He had the maturity of a senior as a sophomore. With any sophomore you think you can intimidate him. Obviously, that didn’t happen.”

White is the same size this year but is a year older and much stronger. Last season he was afraid to enter the weight room. “I thought everybody would laugh at me because I wasn’t big,” he said. He has conquered that fear, adding increased upper body strength to his list of assests.

It may not be realistic to expect White to match last season’s numbers. Defenses will be stacked against him and Crespi’s starting offensive line has been lost to graduation.

But White doesn’t need much in the way of blocking. He regularly squeezes through the smallest of openings for big gains.

“The hardest part in blocking for Russell is chasing after him,” offensive lineman Kyle Cummings said. “The coaches want us to get downfield and protect him. We help him to his feet and escort him back to the huddle.”

White is determined to prove that last year was no accident. If confidence can translate into yardage he seems a cinch to break his own records.

“Before the season, it was scary,” he said. “My mother told me that on varsity they were just as fast and a lot bigger. Now I’m playing with people more my age. I feel more confident.”

He’s also happier on the field and feels no need to restrain himself. He is quick to smile and frequently lets loose with an excited yell during drills, like a young child splashing in the shallow end of the pool for the first time.

“The difference in him is night and day,” Robertson said. “You see him on the football field practicing and he’s relaxed and enjoying himself. That’s so important to a kid’s performance. Last year, he would get uptight when he did something wrong.”

The only ones likely to get uptight this year are opposing coaches.

Loyola was the only team to keep White under 100 yards last season, limiting him to 96 in Crespi’s 21-14 victory.

“People say we stopped Russell, but no way can you do that,” Loyola Coach Steve Grady said. “Every time he gets the ball you hold your breath and hope. Any moment . . . boom, he’s gone.”

Grady calls White the best high school back he’s seen since he coached against Banning’s Freeman McNeil. And for all the headaches a player of that caliber generates, it’s exciting to be on the same field, Grady said. White inspires such reactions.

“It gives you ulcers playing that moment, but it’s fun,” he said. “You’re going crazy trying to figure a way to stop him, but inside, you’re going, ‘My God, this guy is great. He might gain a million yards.’ ”

RUSSELL WHITE IN 1986

Opponent Carries Yards TDs Result El Rancho 4 150 2 Won, 46-0 Burbank 10 108 3 Won, 33-7 Santa Barbara 13 193 2 Won, 28-0 Westminster 11 154 1 Won, 23-6 Santa Clara 12 153 3 Won, 48-0 Notre Dame 13 208 4 Won, 41-3 Alemany 17 229 3 Won, 43-7 Loyola 18 96 1 Won, 21-14 St. John Bosco 15 157 0 Lost, 32-27 St. Francis 17 138 3 Won, 33-6 Edison 9 193 2 Won, 21-8 Colton 17 147 2 Won, 25-8 Eisenhower 19 157 1 Won, 28-14 St. John Bosco 19 256 4 Won, 49-14 Totals 194 2,339 31