Breathtaking Runner

When De’Andre Scott of Alemany High grips a football, he feels invincible.

He has an 85-yard touchdown run, a 98-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and a 69-yard touchdown reception.

Thirty-two times this season, he has reached the end zone.

There is almost nothing that can prevent Scott from racing up and down a football field.

Except an asthma attack.

It happens so quickly. He starts to cough or wheeze. It suddenly becomes difficult to breathe. A suffocating feeling takes hold.

“You lose your breath and feel dizzy, like you’re about to pass out,” he said.

Scott was diagnosed with asthma when he was about 10.

It didn’t stop him from playing football, but Scott remembers times when an attack occurred and he couldn’t go back into the game.

As he became older, his condition improved. But at halftime of almost every game, he brings out his inhaler, takes his medication, drinks a glass of orange juice and hopes his lungs stay clear.

“It gives me a big boost,” he said.

“I have to relax and try not to think about it. When you think about it, it gets worse.”

Scott’s inhaler should be guarded like gold at Fort Knox. With him in peak form, Alemany (8-3) bids for an upset tonight when it hosts defending champion Mater Dei (9-2) at 7:30 in a Southern Section Division I quarterfinal game.

Few San Fernando Valley teams this decade have faced a more challenging schedule than the Indians.

Six of their 10 regular-season opponents are still alive in the City and Southern Section playoffs.

Their competition has included Hueneme, Notre Dame, Servite, Santa Margarita, Loyola, St. Paul, Bishop Amat and now the toughest of all, the Santa Ana-based Monarchs, who have won four section titles in the 1990s and eight overall.

“It’s big-time football,” Scott said. “I like Division I because it’s more competition.”

Scott’s versatility, explosiveness and speed have helped Alemany make the jump from Division III. He has rushed for 1,678 yards, averaging 8.3 yards per carry, and caught 27 passes for 546 yards.

“He’s had an unbelievable season,” Coach Jim Bonds said of the 5-foot-11, 190-pound junior tailback. “He has the ability to run by you and the ability to run over you, and you don’t know which one he’s going to do.”

Against Anaheim Esperanza last week, Scott pulled off a maneuver that Bonds said left coaches on the sideline “with their mouths open.”

“He just put a little move on the cornerback and ran right by him,” Bonds said. “The free safety was in position to make the tackle and [Scott] put his shoulder down and ran over him.”

In the last two seasons, Scott has scored 52 touchdowns and become perhaps the most dangerous offensive player in the region. No other team possesses a player with the skills to score so many ways, from returning a kickoff to breaking off a run to catching a pass.

And everyone has to admire Scott’s attitude of never being satisfied.

“I think that gives me the drive to come out every game and play better than the last,” he said.

There are few people who give Alemany much of a chance to defeat Mater Dei, but Scott doesn’t mind being an underdog and will try to convince his teammates to think positive.

“I tell them don’t worry about what the name of the school is,” he said. “We can do it if we stick together and everybody takes care of their responsibilities.”

Scott’s big responsibility is to make sure he doesn’t lose his inhaler. Every breath he takes offers hope for the Indians.