Rogers Feels at Home Being Focus of Ventura’s Offense

When the cross-country call came from a friend, Travis Rogers felt an inner fire being fanned with every word.

They talked about football, about Rogers joining the friend at Ventura College and the two playing together, as they sometimes did as kids in Morristown, Tenn.

Rogers had never wandered far from the small town near Knoxville, but he ached to play football again.

Still, Rogers thought, Ventura was a world away from everything he knew, everything he needed.

The prospect kept popping into his head: Leave home, on his own, to run the ball at a place where basketball ruled and football seemed an afterthought?

“I was antsy to play,” Rogers said. “It’s been worth it.”

That’s an understatement.

Rogers, 5 feet 11 and 190 pounds, is rolling toward a second consecutive rushing title in the Western State Conference.

He leads the conference with 975 yards and 12 touchdowns, increasing his career total to 2,820 yards, a record for a school that has produced several fine running backs.

Behind the indefatigable Rogers, whose 205 carries lead the state, the Pirates are 6-1 and ranked No. 10 in California by the J.C. Athletic Bureau.

Ventura is in a three-way tie with Moorpark and Hancock for first place in the WSC Northern Division, each at 3-1.

The Pirates are 15-3 the last two seasons, when the rebuilding project launched by Coach Terry Morris in 1997, his first season, started to pay off.

It was the much-traveled Morris who, perhaps more than anyone, helped ease the transition for Rogers.

“I grew up in the military, my dad was an Army officer for 22 years, and I can associate with moving,” Morris said. “I knew what it was like to come from a rural town.”

Rogers also was supported by the hometown friend who lured him to Ventura, Maurice Young, a former reserve running back for the Pirates.

“I didn’t know anything about [Ventura], except what [Young] told me,” Rogers said. “I called Coach Morris and I just came.”

Perhaps a logical move, when considering the coincidences--Morristown, a coach named Morris--and Rogers’ desire to grab the one concrete opportunity that came his way.

An all-conference selection at Morristown West High, where he rushed for 2,700 yards in his career, Rogers didn’t qualify academically to attend a four-year school and enrolled at Walters State Community College in Morristown.

But because community colleges in Tennessee don’t have football teams, Rogers focused on schoolwork while missing the sport every day. Then the phone rang and Rogers faced a tough decision.

Rogers and his mother, Deborah, a factory worker with limited means, discussed the economic and emotional impacts of the move. He was an only child and the bond between them runs deep.

“I told him if [going to Ventura was] what he wanted to do, we’d work it out,” she said. “I miss him a whole lot.”

The separation is becoming easier to handle for Rogers, a soft-spoken homebody who prefers video games to club-hopping. The phone bill is still weighed down by frequent calls home.

“I came here in the spring [of 1998] and there wasn’t a lot to do, and it gave me a lot of time to think,” Rogers said. “I was pretty homesick the first semester.”

After Ventura, Rogers envisions transferring to a Division I program closer to home. Several schools, including Nebraska and Auburn, are looking at him.

Morris believes whoever signs Rogers will get much more than a talented player.

“He’s a class act all the way,” Morris said. “Travis is one of the best out here at doing what he’s supposed to do. I’ve never had to ask him to do anything twice.”

Rogers is set to play his last home game Nov. 20, when the Pirates host Santa Barbara. The game could shape up as his most memorable. He could clinch the conference rushing title, the Pirates could secure a bowl invitation and his mother might watch him play for the first time since high school.

“She’s planning to come,” Rogers said. “She asked for the time off [from work] already. That would be real nice.”