Harvey Added the Run to Valley College’s Shoot

Marcus Harvey wondered if he was doing the right thing.

He was a running back without a team, hoping to hook up with Valley College’s devastating run-and-shoot offense.

That’s right. Harvey wanted to join an outfit that had passed just 36 times per game the previous two seasons.

The one where the idea of a ground game was drawing tic-tac-toe boxes on the turf with cleats.

Harvey knew the place was no haven for ballcarriers but still believed the Monarchs needed him.

“At first, just looking at the total picture of the run-and-shoot, I sat with Coach [Jim] Fenwick and he said the backs would be used a lot more this season,” said Harvey, a transfer from Ball State.

It was true. The Monarchs deployed a more-active running attack and Harvey achieved what no Valley running back had done in three years--a 1,000-yard season.

As the Monarchs (10-0) head to battle Long Beach (10-0) for the mythical national championship tonight at 7 in the Strawberry Bowl at Cerritos College, Harvey knows he has contributed significantly to Valley’s first unblemished regular season and to the team’s top ranking in one national poll and in the state.

Harvey, 5 feet 8 and 175 pounds, has gained 1,017 yards in 130 carries and scored 16 touchdowns. He ranks seventh on Valley’s all-time rushing list, four rungs below Howard Blackwell, who picked up all of his 1,255 yards in 1992.

“Our big priority this year in trying to improve ourselves was to get our running game going,” said Fenwick, who has guided the Monarchs to a 29-3 record the past three seasons.

“In a single-back offense, you better have someone back there who is a threat. It took us one practice to realize that for a little guy, he’s very explosive. . . . He has made a big difference in how people have to defend us.”

Harvey’s best effort came Nov. 18 in a 70-32 victory over Santa Monica that gave the Monarchs the Western State Conference South Division title. Harvey zig-zagged his way to a season-high 204 yards and two touchdowns in 17 carries, including a one-yard score he helped set up with a 42-yard run three plays earlier.

“I’m always a step ahead of myself, looking at the guys coming at me,” Harvey said. “It’s just my natural way of running. I like to shift and change direction. . . . I look for some type of little crease that allows me to break out.”

That style served Harvey well at Brother Rice High in Birmingham, Mich., outside Detroit. He was one of two players in school history to make the varsity all four years, and helped the Warriors reach two state championship games--where they had a 1-1 record.

“Any time we needed a yard or two or three or a touchdown, we gave him the ball,” said Al Fracassa, Brother Rice’s longtime coach. “He dazzled the spectators here. For a little guy, he can take a hit. He used to get hit pretty good in some of our games.”

The coaches at Ball State apparently thought Harvey was tough enough for Division I competition and gave him a scholarship. Harvey played in only five games as a freshman in 1994, mostly as a kick returner, and bailed out after the season.

“I decided to leave because the situation with the coaching staff was kind of shaky,” Harvey said.

Ball State underwent a coaching overhaul after Harvey’s departure. By then, Harvey was home, not doing much of anything, when his life took a new turn.

“I was just sitting around, getting in trouble, so my mom wanted me to come out here to live [in Azusa] with my cousin [Keith Williams],” Harvey said. “He had played for Coach Fenwick at Pierce and he already had told me about [junior college] football here. My cousin brought me [to Valley] one day and I had a couple of high school [highlight] films and Fenwick showed some interest.”

With Harvey and former Kennedy High standout Elijah Raphael splitting time in the backfield, the Monarchs had a new dimension for their powerful no-huddle offense. Raphael has 697 yards in 89 carries and 11 touchdowns, and the Monarchs have 2,033 yards rushing, sixth-best in school history and 1,072 more than last season.

“There was no choice but to use us,” Harvey said.

The two ballcarriers surely figure prominently in Valley’s game plan against Long Beach and Harvey is up to the challenge.

“My high point was getting 1,000 yards in the run-and-shoot,” Harvey said. “But the real high point will be to win the national championship and thanking Coach Fenwick for giving me another chance to play football. . . . I want to finish the season with the national championship and hopefully go to a Division I program that’s right for me and I can help out.”

The Monarchs, for one, know that Harvey was right for them.