Making a Sizable Impact : Diminutive North Hollywood Back Receiving High Marks

Many would say that Leon Gable is just too small to be an effective running back.

But the 5-foot-5, 142-pound North Hollywood High senior tailback constantly is proving his skeptics wrong.

Gable rushed for 327 yards in 24 carries and scored five touchdowns in North Hollywood’s 40-6 win over Van Nuys last week although he was pulled with five minutes left in the third quarter.

“I didn’t even know that (about the 300-yard game) until a reporter told me,” Gable said. “I thought I had about 200, 230 or so. When he told me 300, I was like, ‘Coach, let me go back in so I can run for 400. I want to break records.’ ”

Gable’s 327-yard game isn’t North Hollywood’s top mark, but his five touchdowns leave him tied with the Huskies’ last top running back, Chip Grant. Grant, who owns the school record for most yards in a game with 352, scored five touchdowns in three games his senior year (1987).

Grant, another scaled-down North Hollywood running back, is playing tailback for Santa Monica College but left his legacy behind as motivation. Gable answered the call.

In the spring of 1988, just a few months after Grant had completed his senior season, North Hollywood Coach Fred Grimes met Gable for the first time. Grimes was not impressed.

“He would wear his little bandannas, and he’d wear his pants down around his thighs,” said Grimes, recalling Gable’s cocky, defiant style. “He looked like anything but an athlete.

“(Gable) walked up to me and said, ‘Grimes, I’m going to be your next Chip Grant,’ and I looked at him and I just said, ‘Get out of here.’ I didn’t even know who (Gable) was,” Grimes said.

Gable didn’t show up for spring ball that year and Grimes wonders now if he scared him off. Gable opted to play a final year with his friends in a Pop Warner league, where he had been playing since age 6.

“I was hanging around with the fellas,” Gable said. “I was more of a hang-out person than a player. But then I changed. It was time to wake up and play with the big fellas.”

A year later, Gable sustained an ankle injury in his first carry of his first high school game. After a three-game layoff, he returned to gain 1,081 yards in 158 carries with 10 touchdowns.

After three games this season, Gable is averaging nearly eight yards a carry. He has 557 yards in 70 carries and 10 touchdowns. His most memorable score came on the last play of the team’s opener against Palisades when he raced 67 yards--maintaining his balance at one point by touching his hand to the ground--to lift the Huskies to a 31-26 victory. Earlier in the game, he returned a kickoff 86 yards for a touchdown.

“Expect more from me,” he said with a determined face. “I am out to gain something.”

Gable’s goal is to gain more yards than Kennedy running back Ontiwaun Carter, who led City Section runners in the Valley last season with 1,563 yards in 11 games. Carter has rushed for 512 yards in 92 carries and scored nine touchdowns.

“I told Ontiwaun Carter that I am going to be the leader, the king of the Valley now,” said Gable, friends with Carter since their Pop Warner days. “ ‘I’m taking your place,’ and he said, ‘Naw, I own (the Valley).’ ”

Although Gable wishes he were 5-foot-11, 190 pounds, he believes his size helps him avoid tacklers.

“They can’t see me when I am behind the line; and when I get past the line, they can see me, but it’s hard to catch me,” said Gable, who said he was timed in 4.4 seconds for the 40-yard dash. “Once I see open field, I am looking for one thing--and that’s a touchdown.”

Gable is quick to credit the offensive line for his accomplishments, giving the Husky linemen an appropriate nickname.

“I can’t do anything without the dogs-- they’re my linemen. Van Nuys wasn’t as big as the guys from San Pedro or Palisades, so (the dogs) just took it to them. They opened holes so big that a big truck could roll through them. I am a little corvette, so I just roll right by them,” he said.

Gable is well aware of his limitations as a collegiate running back, but hopes to earn a spot as a kick returner, probably at a junior college. Junior college also will meet his academic needs. He has struggled to remain eligible since he joined the team but has impressed Grimes with his effort.

“But you are not going to change his spots, he is not a good student,” Grimes said. “His priorities are other places. But he is certainly on track to graduate.”

None of Gable’s three older brothers are high school graduates, so the small kid that comes up with the big plays rates as a pioneer at home. And he continues to aim high.

“My dream is to be in the NFL draft, and a Heisman Trophy winner . . . everybody dreams I guess,” he said.