FULL-TIMERS

Joey Cuppari’s motor is always going. If he ever runs out of gas, it is long after the crowd is gone and the lights are out.

When he’s not making acrobatic touchdown catches, he’s leading a fast break on the basketball court.

When he’s not running the floor, he’s flying around the basepaths or racing after a fly ball.

When he’s not in a Westlake High athletic uniform, his mind is going full throttle maintaining his B-plus grade average.

Cuppari is a model athlete, envied by his classmates for his ability to make the most of every moment and meet every challenge.

“Joey believes in himself to a degree you rarely see in a high school kid,” Westlake football Coach Jim Benkert said.

“He is a great athlete, but it is his willingness to take risks in critical moments that separates him from most kids.”

Cuppari’s athletic ability is most evident on the football field. A senior three-year starter, he leads the region with 55 receptions and 19 receiving touchdowns.

He has 959 receiving yards and also returned an interception 92 yards for a touchdown.

As a sophomore, he played safety and set a school record with nine interceptions. Last year he moved to receiver and made 79 catches for 1,445 yards and 16 touchdowns.

Pressed into action as a kicker the past two weeks, he is eight of eight on extra-points and made his only field-goal try, from 27 yards.

Cuppari is averaging nearly 17 points a game and his 133 points are more than three Marmonte League teams have scored.

“That’s the object of the game--get the ball into the end zone,” he said. “Every time I make a catch I feel like I can score.”

No doubt, Cuppari has the Midas touch. Even with his foot. In a victory over Camarillo last week that kept the Warriors unbeaten in Marmonte League play, two of his onside kicks were recovered by Westlake.

After the first one, Cuppari and teammate Kevin Howard noticed that Camarillo was overloading one side of the field to protect against a similar kick. Cuppari simply tapped the ball to the other side and Howard recovered it easily.

“They saw it, it was their call,” Benkert said. “I just let my athletes be athletes.”

Before the season, Cuppari wasn’t certain his ability would be utilized as much as last year when experienced senior Casey Preston played quarterback. Stepping in was sophomore Zac Wasserman.

Credit Wasserman with making a sound decision early: Find Cuppari--for advice as well as for touchdowns.

“I’m constantly talking to him in the huddle,” Cuppari said. “I tell him what I see, how I am looking at the defense. I’ll ask him why he did or didn’t do a certain thing.

“I told him right from the beginning, I’ll probably yell, but don’t take it personally. Listen to what I say, not how I say it.”

Wasserman has passed for nearly 2,000 yards and 24 touchdowns. Of course, Cuppari has been on the receiving end of half the yardage and 19 of the scores.

“Joey has really made it comfortable,” Wasserman said. “When I get down, he says, ‘Don’t worry about it. I’ll make the play.’

“And if I put the ball in the vicinity of where it should be, he’ll catch it.”

Cuppari learned football while in grammar school, working on the chain crew at games his father officiated. Tony Cuppari, a former basketball and baseball coach at San Fernando High, assigns football officials in the San Fernando Valley and has worn a striped shirt and whistle on Friday nights for 25 years.

“I saw the biggest games in high school football before I was ever in high school,” Cuppari said. “Our coaches try to pump us up talking about big crowds making a lot of noise, but I was at all the big games, and always on the sidelines. I liked seeing how guys acted after getting hit or making a play.”

Benkert believes that warehouse of memories enables Cuppari to produce consistently.

“He does things out there that most guys just dream about,” Benkert said. “And he does it without being very big or extremely fast.”

A disadvantage of playing three sports--Cuppari is the point guard on the basketball team and center fielder on the baseball team--is that he has little time to lift weights. He has grown three inches since his sophomore year to 6 feet 1, but weighs only 165 pounds.

He was so small as a sophomore that after his first game he nearly went to Benkert and asked to be demoted to the junior varsity.

The opposing team, Buena, thundered off tackle the entire game and Cuppari--all 145 pounds of him--made a game-high 17 tackles.

His father talked him through the misgivings, and Cuppari went on to set the interception record. He played sparingly on defense last year but picked off two more passes, and with one this year he holds the school career record with 12.

“I’m always standing next to the coach on the sidelines asking to play defense,” Cuppari said. “I love defense.”

He’ll get plenty of opportunity tonight against unbeaten Newbury Park. The winner is assured of at least a share of the league championship. Even though he is recovering from an ankle sprain, Cuppari will be needed to help defend against the Panthers’ strong passing game.

“Joey might not miss a snap,” Benkert said.

On offense, Cuppari is closing in on several more school records. Billy Miller, now at USC, set most of Westlake’s receiving marks during a three-year career that ended in 1994.

“When you come into a program, the record book is the first thing you look at,” Cuppari said. “You look to see who was best at your position. That’s your goal--to be as good as him. When you get there, it’s exciting.”

Whether or not he eclipses Miller’s marks, Cuppari wants the same reward: a scholarship to a Pac-10 school. He has had overtures from Oregon and Washington, but his slight build and lack of sprinter speed make some recruiters wary.

“I’m looking at colleges for pre-med programs--I want to be a doctor,” he said. “And then football gets in there. I can play with the big boys. I know that. I definitely will go to a school that throws the ball a lot.”

His numbers and a video full of highlights could persuade a top school that despite any lack of horsepower, Cuppari gets a team where it wants to go: the end zone.