Cantu Quietly Goes About His Job of Terrorizing Opponents

This is Nick Cantu, the sensitive defensive end.

He’s a quiet, shy, unassuming senior at Tustin High School. The type of kid who will politely help a quarterback up, right after he has tried to mangle him.

There is nothing brash or vain about Cantu. No high-fives, no taunts. A sack dance? You must be kidding.

Instead, he has that golly-gee-I-made-another-great-play attitude. Opie in cleats.

“Nick is not like any football player I’ve known,” said Vince Brown, who coaches Tustin’s defensive ends. “He’s not a loud kid, and he doesn’t get real emotional on the field. I don’t really think he likes the role of the star.”

Well, he should stop making all those tackles then.

Cantu is the star of the Tiller defense. For three seasons, he has been a fixture at defensive end, and as the only returning starter on defense, he has become its leader.

Like it or not.

Cantu, true to form, ducked his head and smiled briefly when confronted with Brown’s assessment. He had been found out.

“No, I don’t really like that rah-rah stuff,” said Cantu, who also plays tight end. “It’s not me. I just want to concentrate on my job and then do it. It sounds corny, but I lead by example.”

He’s right, it sounds corny. But from this introvert, it’s believable.

How reserved is Cantu? Three weeks ago, he caught a 17-yard touchdown pass against Capistrano Valley, his first varsity score. Cantu then flipped the ball to the referee, for which he was accused of “taunting” by his teammates.

“We had to tease Nick about that,” defensive end Adam Schulenburg said. “He almost showed some emotion.”

Cantu, 6 feet 2 and 200 pounds, has always been shy.

As a youth, he excelled in football and baseball and consistently was selected to all-star teams. But he preferred to remain low-key about it.

“When you’re considered the star, everyone has an opinion about you,” Cantu said. “And it’s not always good. People will criticize you just because you’re the star. I hated that.”

But say what they want, they always got his name right.

Cantu’s reputation proceeded him to Tustin. Certainly football Coach Marijon Ancich knew about him well in advance.

“I would always read in the local paper that ‘Cantu led this team to victory,’ or, ‘Cantu threw a two-hit shutout,’ ” Ancich said. “The name stuck in my mind. I couldn’t wait to see this kid play for us.”

Of course, Cantu didn’t exactly bowl Ancich over at first.

It was the second game of the 1989 season, the Tillers were playing Mater Dei and it was the longest night of Cantu’s life. He held the spotlight, all right, as the Monarchs decided to pick on this 160-pound sophomore defensive end.

“I would like to forget that night,” Cantu said. “They had these huge offensive linemen and they just pounded me. It was so bad, that on Monday other kids would come up to me and say, ‘Gee Nick, you sure got beat up.’ ”

If that wasn’t enough, Cantu also got berated by his coaches. He received tongue lashings for his play throughout the game.

Even Ancich, who was positioned in a overhead tower, was yelling at Cantu.

“Nick was in a situation that he couldn’t win,” Brown said. “If he stepped forward, he was wrong, if he stepped backward, he was wrong. He had everyone yelling at him. Nick is so insecure, I wasn’t sure he’d show up on Monday.”

Cantu did show up, ready to play.

“He looked like a whipped puppy, but he had survived,” Brown said. “It was when I really took notice of how tough Nick is.”

Cantu’s sophomore season ended after the sixth game of the season, when he tore his left hamstring in practice.

“That was a rough year, but I learned,” Cantu said. “I wanted to prove myself as a junior.”

He did. Last season he had 10 sacks, tops on the team. “All I wanted to do was earn some respect,” Cantu said.

Again, he did.

This season, opponents are making a point of staying away from Cantu. They usually run the other way and, on passes, they make certain two blockers are on Cantu.

Still, Cantu has three sacks.

“Nick has a knack for finding the guy with the ball,” Ancich said. “He has fire in his eyes.”

Ancich would also like to see some of that fire come out of Cantu’s mouth.

“I think coach wants me to become more of a vocal leader,” Cantu said. “It’s just hard. I’m not a vocal guy.”

Still, there are times when he steps out of character. Against Orange last week, Cantu jumped on his teammates for the amount of rushing yards they were giving up.

“We were in the huddle and Nick started getting upset,” Schulenburg said. “It was the first time we’ve heard him talk like that. It stunned us. We figured that if Nick had something to say, we’d better listen.”