Opponents Have Hard Time Going Against Sonora’s Grain : Football: Lineman, who plays both ways, is the strong point of the Raider program.

Jason Grain was standing there amid all that talent, thinking how out of place and overmatched he was.

“I was really intimidated,” he said of his late April workout at Dick Lascola’s scouting combine. “There were all kinds of big-time players there, about 70 or 80. I worried that I wouldn’t be able to test good, that I would be horrible. I tested out fine.

“That was the turning point for me. I knew that I could be a Division I player, that I could compete with anyone.

“Coach (Mark) Takkinen told me it was a real big thing to be invited and if you do well, you’ll get a lot of attention.

“Afterward, the mail started coming in.”

Coaches from the Pacific 10 Conference had Grain in their Rolodex by the first of the month, and suddenly, they were visiting Sonora--which was plenty unusual given the Raiders’ football history.

But Sonora is on the verge of winning outright its first league championship since 1973, and Grain is a big reason why.

A really big reason.

He is the left tackle on offense and an end on defense. And he is 6 feet 5, 270 pounds. And while most big kids’ strength is their strength, Grain’s is his agility and quickness. He is only 16--he skipped the third grade--and still must mature physically.

“That’s the whole thing--he’s young,” Takkinen said. “He’s still got room to grow. His frame will lend itself to another 20 pounds and that will be all upper body strength. Strength is not his forte right now; it’s his quickness and the way he attacks people.

“There have been times in games where he’s taken the guy he’s blocking and taken them all the way to the other side of the formation--all the way to the other tackle.”

Grain credits his father, Emmanuel, for the great footwork--but not his size. Dad is 6 feet and mom Shereal is 5-6 and of average build. He does have two uncles on his mother’s side who played football--Jimmy DuBose was a running back for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Keith DuBose was a defensive back at Duke from 1989-92. But both of them were little guys by comparison.

Emmanuel Grain is a believer in jumping rope--it’s good enough for boxers--and Jason jumped in the off-season five to six times a week. Jason also is intelligent in an academic sense. He has a 3.4 grade-point average in honors classes, and he was one of the first players on the football team to grasp the Wing-T that Takkinen installed last year.

“He knew all the linemen’s blocking assignments, not just his own (which was center last year),” Takkinen said. “He allows us to run our offense to its fullest capabilities. He’s our best run-blocker, and we’re averaging 192 yards per game, and we’re passing for 173.

“He allows us to go to either side. In the past, we’ve only been able to go to one side and people have been able to key on that. He makes our whole offensive line a whole lot better. He allows us to run our counter play (to the right) for about 14 yards every time we run it; and we run the sweep to his side almost every time we run it.”

Grain, who wants to major in history, will take recruiting trips to UCLA, Oregon State, Arizona State and Fresno State; he is considering California, Colorado State and Oregon for his fifth trip.

He hopes to become a football coach one day. Or a sportswriter. But he’s leaning toward coaching.

“To be honest with you, I’m confident in my knowledge of the game and I think that’s something I’m interested in right now,” Grain said. “It’s a combination of everything that makes me love the game. Right now, it’s playing on Friday nights, the band, the crowd, the pressure of the big game, the high you get after a big win, being able to enjoy it with your teammates.”

When it came time to pick a role model, Grain did not look to a big-name NFL lineman, but to a classmate. While still a sophomore playing on the junior varsity because he wasn’t old enough to play on the varsity, he decided he wanted to be like Sonora senior Ricardo Castro, who is now an assistant.

“Never until this year did I really think about being a Division I player, I only thought about being a great high school football player, and he was a great high school football player,” Grain said.

“Deacon Jones is in the Hall of Fame and Reggie White is going to be, but I didn’t pattern myself after them because it’s not just about one day being a pro player. Once I get to college, if I see a great player on my team, I’ll pattern myself after him to be a great college player.

“Right now I’m a high school player and my goal is to try to be the best Sonora Raider I can be.”

SUNNY HILLS VS. SONORA

Featured Game

When: 7 p.m. tonight

Where: La Habra High

Records: Sunny Hills (3-6, 2-2); Sonora (5-4, 3-1)

Rankings: None

Noteworthy: Despite stumbling against Fullerton last week, the Raiders can still claim the Freeway League championship with a victory tonight. If the Lancers score an upset, they share the title with Sonora, the Fullerton-Troy winner and possibly Buena Park.