Ellis Catches On . . . Though Not So Quickly : Prep football: It took nearly a season, but former Mater Dei running back has transformed himself into a polished wide receiver.

Once, Ricky Ellis was a novice wide receiver, struggling to transform his outstanding speed into a valuable offensive weapon for Mater Dei High School’s football team.

Now, he’s an accomplished pass-catcher, filled with confidence on the day of Mater Dei’s biggest game of the season.

Once, Ellis found himself seated in a darkened film room watching his mistakes flicker in living black and white on a projection screen and hearing assistant coaches say things such as, “Ellis, that’s the worst route I’ve ever seen.”

Now, Ellis tells his coaches, “We’re going to win and I’m going to have a big game.”

Once, Ellis was reluctant to move to receiver from his longtime position of tailback. Now, he’s glad he did.

Funny thing about ability--sometimes it takes a while to harness it and mold it into something useful.

For Ellis, weeks of work have stretched into months, but he and Coach Bruce Rollinson believe he has become a polished receiver. He was moved to the position before this season.

“Sometimes coaches think a player can move right out and play wide receiver because he has all that speed,” Rollinson said. “That would be fine if all we did was run streak patterns. But with all the different coverages, the different routes, it becomes more difficult.”

The idea behind such a switch is to get the ball into the best players’ hands more often.

With Ellis catching the ball and Derek Sparks running with it, Mater Dei (6-5) has advanced to the second round of the Southern Section Division I playoffs, where it will meet top-seeded Eisenhower (11-0) at 7:30 tonight at Orange Coast College.

Ellis has 35 receptions for 648 yards, an average of 18.5 yards per catch, and four touchdowns. His best games have come in the past two weeks.

Against St. John Bosco, a game Mater Dei needed to win to qualify for the playoffs, Ellis had six catches for 174 yards and one touchdown. Four receptions went for gains of 35 yards or more. And Mater Dei beat Bosco, 48-21, clinching second place in the Angelus League.

Beforehand, Ellis sought out Rollinson, telling him of his plans for a big game and a victory for Mater Dei.

“He had me nervous,” Rollinson said. “He went out and played spectacularly. Players come up and say those sorts of things, because they think that’s what you want to hear. But I believed him.”

Playing against Long Beach Poly in the first round of the playoffs last week, Ellis burned the defense on an 81-yard touchdown pass play and finished with five catches for 123 yards in a 58-31 victory.

Before the long touchdown, Rollinson noticed that Poly’s cornerback had been lulled into a false sense of security by Ellis, who is only 5-feet-7, 150 pounds.

“(The defender) probably figured nobody can get by, but by the time he figured out Ricky was fast, the damage was done,” Rollinson said. “Speed always is an ace in the hole.”

Ellis said playing receiver is easier than running back. There are no blocking schemes to remember, no set holes to run through and no worries about 250-pound linemen crashing him to the turf.

“Usually, it’s a one-on-one thing, just me and the other guy,” Ellis said. “It’s a great feeling. It’s hard to explain. There’s a nervous feeling when the ball’s in the air. When you play against a good defensive team, you know you have to do everything right.”

Early in the season, Ellis had trouble sticking to his routes. Staying on course was a big part of learning a new position.

“I know now if I do what the coaches tell me, the play will work,” Ellis said. “I think when I first got there I was thinking too much.”

The coaching staff eased another burden by taking Ellis off the punt-return team. Against Riverside Poly Sept. 27, Ellis dropped four punts and fumbled once, dictating a quick change.

“Since I’ve stopped, I’ve done better at wide receiver,” Ellis said. “It’s taken stress off me. Now I can concentrate on playing wide receiver.”

It seems ability, confidence and proficiency have finally meshed. And as long as Ellis runs his routes precisely, the position boils down to this:

“Basically, I catch the ball if they throw it to me,” Ellis said.

It sounds like a veteran’s observation.