The Hit Man

It’s sometimes difficult to tell the difference between a Paraclete High football game videotape and a National Geographic documentary.

Each can get pretty gory when the camera turns to a predator closing in on its prey.

Here’s the difference: lions don’t wear numbered jerseys.

Robert Watts does.

So far in his three-year varsity career, Paraclete High’s senior linebacker has done just about everything to opposing ball carriers except devour one.

Of course, there’s still time.

Paraclete (9-3) plays at Rosamond (12-0) tonight in a Southern Section Division XII semifinal.

“I just love hitting people,” Watts said. “What other sport can you play and get away with hitting people like that?”

Few football players at any level hit with the same ferocity as Watts, who has developed from a clumsy 5-foot-8, 180-pound freshman into a 6-4, 220-pound nightmare nicknamed The Raptor by coaches and teammates.

To them, the nickname was a natural.

“He’s just like a raptor,” Coach Steve Hagerty said. “The noises he makes, the way he sets up his prey. . . you turn and, bam, he’s right there looking at you, ready for the kill.”

Freckled and baby-faced, Watts is soft-spoken and a good student, which makes his demeanor on the field even more surprising.

“He’s usually so quiet, but every once in a while, he just goes crazy, screaming and yelling,” Paraclete quarterback Rob Fockaert said. “I think he scares some of the guys on our team.”

Watts also tends to frighten opponents.

“He’s a terror,” said Coach Tim Cox of Rosamond. “From sideline to sideline, he’s everywhere. I would absolutely love to see someone who could stop him.”

Few have, especially since Paraclete’s All-Southern Section predator was recently given more room to roam.

An outside linebacker as a sophomore and junior, Watts moved to middle linebacker at midseason, when teams began running away from him.

“We wanted teams to have to deal with him more than just on one side of the field,” Hagerty said.

The plan is working. At times, Watts seems to be in every play.

“The guy is a stud,” Coach Sid Ware of Kilpatrick said. “If you’re going to block him, you better stay on him because he’ll shake you loose and still make the play.”

While quickness is a key part of Watts’ game, he doesn’t show it all the time.

As an office assistant at Paraclete, Watts’ responsibilities include collecting attendance sheets from each class, a task he can turn into a marathon.

Office staff may be the only ones who don’t call Watts by his football nickname. They have another name for him.

“They call him Speedy because he takes so long to do everything,” Hagerty said. “He must be conserving energy.”

Everyone at Paraclete seemingly has a favorite of Watts’ greatest hits.

Some cite the body slam he threw on Jermaine Marshall, Kilpatrick’s record-setting running back, last month in the Alpha League championship game.

In the season opener at Minneapolis De La Salle, Watts threw around quarterback Dominique Sims, an All-American, like a rag doll.

“They said [Sims] had never been hit like that before in his life,” defensive coordinator Bryan Wickoren said.

Hagerty is partial to a play Watts made last week in the quarterfinals against Montclair Prep.

On a pivotal kick return, Watts was falling to his knees but still ripped the ball from his opponent’s grasp and flung it 15 yards toward the goal line in one motion.

The Spirits recovered, scored and held on for a 35-34 victory. It was their 10th consecutive playoff victory keeping them on schedule for a shot at a third consecutive section championship.

While Watts, who leads Paraclete in tackles and sacks, ranks among the best players in the region, he hasn’t been flooded with college scholarship offers.

He missed a prime opportunity to be seen by scouts last summer, when he had to sit out of three prestigious combines to nurse a torn meniscus muscle suffered last basketball season.

“That really hurt,” he said. “I’m not really known by a lot of people.”

Hagerty is confident some four-year college will come along and take a chance on Watts, the son of Joe Watts, defensive backs coach at Antelope Valley College and former Paraclete coach.

“He’s a Division I guy in my mind,” Hagerty said. “Someone is going to take him and be very happy that they did.”

Paraclete has felt fortunate ever since Watts was called up from the junior varsity team for the playoffs as a sophomore.

In practice, he dominated an All-Southern Section teammate and almost immediately earned a spot in the lineup.

He has continued to grow and become more dominant.

“The key for me was that I finally hit that growth spurt and everything began to fall into place,” said Watts, the oldest of four siblings.

Next season, the Spirits will have to find a way to replace the heart of their defense.

“That’s going to be very difficult to do,” Wickoren said.

One candidate could be Andy Watts, Robert’s younger brother and a starting linebacker as a freshman on the junior varsity team.

“He’ll be good,” Robert said.

Baby Raptor?