Hard to See This Guy Being Meek : Football: After conquering his fear of contact, Huntington Beach’s Gonzalez became a fearsome opponent.

Get this: Tony Gonzalez once feared physical contact on the football field. Hated it, even.

Yes, the same Tony Gonzalez whom Huntington Beach coaches politely ask to tone it down a little in practice.

Gonzalez , the guy who says he likes playing middle linebacker because you get to hit somebody on every play, hard.

Gonzalez , the guy who claims he isn’t a mean person but thinks football is cool because you can take out your aggressions on another human being, and it’s legal.

That guy.

“I was afraid to hit people,” said Gonzalez, a senior. “I was a big kid when I played Pop Warner. I was toned, just like I am now. But I didn’t want to stick my nose in it. My attitude wasn’t right.”

There are few people who can envision a passive Gonzalez. Certainly no one who has played against him.

Gonzalez, a 6-foot-6, 230-pound tight end/linebacker, has always been an impressive sight. His speed and reflexes make him more than just another strongman. But it’s his attitude, he says, that has turned him into a force, one that can create fear in teammates as well as opponents.

“We’ve had to ask Tony to take it easy in practice,” Coach George Pascoe said. “You got these guys on the scout team working their tails off and here this All-American is pounding on them. We have to calm him down.”

This is not an easy task. Gonzalez is very intense, something he developed by playing a sport where hitting people is against the rules--basketball.

“I don’t know why, but ever since I began playing basketball, I became a much better football player,” Gonzalez said. “I used to think I was too good for stuff, like practice. It took me awhile before I realized I wasn’t as good as I thought.”

Gonzalez is that good today and he’s not the only one who thinks so.

He is ranked among the top seniors in the nation in football and basketball. Recruiters are falling all over themselves trying to land him.

Almost all say they will let him play both sports in college, which is what Gonzalez wants at the moment.

Florida State coaches have certainly played up the Charlie Ward angle. If Ward can play quarterback and point guard for the Seminoles, Gonzalez could certainly pull double duty.

Arizona officials gave him the grand tour of the basketball and football facilities last weekend. They were quick to point out the school’s prominence in both sports.

“Nobody’s been pressuring me to pick one sport or the other,” Gonzalez said. “Basketball coaches will tell me basketball is my future. Football coaches tell me football’s my future. My stepdad told me the other night that there are worse problems for a kid to have. I guess he’s right.”

He may not have any serious problems, but he certainly has caused a few. Other teams try to cover him and block him. Usually, they end up just trying to survive him.

Gonzalez leaves a vivid impression.

“You have to be aware of where Gonzalez is at all times,” said Fountain Valley Coach George Berg, whose second-ranked Barons play the No. 3 Oilers tonight. “Your kids have to be aware of the things he can do.”

Said Edison Coach Dave White: “I think he’s one of the best athletes I’ve coached against in 15 years. A lot of kids have size. A lot of kids have speed. He has both. He must have made a million tackles against us.”

Said Esperanza Coach Gary Meek: “We were covering him man-to-man and he just knocked our defensive back out of bounds, just slapped him in the head. He then went downfield and made a big catch. I thought, ‘Wow, this guy’s physical.’ ”

He hasn’t always been.

Gonzalez began playing football in the sixth grade. But even though he was bigger than most kids, he was hardly a standout.

In fact, he didn’t even play in many games.

“I don’t know if anyone said it, but I wasn’t very good back then,” Gonzalez said.

Said Oiler teammate Justin Flagg: “He wasn’t. I don’t think he was really into it.”

Said Gonzalez: “I didn’t like getting headaches.”

He made the transition from getting them to giving them as a sophomore. By then, another sport was influencing his life.

Gonzalez tried out for the basketball team as a freshman, but he didn’t last long.

His family lived too far away to walk home, so Gonzalez would sometimes skip practice to catch a ride with his brother. Other times, he said, he just didn’t care. He was cut from the team, but Roy Miller, the varsity coach, brought him back.

“We didn’t want to lose him,” Miller said. “He had such raw talent. All he needed was a little direction.”

Miller put him on the sophomore team and even gave him rides home after practice.

“Coach Miller turned me around,” Gonzalez said. “He showed me I had to work on my game. I still hate practice, but I know I need to improve.”

He has, in both sports. As a sophomore, Gonzalez was a part-time starter on the varsity basketball team and the starting tight end in football. He became a dominant player in both sports last season and was named All-Orange County in both.

Gonzalez caught 31 passes for 637 yards last season. He has 24 receptions for 374 yards this season.

His basketball skills have helped, especially that 34-inch vertical leap. He has outjumped many defensive backs for receptions, including an 11-yard touchdown catch against Edison three weeks ago. The Oilers won that game, 10-7.

“We tell our kids to try and strip the ball from him,” Berg said. “But how do you strip the ball from a guy who makes his living getting rebounds? He’s a load.”

Especially on defense.

Offense is a nice way to kill some time, but Gonzalez loves playing defense. He led the team in tackles last season and leads them again this year.

“When we watch the game film, Tony is in on every play,” Flagg said. “He finds a way to get to the ball.”

But it’s not just the number of plays he makes, it’s the ferocity of some of them. Against Edison, he knocked tailback Jeremy Simmons three yards into the backfield. Simmons weighs 210 pounds.

“He punishes people,” Pascoe said. “He really loves the physical aspect of the game. If he hits you, you definitely, definitely feel it.”

Said Gonzalez: “I try to be a nice guy on the field. I help people up and pat them on the butt after good runs. They think, ‘Oh, he’s not such a bad guy.’ But if I see a chance for a good hit, I going to hit them. I won’t hold back.”

Now that’s the Tony Gonzalez who creates fear instead of feeling it.