DELIVERING THE HITS : Granada Hills’ Derrick Stewart Serves as Tuneful Campus DJ When Not Rocking Opponents From His Strong Safety Position

Derrick Stewart, man, can that kid play. Prefer fast, slow or in-between? Stewart, a two-way football player at Granada Hills High, has more speeds than a Waring blender in his unofficial capacity as the school’s mixmaster.

Maybe you’ve heard about his act, or if you live within the same ZIP code as the campus, perhaps you just heard it. Student reaction speaks volumes about his ability.

“He absolutely played everything, from the slow stuff that everybody likes, to rap, to Top 40, to hip-hop,” teammate Tom Moormeister said. “He’s really in tune with what’s going on. He had ‘em moving.”

Sure, Stewart is a hindrance riding the airwaves from his safety position on Friday nights. Yet in his spare time, as he did twice last season at school dances, Stewart is a deejay, the Highlanders’ DB of decibel. The Hills are alive with the sound of music.

“I’m not a good dancer, but I can make people dance,” said Stewart, a 5-foot-11, 180-pound senior. “I’m pretty shy, so I don’t like talking much. I just play the records.”

Stewart, who travels with his own stereo gear, breaks out tunes at private parties and dances and even has business cards embossed with the name of his musical alter ego, “D. J. Smeck.”

“It’s just a name I made up for myself,” he said, smiling. “Just kind of a stage name.”

Under the Friday night lights, when Stewart takes center stage on the football field, the sounds are considerably less harmonic. Like a table saw, a dental drill or a trash compactor.

Anybody for D.B. Smack?

One of Stewart’s greatest hits: Earlier this season, Stewart sprinted downfield as part of the punt coverage team and zeroed in on the return man. Player and ball instantly parted. Ditto the return man’s hair.

“The guy should have caught the ball, because he ended up paying the price anyway,” said Granada Hills assistant Steve Benjamin, a former Canadian Football League cornerback who coaches the Highlander secondary. “I still remember it vividly.”

It was hardly an isolated incident. In each of Stewart’s three years as a starter in the secondary, Granada Hills has won or shared a league title. In that span, the Highlanders have recorded 11 shutouts in 31 games and 19 times have held the opposition to less than 10 points.

Granada Hills (8-1, 6-0 in league play) can clinch the West Valley League championship outright with a victory over visiting Chatsworth in a game that starts at 8 tonight.

Stewart’s aggressiveness has won over the toughest of coaches, such as Highlander co-Coach Darryl Stroh.

“I used to call time, run out there, call him names and yell and scream at him for lining up in the wrong place,” said Stroh, who coaches the defense. “But he’s so hyper that I finally figured out that I had to lay off.

“I let him bang around a while, and he gets it together on his own.”

In this get-together, Stewart supplies his own percussion. His melody of mayhem has earned him the unbridled respect of coaches throughout the Northwest Valley Conference.

Said Taft’s Tom Stevenson: “He might be the best player in the conference.”

Said San Fernando’s Tom Hernandez: “He’s a great defensive player, he’s all over the field.”

Stewart plays the strong safety position, nicknamed “Bandit.” It is Stroh’s terminology, which in short, means termination for anybody Stewart comes in contact with.

“They call him a Bandit, but we call him a good solid player,” El Camino Real co-Coach Mike Maio said. “Some call it a rover defense, or a wolfman, a bandit or whatever. It’s a privilege to play that position because it goes to the best kid on the team.”

Playing the Bandit position allows Stewart free rein to blitz the passer, smother the run or drop into pass coverage. Last season, his first as the Bandit, he led the team in tackles and was an All-City Section and Times All-Valley selection.

He is second in combined tackles (90) this season to inside linebacker Curt Hulshizer.

“I like tackling and sacking quarterbacks, so I really like it,” said Stewart of the position. “I play the pass, the run, and they send me in on a lot of plays. You never know what I’m doing.”

Truth be told, Stewart desperately wanted to do something else--play tailback. He first mentioned it to friends two seasons ago when, as a sophomore, he was starting at free safety. But he didn’t mention it to the coaching staff.

“It’s news to me,” co-Coach Tom Harp said before the season. “If he did (want to play there), he never said anything to me about it.”

Stewart finally was installed as a starter at tailback this season. He has rushed for only 277 yards and scored six rushing touchdowns, serving primarily as a caddy to fullback Brett Washington, the conference’s leading ballcarrier. Stewart also has five catches for a 38.4 average and two touchdowns.

Not only is Stewart the fastest player in school--his best time in the 100 meters is 10.9 seconds--but he also ranks among the strongest. Stewart bench-presses 325 pounds. Only Rob Kalinowski, a 220-pound defensive end who bench-presses 350 pounds, is believed stronger.

Stewart is also worth his weight in devotion. “I remember during Hell Week, we’d finish up at practice and Derrick would come over here and work out for another 2 1/2 hours,” said Moormeister, who has a gym at his house. “Nobody works harder, nobody.”

Washington (6-0, 220) and Stewart were a package deal. Both are bused to Granada Hills from Los Angeles and both attended Nobel Junior High in Northridge.

Yet, in the ninth grade, the pair considered playing at Dorsey High until that fateful night when Stewart flicked on the television.

“I saw them on the news, when they beat Carson,” Stewart said, referring to the Highlanders’ 1987 upset of the Colts in the City 4-A final. “I said to myself, ‘Now that’s a good school, and it’s not too far from Nobel.’ So we decided to get our paperwork together and went to Granada.”

Some don’t want him to leave.

“Sometimes, you really don’t appreciate these kids until they’re gone, because they’re better kids than they are players,” Stroh said. “Sometimes, you have a kid like Derrick for three years and you don’t realize how much he meant to you until he graduates.”

Stewart said he never expected to be tabbed as the Nobel prize.

“It’s turned out real good,” Stewart said. “I can’t believe the success of the team and myself. I never expected this kind of recognition. It’s been unbelievable.”

Not so, says Benjamin, and the logjam of Division I coaches in pursuit of Stewart would agree. Once Stewart scores the NCAA-required 700 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test--he is scheduled to retake the exam in December--the checklist will be complete.

“He has it all: Speed, size, quickness, instinct and desire,” Benjamin said. “I don’t like to tell kids that they have a chance to make it in the pros because it distracts them from their academics.

“But I’m saying it--he definitely has a chance.”