Even as a Freshman, Shah Gives Bruins Extra Drive : Football: Former Dorsey player’s work ethic puts him in the tailback rotation.

Naim Shah piled his seven children into the car for a weekend outing. He took them to skid row, where they drove slowly along Main Street, staring at people sleeping on the sidewalk.

“I wanted them to see what choices they had in life,” Shah said. “A lot of times people wind up down there because of bad decisions and misdirection.”

Shah instilled a work ethic in his children at an early age.

When they were small, he would gather them around the kitchen table after returning from the grocery store and show them the receipt.

“I’d tell them that they had to pay the cost to be the boss,” Shah said. “Work has always been a part of our household. We had a slogan around the house that the reward is tied to the work.”

UCLA tailback Sharmon Shah took his father’s lessons to heart.

Driven by the family work ethic, Shah is the first true freshman since 1988 to play tailback at UCLA. Other freshmen who have played since then have already been on campus for one year before starting their four years of eligibility.

“I felt I was going to play early on, but after I didn’t play the first two games, I thought I was going to redshirt,” Shah said. “But then I started getting more (repetitions) in practice and I was really confused, so I said, ‘I’ll just stay ready and keep working.’ I never want to feel like someone is outworking me.”

Shah gained 69 yards in 10 carries in his first college game last Saturday against San Diego State and has earned a spot in the Bruins’ four-man tailback rotation of Kevin Williams, Daron Washington and Ricky Davis.

Washington isn’t surprised that Shah has made an impact as a freshman.

“He works hard and he runs tough,” Washington said. “It’s just evident the way he plays that he works hard. We didn’t have to push him. He was always jumping in (in practice) wanting to take reps. He did it on his own.”

UCLA Coach Terry Donahue considered holding Shah out a year as a redshirt but said he didn’t want to wait a year to find out if Shah could play.

“He attacks the defense better than the other backs,” Donahue said. “A lot of running backs don’t attack. He’s like a little Doberman. I don’t want to liken him to a dog, but he attacks.”

Shah, 5 feet 11 inches, 180 pounds, attacks with his arms, which are covered with scars from pushing away tacklers. He’ll do anything to fight for extra yards.

The 1991 City co-player of the year, Shah gained 1,694 yards in leading Dorsey High to an 11-1-1 record and the City 4-A championship. In Dorsey’s victory over Banning in the City title game, Shah carried eight consecutive times before finally diving over for the winning touchdown.

“He was the man,” Dorsey Coach Paul Knox said. “Our best play all year was running Sharmon off our left tackle and we said we were going to keep giving it to them until they stopped him.”

Banning didn’t stop Shah, the latest in a line of Dorsey tailbacks that includes Beno Bryant of Washington and Lamont Warren, who started as a true freshman at Colorado last season.

Bryant and Shah have maintained their friendship. Bryant gave Shah his old sports car when he left for Seattle. They worked out together last summer and spent their free time bowling.

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Shah couldn’t keep still as a child.

“He was the type of kid that you’d have tell, ‘Honey, don’t turn in the dining room chair. Can’t you be still?’ ” said Shah’s stepmother, Ava, who raised him since he was a child. “He’s always had so much energy.”

Football was a natural outlet for Shah’s energy, and he began his career in the Baldwin Hills youth football program, which produced Houston Oiler quarterback Warren Moon, Buffalo Bill wide receiver James Lofton, Raider safety Ronnie Lott, Bryant and Warren.

Ava Shah, who served as the team mother for the Baldwin Hills program and later at Dorsey, realized early that Sharmon had talent.

“They let me announce one of his games and I saw my baby on the field and the kid was just so beyond his years,” she said. “He was twisting and turning and doing all the things he’s doing now at the age of 10. He was elusive and had very good field vision.”

Football became an obsession for Sharmon.

The night before games, he would lay out his uniform beside his bed before going to sleep with a football by his side, hugging it like a pillow.

Nicknamed Hollywood, Shah was a breakaway runner in the Baldwin Hills youth program. Donnie Johnson, who coached him in the program, said he was one of the toughest players he has coached. “Him and his brothers used to go out and knock down trees in the front yard just to practice hitting,” Johnson said. “Anything in the front yard, they would just hit it and hit it and one day it would fall.”

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Converted to Islam more than 25 years ago, Naim Shah raised his children in a strict Muslim household and gave some of them Islamic names.

“All the children were raised with the Islamic understanding of cleanliness, hard work, being good citizens, going to school and being a credit to the community,” he said. “It’s been great for our families.

“But I always felt it was most important, especially between a father and his sons, to show some sensitive love between two men so that they wouldn’t be afraid to give love. And I thought that would cut down on their insecurities. None of the children are insecure, and because they’re not insecure, they don’t mind competing.”

Ava Shah shared equally in the upbringing of the family.

“If my husband had to work late, then I became the disciplinarian, and I’d make them get into their school work, because we knew how crazy life is, especially for a young black man,” she said. “There’s just so many things going out on the streets and anybody, regardless of their color, has to have a certain balance in their lives.”

As Dorsey’s student-body president, Sharmon graduated with a 3.4 grade-point average. His brother, Sharrieff, has a 3.4 grade-point average at Utah, where he has become a defensive star on the football team. His stepbrother, Sultan Ali, has a 3.2 grade-point average at Dorsey, where he is the starting quarterback as a senior. Naim Jr., 23, was hired by one of the nation’s largest accounting firms after graduation from Fresno State, where he played football before injuring his knee.

Shah gives his family much of the credit for his avoiding gangs and drugs. “Everybody has temptations, but we wouldn’t even think about being in a gang with a role model like my father,” Shah said. “Out of 10 of my closest friends, none of them have fathers. None of them are hard-core (gang members), but all of them associate with gang members.”

The only group Shah associates with are the Bruins.