Balding Gets the Gain, Feels the Pain : Prep football: Edison tailback has overcome shoulder and ankle injures to rush for 1,011 yards this season and help lead the Chargers to the playoffs.

Edison High School senior Travis Balding looks like a guy you would find paddling out to find a couple of waves at the Huntington Beach Pier on a weekday afternoon. With his blond hair, scruffy beard and 5-foot-7, 160-pound frame, he looks as though he just stepped out of a surf magazine ad.

And while Balding does enjoy surfing, you won’t find him partaking in his hobby during the fall. You’ll find him on the football field. Taking a pounding.

With his size, Balding knows he’s going to get leveled every time he steps on the field. And he does.

But he’s always ready for it.

First, there’s the injured left shoulder he has taped. Then he straps on a bulky shoulder brace to keep everything in place.

Then there’s the sore right ankle, which needs even more tape.

Then there’s the harsh realization that the ankle or shoulder, or both, are going to get crushed by some 250-pound lineman.

Not exactly something Balding looks forward to, but . . .

“I really don’t worry about the injuries until they happen,” he said. “Then I just tell myself that the game is only two hours long, and I can take the pain. I know that I’ll always have a few days to recover afterward.”

Despite the injuries, Balding has played in every game this season, rushing for 1,011 yards and has more than 20 receptions for 300 yards.

And although he is one of the smallest players on the team, he’s one of the biggest reasons why the Chargers (7-4) are in the Southern Section Division I playoffs.

Unseeded Edison will meet third-seeded and defending-champion Loyola (9-2) in a second-round game at Orange Coast College at 7:30 tonight.

Balding, who has had some of his best performances in important games, said the Chargers aren’t in awe of the defending champions.

“We feel good about this one,” he said. “We’ve watched them play on videotape. We can beat them.”

A victory would give the Chargers a berth in the semifinals, as well as postpone Balding’s plans of having surgery on his injured shoulder.

“I’m going to wait on surgery,” he said. “At least until after ski season.”

Most of the damage was to his rotator cuff, and the injury has limited Balding’s movement somewhat. He said surfing, especially paddling to catch a wave, is difficult with the sore shoulder.

“I haven’t gone out too much lately,” he said.

A starting defensive lineman last season, Balding injured his shoulder while blocking as a backup tailback.

“The guy I was blocking, his helmet got caught under my bicep and ripped my shoulder out,” he said. “I just never got my strength back in it.”

After the injury, Edison Coach Dave White moved Balding from the defensive line to starting tailback, a position he played growing up.

The position switch eliminated much of the punishment the shoulder would have taken if Balding had stayed on the line.

Still, “it would pop out two or three times a game,” he said.

The shoulder problems have subsided somewhat this season. The brace and the extra tape helped protect the shoulder, Balding said.

“It has only popped out once, against (Las Vegas) Eldorado,” he said. “The brace fits good, but I don’t like wearing it.”

Balding’s right ankle also has taken its share of punishment. He sprained his ankle in the fourth game of the season, when a Fontana player ran his helmet into it, and it has bothered Balding off and on since.

White said he carefully monitors Balding during a game. He doesn’t want the senior playing hurt and will pull him out of the game if he needs to.

“He’ll re-injure something almost every game,” White said. “But he’ll never be out more than one play. He’ll be off on the sideline and get retaped, and the next minute he’s standing there, ready to go back in. That’s a hard thing for an athlete to do.”

White knows he can count on Balding, an agile runner with good moves and excellent pass-catching skills. Balding has averaged 100 yards a game since moving to the position last year.

Some of Balding’s best games have come at key times this season. He had 127 yards in a season-opening victory over Long Beach Poly. He ran for 116 yards in a 28-26 loss to Fontana, the second-seeded team in Division I. The following week, he added 131 yards and two touchdowns in a 22-0 Sunset League victory over Ocean View.

Last week, Balding had 23 yards in 75 carries as Edison defeated Long Beach Poly, 13-6, in a first-round playoff game.

“He’s a tough little guy,” White said. “With a bum shoulder and ankle, he’s still out there running hard.”

Despite rushing for 1,000 yards, Balding said he’s somewhat disappointed.

“I expected a better season,” Balding said. “I don’t know, individually, I’m not too happy with how I’ve done. And we wanted to win the Sunset League but finished third. But we’re still glad we’re in the playoffs.”