Receiver Hopes to Carry On a Dorsey Tradition

College coaches trying to find Dorsey High standout Antonio Carrion on the football field this fall shouldn’t have to look too hard.

Carrion, who helped the Dons win the 1991 City Section 4-A Division championship and who many observers believe is the top senior prospect in the City this season, is more than a terrific wide receiver.

Coach Paul Knox says he won’t hesitate to use Carrion in crucial situations on defense, either at cornerback or safety. In addition, Carrion will also serve as the Dons’ punter, punt returner, backup quarterback and backup tailback.

As a junior on the 1991 team led by running back Sharmon Shah (now at UCLA), the versatile Carrion, who attended Crenshaw High as a sophomore before transferring to Dorsey, caught 27 passes for 650 yards and six touchdowns. He also rushed 12 times for 95 yards and two touchdowns and returned 12 punts for 192 yards (a 16-yard average) and a touchdown.

How good an athlete is the 5-foot-9, 165-pound Carrion?

Good enough to start last summer for the Dorsey basketball team, which won the Watts Summer Games and is expected to challenge Fremont for the City title this season.

“He has some of the best athletic tools I’ve ever seen,” said Knox, whose roll call of receivers since arriving at Dorsey includes the Rams’ Aaron Cox, former Cal State Long Beach standout Sean Foster and the late Kevin Copeland. “Not only can Antonio catch the ball, he has great leaping ability and can adjust to bad throws.”

Carrion also has good speed and is adept at changing direction, which he did several times in an intrasquad scrimmage at Dorsey last week.

College scouts are no less enthusiastic about Carrion. “Gifted athlete,” said Dick Lascola, the director of the Fallbrook, Calif.-based Scouting Evaluation Assn. “He should be the top receiver prospect in Southern California this year.”

The question mark over Carrion is his grades. He has yet to pass the Scholastic Aptitude Test and improve his overall grade-point average, which is about 2.3. Nevertheless, he has heard from the likes of Notre Dame, Miami, Michigan, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Colorado, Texas and Tennessee.

Pacific 10 Conference and West Coast schools showing interest include USC, UCLA, Arizona, Arizona State, Washington, Washington State, California, Nevada Las Vegas and Fresno State.

Although Carrion said he likes USC a lot, he could be influenced by good friends and former Dorsey standouts Shah, Beno Bryant (Washington) and Lamont Warren (Colorado).

“I’ll listen to a lot of people and pick a school where I feel most comfortable,” Carrion said. “And I’ll also look at the players on the team to see where I fit in. Will I play or will I sit?”

One thing he won’t do this season is sit.

Notes

Former Dorsey All-City defensive lineman Dwayne Sanders (6-6, 230), who signed with Washington State in February but was not admitted to school, has enrolled at Snow College in Ephraim, Utah. The Washington State coaching staff helped place Sanders at Snow in hopes he can improve his grades and eventually be admitted to Pullman.