Football Helps Keep Droughns Brothers on Right Path : High school: Anaheim’s Reuben, Robert and Killian compete on the field, not on the streets.

ANAHEIM — Until this year, Crystal Harris didn’t know much about football. In fact, she rarely looked at a sports page. Now, Harris has become a football fan and an avid reader of the sports section.

She has three good reasons--her sons Reuben, 15, and Robert Droughns, 16, and Killian Droughns-Nowden, 17, start for Anaheim High’s football team.

Harris reads mostly about the exploits of Reuben, a sophomore fullback who leads Orange County in rushing with 1,189 yards through six games. Droughns’ closest pursuer, Costa Mesa’s Binh Tran, is 235 yards behind.

“I keep all the clippings,” Harris said.

Rick Harris, Crystal’s fiance, is Reuben’s mystery fan.

‘I know he’s got 1,189 yards,” he said. “That’s exceptional. I keep up with it. I don’t tell him that I keep up with it though. I don’t want him to get a big head.”

Crystal and Rick Harris attend most of Anaheim’s games, and they will be there tonight when Anaheim (4-2, 1-0 in league) plays at seventh-ranked Valencia (5-1, 1-0) in an Orange League showdown.

“I don’t know all the rules,” she said. “I’m still learning the game, but I like watching Reuben run.”

Harris was there for Reuben’s first varsity game this year, against Fullerton, when Reuben ran wild for 262 yards in Anaheim’s 28-21 victory.

“I was so excited,” she said. “All I could think about was, “That’s my son out there doing all that.’ ”.

Robert, a sophomore, hasn’t made quite the impact of his brother, but he starts at defensive end and shuffles plays in at running back. Killian, a junior, is a starting safety and a backup receiver.

But whether they are starting or sitting, Harris has a smile on her face. She knows that when her sons are competing on the field, they don’t have time to compete with the streets. And that gives her peace of mind.

“I worry about gangs,” Harris said. “I worry about where they are all the time. I’m scared to death that something could happen to them.

“I have a glow on my face about it now when I think of how well they’re doing. I thank God for it.”

Mostly, Harris said she is thankful her boys have taken a different road than she has. With little education, Harris has struggled to raise four boys. Robert has never seen his father and Reuben and Killian, who have the same father, have seen little of theirs.

“It’s been real tough,” said Harris, who is on welfare. “My mom’s helped me out a lot. But when they want something, like new shoes, I can’t afford to buy it for them. Sometimes I don’t know how I’ve actually managed.

“I always tell them, ‘Don’t be like me. Be what you can be.’ ”

Rick Harris, who has known the brothers since they were toddlers, says sports has had a positive influence on them.

“I think football is really helping them mature,” he said. “It’s also keeping them out of trouble. By being black in Anaheim, there’s a lot of peer pressure to join gangs.”

That peer pressure became too intense to resist for one of Crystal Harris’ sons, Fred Nowden, 19, who is in a correctional facility in Orange County.

“Fred kept the boys away from the gangs,” she said. “He didn’t want them to be like him. But he strayed away.”

Reuben, Robert and Killian have wandered occasionally--all three are on probation for minor offenses--but sports has kept them on the right path.

Robert and Reuben play football, wrestle and run track; Killian plays football. The three brothers hate to think where they might be without sports.

“I’d probably be gang-banging or something,” Reuben said. “Sports is real important. I want to go to college and to the pros. That’s why I’m wrestling and running track to stay in shape.”

Said Robert: “I know for a fact that if I didn’t have sports, you’d never see me at school. I thank God for sports. I’d probably drop out or something, if I didn’t have sports.

“This is what we do all week, sports. On weekends, we just rest because we’re tired from the week.”

And during the week, Robert works hard to keep himself eligible.

“If you’re really dedicated to that sport, you’re going to make the grade, no matter what,” he said.

Of the three brothers, Reuben has had the easiest time staying eligible. He has a B average and is taking an advanced placement class--European history--that is being taught by his wrestling coach, Joe Mark.

Like his brothers, Reuben’s dream is to play college and professional football. But he has other ambitions, too.

“I want to be a writer,” he said. “I want to write children’s books someday.”

For now, though, Reuben will concentrate on rewriting record books and helping Anaheim win football games. Although he has played only six games, Droughns is nearly halfway to Jeff Byrd’s 1992 single-season Orange County rushing record of 2,596 yards set while at Rancho Alamitos, and he is on a pace to break Ray Palleres career record of 5,396 yards, set from 1983-85 at Valencia.

So far, Reuben said he hasn’t read his clips.

“I hate big-headed people,” Reuben said.

Anaheim Coach Todd Borowski said Reuben is anything but big-headed.

“He doesn’t talk a lot,” Borowski said. “He walks around all day with a smile on his face.”

Borowski said Reuben is even quiet when he runs.

“He had the quietest 159 yards I’ve ever seen the other day,” Borowski said. “I thought he had about 110 yards. But he just keeps getting five, six, seven yards a crack and they add up.”

Droughns lugs the ball more than 27 times a game in Anaheim’s fullback-oriented offense, yet no one has been able to shut him down. He is averaging 7.2 yards a carry and has 10 touchdowns.

Orange Coach Buddy Bland still doesn’t understand how Droughns rushed for 203 yards against his team.

“At first, you look at the films and say, ‘That’s easy to stop,’ ” Bland said. “He doesn’t look as fast as he really is. But he knows when to cut, so you never really get a clean shot at him. You see a lot of people grabbing grass trying to tackle him.”

Droughns doesn’t think of himself as elusive or unstoppable. He’s still trying to get used to the idea that’s he starting on varsity as a sophomore.

“I thought I was going to be on the scout team, but our starting fullback got hurt and they threw me in there,” Reuben said.

Mark, who coached Reuben and Robert last year, said they could have started anywhere this year.

“One coach came up to me after a freshman game last year and said, ‘Those were the two best linebackers I’ve ever seen as freshmen,’ ” he said.

It was Mark who convinced Robert and Reuben to go out for wrestling last year. As freshmen, they both wrestled varsity. Reuben went 21-8 at 152 pounds and Robert was 17-9 at 160 pounds. Both qualified for the Section meet.

“They’re just superior athletes,” Mark said. “They’re future state champions. Their goal is to play in the NFL and I told them wrestling would help them reach that goal.

“These kids had never wrestled before until last year, but they’re very competitive and they have the drive to succeed.”

But maybe more than anything, they have the drive to stay out of trouble. “I’ve seen where my brother’s gone and it’s not a nice place,” Robert said. “I know I don’t want to go there.”

Said Killian: “All our lives, we’ve been trying hard to accomplish a lot with a little. I just want to try and accomplish something. See where I can go.”

Reuben Droughns’ Statistics

Game Rushes-Yards TDs Sept. 11 vs. Fullerton 25-262 3 Sept. 17 vs. Loara 33-159 0 Sept. 25 vs. Kennedy 26-116 1 Oct. 1 vs. Cypress 14-253 3 Oct. 7 vs. Orange 35-203 1 Oct. 15 vs. Magnolia 33-196 2 Total 166-1,189 10