BOOKENDS

What every quarterback facing Valley College might want to remember when dropping back to pass:

Look to one side. If the coast is clear, don’t bother turning the other way. Shift into high gear and run like a mailman chased by a junkyard dog.

A wrecking ball with legs is about to crush you.

At Valley, the pain providers are usually Shawn Price or Terrance Chapman, two guys with Division I skills biding their time in junior college for academic reasons.

From their hybrid rushing end-linebacker spots, Price and Chapman are wreaking havoc on quarterbacks.

“They anchor the outside,” said Carl Ferrill, Valley’s first-year coach.

More like dominate the outside.

In Valley’s 38-13 victory over Glendale on Saturday, Chapman had 3 1/2 sacks to give him 6 1/2 and Price had one for a team-leading eight.

They hammered and harassed Mike Frost, who had three passes intercepted and was sacked six times. Frost leads the Western State Conference with 1,452 yards and 14 touchdowns passing, and needs 39 yards to become Glendale’s career leader with 3,278 yards.

But with Price and Chapman on the prowl, Frost was mercilessly mauled.

“Those interceptions weren’t totally [Frost’s] fault,” said John Cicuto, Glendale coach.

“Twice he was about to throw the ball and just got nailed. [Chapman] has great speed off the edge. I don’t think we were ready for his quickness.”

Chapman, 6 feet 4 and 215 pounds, is a freshman from Lehigh High in Fort Myers, Fla. He had 14 sacks last season and was most valuable player of the Lee County all-star game.

Price, 6-3 and 225, is a freshman from Haddon Heights (N.J.) High who had 27 sacks last season and 115 in his career. He was the defensive player of the year in New Jersey.

Both were headed for prominent Division I programs, Chapman to Miami and Price to Ohio State. Or so they thought.

Neither qualified academically and ended up at Valley because Ferrill is well-connected with Miami, which also referred Price after he contacted the Hurricanes and other four-year schools.

“I had never been to L.A.,” Price said. “I got here and all of a sudden I’m in the Valley. I’m a city boy, not a suburban boy, but it’s all love being in the Valley.”

Price’s mother believed her teenage son didn’t need the trappings of city life, particularly in crime-ridden north Philadelphia, and sent the youngster to live with his father in New Jersey.

“I lived a few blocks from Temple [University],” Price said. “I felt kind of good being away from [the home neighborhood].

“I won’t lie. If I had stayed in Philadelphia, I would be locked up or dead or selling drugs.”

At Haddon Heights, Price turned into a blue-chip prospect, with schools as far west as UCLA showing an interest. And for good reason. Price said he was clocked in 4.4 seconds over 40 yards.

Chapman, who said he was timed in 4.5 seconds, regrouped at Fort Myers after a troubled sophomore year.

“I was kicked out of school and went to an alternative school,” Chapman said.

Much like he is doing now, after realizing Miami would be out of the picture for at least two seasons.

Until then, Chapman and Price are helping Ferrill resurrect the Monarchs, among the top junior college programs in the nation a few years ago but relatively weak the last two seasons.

Valley (3-1, 2-0 in the WSC) can match its victory total for 1998 by beating Hancock (3-1, 1-1) in a WSC Northern Division game Saturday night at Righetti High in Santa Maria.

Chapman and Price take a simple approach on the field. If opponents double-team one of them, like Glendale often did with Price, the other goes against single blocking. Battered bodies are usually left in their wake

“We are not allowed to hit the quarterback at practice, so we are fired up during the games,” Price said.

Like Price, who plans to consider Miami but has his sights on Florida State, Chapman already is anxious to play in Division I. But they want to leave Valley with some hardware.

“I want to go home with a bowl ring,” Price said. “I don’t want to go home empty-handed. I want to go home proud of my team. And I want to go home with a [college] degree.

“I’m trying to be more than an average guy. I didn’t come out here from New Jersey for nothing.”