Shrine Game Is Last Local Stop for Alabama-Bound Gardner

A glance at the rosters of Saturday’s 6:30 p.m. Shrine All-Star Football Classic at the Rose Bowl reveals a provincial quality in California prep football players.

Only three of the 63 players on both rosters will be going to schools east of the Mississippi River. Few will go east of the Colorado River.

And only one is heading to the Deep South: Charles Gardner of Carson High School, on his way to football country--the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa.

It’s a long way for Gardner, the baby of his family. Only 17 and the youngest of 12 children, he is the kind of baby college football coaches like.

Gardner, who says he likes to play with his nieces and nephews, is anything but playful on the field.

The 6-3, 205-pound defensive back with linebacker size and wide receiver speed likes to “put people out of games.”

Coaches at Alabama were more than impressed with Gardner’s unbaby-like statistics and honors: 90 tackles, 50 unassisted; three fumble recoveries; numerous all-star teams; a Super Prep Top 100 recruit.

The Shrine game is the last chance for local fans to see Gardner. The closest he’ll be to Los Angeles during the season will be College Station, Tex., when the Crimson Tide faces Texas A&M; on Sept. 17.

Gardner was also recruited by Colorado, Michigan, USC and UCLA, but it was his trip to Alabama that was the deciding factor.

“I liked how hospitable the people were,” Gardner said the other day at Azusa Pacific University, site of the Shrine South team camp. “It was 25 degrees, but I’m warm-blooded, so it wasn’t that bad.”

Gardner won’t have to move around much to keep warm on Aug. 9 when he reports to Tuscaloosa for fall camp. He knows that it will be hot and humid and that camp will be unbearable, but it’s a necessary rite of passage for players.

“One year I reported to Carson at 215, but by the time I left I was 195,” said Gardner between bites of a huge ham-and-Swiss sandwich. “Camp is tough, but if you gave football players a choice, they’d always come back.”

Gardner’s main concern is adjusting to college life in the classroom, not on the football field. “I want to establish myself academically. I know I can play; I have to get used to studying.” He plans to major in accounting or marketing.

Gardner comes from a close family. He has five sisters and six brothers. “I used to get beat up all the time,” Gardner said. Most of his brothers and sisters went to Carson, including brother Isaac, an All-City linebacker, but one sister went to archrival Banning. “We don’t talk to her anymore,” Gardner says with as straight a face as he can muster.

Gardner’s family is sorry to see him go so far for college but support his decision. Sister Cecily said three vans full of Gardner family and friends will watch him in the Shrine game. She said the family will try to go to Birmingham for the Alabama-Auburn late in the season.

“At first we worried about him, but he’s a strong person so he’ll be OK,” Cecily said. “If he survived us, he can survive down there.”

Gardner’s past and present coaches think he will survive just fine. “Charles is an exceptional talent,” said Carson Coach Gene Vollnogle, adding that Gardner’s size, speed and intensity make him a candidate to play all positions in the defensive backfield, which suits South Shrine co-Coach Dick Bruich perfectly.

“We plan to use Charles at both safety positions (strong and free). He is excellent at filling the run,” Bruich said. “But he also has the speed (4.56 over 40 yards) to get deep.” A strong safety is a linebacker-safety hybrid who must stop the run and defend the pass.

Alabama recruiting coordinator Jack Fligg said Gardner will be tried out at strong safety and cornerback. Fligg noted that the coaches at Alabama were especially impressed that Gardner plays well against the run. Gardner does not worry where he will play or if he will start: “I just want to play.”

The Shrine game is Gardner’s immediate challenge. “It was the first time I haven’t stood in the back for a team picture,” said Gardner, laughing. But then his face turned serious. “At first I thought of it as a fun thing, but now I’m representing Carson and I want to show what Carson players are like.”

After Pasadena, it’s off to Tuscaloosa where this “baby” will get a chance to show Alabama and the nation what Carson players can do.