Showing Grace Under Fire : Myles Switches Positions in Same Manner He Has Always Dealt With Adversity

Victor Myles dislikes playing defensive tackle.

At 230 pounds, he doesn’t match up with 295-pound offensive guards. His tackle totals have decreased and he has recorded only one sack since the Cal State Northridge coaching staff converted him from his preferred defensive end position to tackle early in the season.

But playing out of position is nothing new for Myles, 26. He has bucked conventional wisdom his entire life, from taking care of his ailing aunt as a 6-year-old to taking up football for the first time at 24 after five years in the U. S. Army.

He is even playing at a different level in college than he ought to be. Oregon offered him a scholarship after two seasons at L.A. Southwest, but an academic snag sent him to Division II and Northridge.

Still, a military man follows orders and plays by the rules. Myles adapts as best he can. If the coaches want a defensive tackle, he will be the man. For inspiration, he turns to his Army memories.

Myles recalls taking a nine-man squad on an arduous training mission in the wilderness when his commanding officer was overcome by illness.

“No one else could do it so I had to adapt,” Myles said. “It was a lot of pressure. It was like, ‘These are my kids. I have to make sure they sleep, eat, get their hygiene taken care of, and understand the time frame of the mission.’ ”

Similarly, few on the Northridge team could adjust as quickly to a new position as has Myles.

“It’s new to him, but he’s done well inside,” defensive coordinator Mark Banker said. “To me, wherever he plays he can be successful.”

Myles has become an expert at adapting under difficult circumstances. When he was 6 and growing up in Compton, his aunt, Sylverina Robinson, suffered a broken hip and he spent the summer at her home near the Coliseum.

“He was just a little boy (the second youngest of five children) and he took care of me,” Robinson said. “I couldn’t move, so he would bring everything to me. I’m glad to say he was a good boy.”

Myles, who still watches over his cancer-stricken aunt, learned to take care of himself at a young age. By the time he was 11, he was setting his own alarm clock and mowing lawns to earn money for his first pair of sneakers.

The pressure to join a gang was relentless until he became a track athlete in junior high.

“When I got involved in sports the people who were doing bad things encouraged me to do good things,” Myles said. “They would come to the games and cheer me on. I was associated with gangs, not affiliated with gangs.”

Although Victor lived with his aunt periodically until he was 13 and moved in with her permanently, his mother and aunt (his father’s sister) did not compete for his affection.

“I love both of them as mother figures,” said Myles, whose mother died a few years ago. “I didn’t have to choose between them. I moved in with my aunt because she didn’t have anyone.”

Inspired by his brother, Benny, a former UCLA quarter-miler, Myles ran track in high school. As a senior at Fremont High in 1984, he led the team to the City Section championship, anchoring the winning mile relay and taking second in the 400 meters. He was the 22nd fastest in the nation with a time of 47.21 seconds.

“He could have actually run the 100--he anchored our sprint relay--but he was so strong we needed him more in the 400,” said Steven Lang, Myles’ high school coach. “He didn’t really know how good he was.”

Although Myles qualified for the 1984 U.S. Olympic trials, he bypassed the event, believing he had no chance of making the team. Four years later, he was on duty at the Olympic Games as a member of a U.S. Army unit deployed in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.

Despite attaining the rank of sergeant, he found no work when he was discharged in November, 1989. “Without a (college) degree there were no jobs available even though I was a bridge crew man dealing with explosives,” he said.

So, in the fall of 1990, he enrolled at L.A. Southwest. A dream inspired him to try out for the football team.

In his dream Myles was playing football, not the flag football he played in the Army, but tackle football. And he was repeatedly sacking the quarterback.

His first day of contact drills at Southwest, however, contrasted sharply with his dream. His hands swelled, his body ached and the game bewildered him.

“The first day of contact was not what he expected,” Southwest Coach Henry Washington said. “Not knowing the technique, he was getting trapped. Wiped out. He figured football wasn’t for him.”

With the help of Washington and Myles’ girlfriend, Tonya Lofton, whom he met on campus, Myles was persuaded to remain on the team.

Lofton proved to be his greatest supporter.

She attended all his games and encouraged him to stick to a schedule that required him to work his night job at the post office until 5 a.m., be at school at 9 a.m. and attend afternoon football practice.

At 195 pounds, Myles was unusually light for a defensive end, but as the season wore on he mastered the position, earning All-Western State Conference honors.

“Victor is fast, quick, very athletic,” Washington said. “He is a natural to rush the passer.”

The following season, Myles quit his job at the post office to concentrate on school and football. Lofton helped make ends meet with money from her job as a cashier.

Myles, a second-team All-American and most valuable defensive player in the Southern California Bowl as a sophomore, was recruited by USC, Illinois and Oregon.

He signed a letter of intent with Oregon but his academic background derailed his plans. Because he had graduated from high school before the NCAA enacted Prop. 48, he needed only a 2.0 grade-point average in high school to qualify for a scholarship.

However, his high school GPA was 1.98. Convinced that a failing grade in a wood shop class was an error, Myles talked to the principal at Fremont High. The grade was changed, but the NCAA refused to accept the change.

In his Northridge debut, a 28-7 loss to Division I Cal State Fullerton, he made a team-high nine solo tackles, 16 overall. A groin strain kept him out of all but one quarter of the next two games.

Then, he was moved from defensive end to defensive tackle when Banker devised a 2-5 (two defensive linemen/five linebacker) scheme. While it best fits the team’s personnel, Washington fears it will hurt Myles.

“I have visions of him as another Lawrence Taylor,” Washington said. “This move is really gonna stymie his progress.”

Since moving inside, Myles has made 20 tackles and seven quarterback hurries in four games for the Matadors (4-4).

Saturday against Southern Utah, Northridge returned to a 3-4 scheme and Myles played end. He responded with a team-high eight solo tackles, 10 overall and was the team’s co-defensive player of the week.

For Saturday’s game against Portland State, Northridge is back to a 2-5 scheme with Myles returning to tackle. In the long term, Myles has a solution. He is recruiting defensive tackles from L.A. Southwest so he can move back to end next season.

In the meantime, he continues to adjust to being double-teamed.

“There are a lot more people inside so my mobility is limited,” Myles said. “It’s more of a push, tug and pull matchup instead of a hit, release and go. You have to read feet and take on the double team. Each week it gets a little easier.”

Before, Myles’ goal was a sack. Now, he is grateful to simply flush the quarterback out of the pocket.

“We were able to make the move because of his speed,” defensive line coach Dennis McConnaughy said. “He’s doing it for the team. He’s very mature, well-disciplined, very into the game. He always wants to know exactly what he’s supposed to do.”