Enemies One Week a Year : Carson Star Errol Sapp Has No Pals at Banning--for Now

For 51 weeks out of a year, Errol Sapp stays friendly with the people from across town. He’s still buddies with the guys he grew up with as a kid in Carson--guys with whom he played Pop Warner football and spent long afternoons shooting baskets in the playgrounds.

But this week, some of Sapp’s friends--those who went on to Banning High School--have become temporary enemies. But only for a week.

That’s because Sapp and the rest of Carson High’s football team will suit up Saturday night at 8 p.m. at the L.A. Coliseum to tangle with Banning for the City 4-A championship. Of course, it’s not just a championship that’s on the line. Cross-town bragging rights also go hand in hand with one of the most virulent prep football rivalries in Southern California.

Sapp, Carson’s star running back, knows where his loyalties lie, even though Banning’s star--tailback Keith Mims--has been Sapp’s bosom buddy since, as Sapp said, “we were knee-high to a grasshopper.”

Sapp and Mims are a lot bigger now. The blacktopped playgrounds of Carson’s Broadacres Elementary School and Curtis Junior High--where Sapp and Mims spent much of their youth together--are miles away from the chalked field at the Coliseum where the City championship will be on the line.

“Banning, I can’t stand ‘em,” Sapp said. “It’s just this feeling that comes over you all week. It’s not hatred. It’s just a feeling that ‘I’m gonna show you what I can do, and you can show me what you can do.’ ”

Both Sapp and Mims have the ability to do a lot. Sapp is Carson’s leading rusher and receiver and is a threat to score at any time--on a run, a pass or on kick and punt returns. Mims, who has followed Banning’s Goliath offensive line all season, is the South Bay’s rushing leader with 1,278 yards.

“As soon as the game is over, I’ll love ‘em all,” Sapp said of the boys from across town. “Especially Keith. After the game, the rivalry disappears.”

Fortunately, neither Sapp nor Mims is a linebacker. There would probably be a little more love lost between the two old buddies if one was trying to take the other’s head off all game long.

Few prep linebackers, however, have been able to find any part of Sapp to tackle this year. He’s rushed for 750 yards and 10 touchdowns, for a stunning average of 9.6 yards per carry. He has also caught 29 passes--8 for touchdowns--and has run up enough punt and kick return yardage that he has amassed 1,610 total yards.

Sapp is only 5-10 and 165 pounds, but he runs the 40-yard dash in 4.45 seconds. And though Sapp claims he’s “not a track star,” he runs the 100-meter dash for Carson’s track team and has a leg on the 400-meter relay along with fellow Colt football players Larry Billoups and Michael Jefferson.

But Carson Coach Gene Vollnogle said it’s not so much raw speed but blinding quickness that makes Sapp so dangerous.

“He’s got fast feet,” Vollnogle said. “People go in to tackle him, and then Sapp spins and twists and somehow comes out the other side. He’s a phenom.”

Sapp has been especially deadly in the playoffs. In Carson’s 53-0 rout of Kennedy in the quarterfinals, Sapp broke off a 26-yard touchdown run and also caught a pair of passes from quarterback Perry Klein--of 16 and 11 yards--for scores.

But Vollnogle said the biggest run of Sapp’s prep career may have come in the Colts’ dramatic 14-13 victory over Dorsey in last week’s semifinals. Dorsey had taken a 13-0 lead early in the third quarter. On Carson’s next possession, Sapp took a handoff from Klein, slipped a tackle to spring into the open, then cut left and raced for 62-yards.

“All I remember was that run helped the team get back on its feet,” Sapp said. “I figured it would get us fired up, and it did. I’m very proud of that.”

Sapp scored the winning touchdown on a 7-yard blast.

“No hitting for me, no sir,” Sapp said. “I’d rather be in the end zone than get hit by a linebacker. A lot of guys say that because of my size I can’t run somebody over. Well, is a running back’s job to run somebody over or is it to get into the end zone? I get into the end zone, so nobody questions my size too much anymore.”

Only universities may feel Sapp’s size is much of a factor. The 17-year-old has been heavily recruited--Alabama, Arizona, Nebraska, Colorado and Washington are among the front-runners for Sapp’s favors--but some college coaches feel Sapp may be better suited to play wide receiver instead of running back.

Sapp doesn’t buy that, however. He’s loves running the ball, and he pointed to Barry Sanders, Oklahoma State’s Heisman Trophy running back, as proof that not all backs need to be big fellows.

“Some of the colleges would like to chop me down into being a receiver,” Sapp said. “It’s probably going to come down to what they can do for me, not just what I can do for them.”

Vollnogle, for one, thinks Sapp is suited to play running back for an option team like Oklahoma or Colorado.

“He’s got such tremendous quickness and great balance that he’d be extremely dangerous if they could get the ball out to him,” Vollnogle said.