The High School : Canyon’s Fix Finally Separates Friends From Foes

Punch him. Scratch him. Kick him in the seat of his Cowboy football pants. Bring it all on. Justin Fix doesn’t mind--much.

“I get a little frustrated,” said Fix, an All-Valley nose tackle at Canyon. “They beat on me and they grab me and punch me and kick me and hold me.”

Hold it! Fix is not talking about his coaches, whom he accused of “pushing it” when he walked off the practice field for three weeks this summer and said his career at Canyon was over. No, everything is fixed with Fix, to the delight of more than the Division I recruiters who consider him among the state’s top prospects.

Fix likes his coaches. “Everything’s OK,” he said.

Fix’s coaches like him. “He’s been sensational,” Coach Harry Welch said.

Fix’s only enemies are offensive linemen.

“I just go into every game thinking, ‘They’re going to beat the hell out of me,’ ” Fix said. “If you watch the film, you’ll see how they hold me. But it makes me feel superior.”

Fix was the defensive spearhead in the Cowboys’ 17-14 win over Thousand Oaks last week.

“He takes teams out of their offense unless they double- or triple-team him,” Welch said. “Nobody runs at him.”

And Fix gets in his licks.

“I like beating on a guy,” he said. “Besides, if they’ve got two guys on me, the other guys on the line are gonna rock and roll.”