Tailback Is Leading the Attack : * High schools: Alvin Cooley, a former wide receiver, has quickly made a successful transition to his new position.

When is a wide receiver not a wide receiver? When he’s Alvin Cooley, who has looked like one of the best running backs at Venice High in years.

Cooley began the season as a wide receiver and had three touchdown catches in Venice’s opener, a 40-26 loss to Huntington Park. But after tailback Sean Lee injured an ankle, Cooley, also a defensive back, was pressed into service at tailback for his team’s second game.

At 5-foot-7 and 145 pounds, Cooley is not built for bearing much of a load, but he has carried the ball regularly for Venice. And he has been productive.

In Venice’s second game, a 21-7 victory over Wilson, Cooley gained 166 yards in 23 carries and scored a touchdown.

In a 21-19 loss to San Pedro, he rushed for 293 yards in 25 carries and scored on a 72-yard run.

In a 23-7 victory over Palisades, he carried 20 times for 110 yards and a touchdown.

In last week’s 17-10 victory over Manual Arts, he gained 152 yards in 18 carries and ran for a touchdown.

Cooley has obviously found a home at tailback. Lee, Rodrigo Dilig and Herman Hood have spelled Cooley on occasion, but Lee, playing defensive back, broke an ankle against Manual Arts last week and is out for the season.

Opposing coaches who have seen Cooley run wild against their teams swear by him--when they’re not swearing at him.

“He’s sensational,” said San Pedro Coach Mike Walsh.

“He has real quick feet, and when he changes direction he doesn’t slow down much. We had one situation where we had five guys around him. But he laid one (move) on them and they all fell down. I wish I had him.”

Eddie Martinez, Wilson co-coach with Tom Lunetta, said that his team had prepared for Venice with the expectation that Cooley would play wide receiver. When he lined up at tailback, Martinez said, it was a surprise--and not a pleasant one.

“I was really impressed,” he said. “(Cooley) is really quick.”

Wilson lost to Westchester, 20-13, the following week and Martinez said the team had trouble stopping running back Darnell Rubin, who is about the same size as Cooley.

“We ran into two good ones back to back, and it looked like they had switched uniforms,” he said. “Cooley impressed me because he made people miss him. Rubin relied on his speed more, but I think Cooley is a little stronger.”

San Pedro’s Walsh was asked to evaluate Cooley in relation to other L.A. City Section backs, and he answered: “That guy at Carson, Theron Hill, may be equal to him or better. But my assistant, Paul Bryan, just screamed at me that No. 7 (Cooley) is the best back in the city.”

Al Dellinger, Venice co-coach with Tony Chretin, said that although Cooley is the Gondoliers’ fastest man and has run 40 yards in 4.65 seconds, he is not as fast as top Venice players of the past such as Keyvan Jenkins, Elbert Watts and Erick McKinney.

Dellinger said that Watts, a wide receiver and defensive back who later played for Oklahoma, USC and the Green Bay Packers, ran a 4.5 40 and was the fastest player he has coached in 20 years at Venice.

Cooley is “more of a shifty runner,” he said. “He makes (tacklers) miss and has good movement laterally.”

He said that Cooley is also valuable at defensive back. “He can tackle, cover and intercept. He also runs punts back. He can do whatever he wants to do, and, if he feels good, look out.”

But Cooley prefers to play running back.

He said that he realizes he is not big nor strong enough to run over tacklers so he tries “to psych them out rather than run into them. Most of the time I’ve been good at it so far.”

He is not without experience at running with the ball. Last year he carried the ball as a wide receiver. As a sophomore he was the B team’s best runner, scoring 15 touchdowns.

He said that he was unable to play Pop Warner youth league football as a child because he had “a bad asthma problem” and that his first experience with organized football was at Venice.

His one regret about football is that his mother, who died of cancer in 1984, never got to see him play. “I wish she was here to see me,” he said. “She was one of the main people who wanted me to play football.”

Cooley said the season can be tiring. “After a game everybody goes out and parties. But I’m not the type to party, and I’m so exhausted after the game.”

The prospect of being banged around by 250-pound tacklers is sometimes daunting, he said. “Before a game, I’m a little bit scared, but once I get that first hit, it gets me going.”

Running with the ball instead of catching it has become his main interest. “I’d just as soon go out there and run and do what I can to help the team,” he said. “Every week is new. If I can just go out there and do my best and as long as I gain 100 yards a game, I’ll be satisfied.”