A Proud Heritage

Zeke Moreno didn’t speak Spanish at home growing up in Chula Vista, but the better the USC linebacker plays, the more Spanish he hears from the stands.

“It’s pretty cool,” Moreno said. “You see all these people yelling at you, ‘Hey, primo, primo!’

“Primo is cousin. It’s like, ‘Hey, good job, cuz!’ Or sometimes it’s just people calling my name, saying ‘Way to represent, way to represent. Good job!’ ”

Moreno is doing a good job in any language, there’s no doubt about that.

Four games after replacing Chris Claiborne at middle linebacker this season, he has a team-leading 44 tackles, a sack, two interceptions, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery--and he scored two touchdowns against Oregon State, one on a fumble recovery and the other on a 71-yard interception return.

Moreno learned most of the Spanish he knows in high school and college and isn’t fluent, but he recognizes he is becoming a focal point in a sport in which Latinos have traditionally been underrepresented.

Latin Athlete, a start-up magazine that is expected to begin publishing early next year with Oscar De La Hoya on its cover, chose Moreno as the subject of the first story for its planned Web site partly because Latino football players are relatively rare.

“Latinos are really coming into their own,” said Valentino Romero III, CEO and publisher of the bilingual magazine, noting that lack of size has sometimes limited the success of Latin football players.

USC has had some standouts in its history--size certainly wasn’t a problem for offensive linemen such as Anthony Munoz and Norberto Garrido--but not as many as you might expect.

“I think it’s starting to grow,” said Moreno, who is 6 feet 3 and 240 pounds. “People feel that our sports are more, like, baseball and soccer. You don’t see that many Mexicans, Hispanics, Chicanos, that have the size to play football. That’s a stereotype that’s been around. But you can’t judge a book by its cover. I go back to San Diego and see a lot of kids that have the ability, they just don’t have the size.

“If people feel like I am out there playing for all Latinos, in a way, I am. I do represent a lot of people out there. But I have my goals and my priorities, and my priority is my family. I play for my family before everything.”

It’s a football family, that’s for sure.

Moreno’s brother, Moses, started for Colorado State at quarterback for three seasons and is on the San Diego Charger practice squad after spending time with the Chicago Bears.

The youngest of the five boys in the family, Nathan Arenas, plays for Castle Park High in Chula Vista, where Zeke also played.

And then there’s his mother, Arcinia Arenas, who played for a football team called the Mighty Mommas in San Diego before Zeke was born.

“Sometimes I forget about it, but when I go home, we have all these trophies, me and all my brothers’ accomplishments, and you see this little trophy that says Mighty Mommas,” Moreno said. “I get a kick out of that.

“It’s one of those things that’s hard to believe, ‘Yeah, my mom played football.’ She’s 5-10, very tall, very strong. I think she played fullback and linebacker. She doesn’t work out, but she’ll say, ‘Feel this. Want to see my muscle?’ And it’s just a rock. She’s naturally strong.”

His mother laughs and calls the attention her brief football career gets “embarrassing,” but admits she and her sisters grew up playing football and basketball in the streets and alleys.

“Ezekiel doesn’t have any dainty aunts,” she said. “Until my boys were in ninth grade, if we wrestled I could flip them over. But they get to like 10th grade, and I’m a trophy--if they can flip me over, then they’ve developed their strength.”

As good as he is, Moreno is still developing his.

“I think there’s no telling how good he can become,” Coach Paul Hackett said.

Moreno started at outside linebacker as a sophomore last season alongside Claiborne, then took over Claiborne’s spot after Claiborne jumped to the NFL.

“That gave him a full season of playing every snap, and he had one eye watching Chris Claiborne, because he always knew he’d get the first opportunity to go back there,” Hackett said. “He’s done nothing but get better. He’s a natural for the position.”

When Claiborne left, Moreno could have claimed the No. 55 that belonged to Claiborne and Junior Seau before him.

Instead, he switched from No. 34 to No. 9, leaving No. 55 to new outside linebacker Markus Steele, a strikingly talented player who is second on the team in tackles with 33.

“Really I didn’t give any thought to wearing 55,” Moreno said. “No. 9 was my high school number. It was kind of superstitious. And I always liked single-digit numbers. I think they make you look faster. And now back in San Diego, people want to wear No. 9. People say, hey, I got your number. That’s cool.”

And when you see a No. 9 in the stands, you know it’s probably for Moreno.

“I’m proud that people can relate to him,” his mother said. “Especially if little kids with brown hair look at my Ezekiel and think, ‘That could be me.’ ”

Moreno by the Numbers

USC linebacker Zeke Moreno’s statistics:

Games: 4

Unassisted tackles: 31

Tackles: 44

Tackles for loss: 2 for minus-15 yards

Sacks: 1 for minus-11 yards

Interceptions: 2 for 76 yards

Touchdowns: 2 on interception, fumble returns

Passes broken up: 2

Forced fumbles: 1

Fumbles recovered: 1, with 17-yard return