BOYS’ BASKETBALL 1994-1995 / CENTURY LEAGUE : He’s Paying His Dues in the Big Man’s Club : Basketball: Villa Park’s Chenowith, a sophomore, adjusts to size through hard work and help from friends.

Welcome to the big man’s club. No one under 6 feet 8 need apply.

Eric Chenowith, Villa Park sophomore, is its youngest member. Actually there are only three. All of them big, really big .

Sonora’s Craig Clark, a 7-foot senior at Sonora, and Chris Burgess a 6-9 sophomore at Woodbridge. In the middle, the 6-10 1/2 Chenowith.

“We’ve been working out together since August,” Chenowith said. “It’s some really intense, hard stuff. I need to go against guys that big.”

It has paid off. A year ago, Chenowith was a gangly 6-7 freshman, thrown into an impossible situation. He was asked to be the team’s big man without really knowing how to play big.

The Spartans’ 3-20 record can’t be hung on him. But he’s taking it that way.

“I want to improve last year’s record,” Chenowith said. “I spent the entire summer playing basketball. I don’t want to experience another season like the last one.”

He shouldn’t, not with the work he’s put in. Chenowith will probably be enough to get the Spartans into the Southern Section playoffs.

Chenowith is no longer that wide-eyed, rail-thin kid from last season. He’s beefed up, a full 220 pounds now, and he’s a lot more savvy.

He’s adjusted to his size through hard work and a little help from his friends.

Chenowith had never met Clark before last summer. He had seen him play for Sonora, when Clark was a gawky freshman.

The two met when they began playing for the same traveling team last June. They became friends and then workout partners in August.

“I remember one game during the summer when Eric tripped over his own feet and fell,” Clark said. “It reminded me of myself a few years ago. It was obvious he hadn’t become comfortable with his size.”

Chenowith has always been big for his age. In kindergarten, his legs didn’t fit under the desk.

He was tall enough that he would sometimes be enlisted to play in a men’s 6-2 and over three-on-three league by his father, Bob Chenowith. Eric was in the sixth grade at the time.

Chenowith didn’t hit a real growing spurt until the eighth grade. Chenowith shot up five inches by the end of the summer, but had no time to adjust.

He had broken a bone in his left foot during a basketball game in May and was in a cast for 3 1/2 months.

“He didn’t get to play the entire summer,” Villa Park Coach Steve Harris said. “That really set him back.”

And there was no time to catch up. Short of talented players and facing a long season, Harris decided to give Chenowith some on-the-job experience.

He averaged 6.1 points and 5.1 rebounds. “It was beat-up-on-the-freshman all season,” Chenowith said. “I had these 6-2, 260 guys hit me with elbows. It was hard, really hard.”

But he did show some flashes.

“We were playing Orange and they were hammering us,” Harris said. “We were down, 16-2, and the only reason we had two was because the Orange fans threw hot dogs onto the court at the start of the game and got a technical foul.

“They were hammering us, but I saw Eric handle that pressure. He rebounded and scored points. I saw his future that night.”

Getting there will take some work, which Chenowith has already started.

“It’s a lot tougher playing the post than people realize,” Chenowith said. “I remember I would watch Kareem Abdul-Jabbar shoot that sky hook and think, ‘That’s easy.’ Well, I’ve tried it and it isn’t. I needed to work against guys my own size to get comfortable with being this tall.”