That Fast

The alarm clock is belting out its cacophony. Tyler Ebell has been caught napping.

The Ventura High senior, one of the most elusive running backs in high school history, has been dropped for a loss. It’s time to wake up.

But before he wipes the sleep from his eyes, he reminds himself why he cares so much. Why he needs to win. Why he has the titanium-strength resolve to run and run until he reaches the end zone yet again.

The tiny article tacked to his closet reminds him what happens when he’s not perfect, when he’s merely excellent.

Snipped from a newspaper two years ago, the article lists him as a second-team all-league selection despite leading the Channel League with 1,268 yards rushing as a sophomore.

Ebell remembers being crushed.

“I leave it up there as a reminder,” Ebell said. “I kind of got snubbed. I look at it every morning while I’m getting dressed.”

It’s safe to say he’ll make the all-league team this season.

Ebell set the national season rushing record last week with 4,218 yards, passing Travis Henry of Frostproof, Fla., and giving a sleepy seaside town something substantial to cheer about in football for the first time since the Cougars advanced to the Coastal Conference championship game in 1984.

The 5-foot-9, 175-pounder broke the record on a nine-yard run with 3:11 left in the third quarter, but befitting his personality, the game wasn’t stopped.

Ventura trailed Lompoc by a point. There was work to do.

Ebell scored three fourth-quarter touchdowns and the Cougars (12-1) advanced to Saturday’s Southern Section Division IV championship at Arroyo Grande. Ventura is seeking its first football championship since tying Paso Robles, 14-14, for a lower-level title in 1951.

Ebell’s 4.3 speed in the 40 and his exceptional acceleration through the hole--he’s there, and then he’s not--are unmistakable components in an equation that has produced 61 touchdown runs, also a season national record.

Then there’s his off-season work ethic, which makes his on-field performances look pedestrian.

Ebell, who has committed to UCLA, wasn’t thrilled with the 1,622 yards he rushed for last season. He wanted to break more arm tackles. He wanted to keep the pile moving in short-yardage situations. He wanted statistics that defied his size.

Over the summer, he charged up and down hills, ran endless sets of stadium steps and, the coup de grace, engaged in two-mile runs in the sand . . . with his shoes on.

Part of his motivation comes from his father, a former running back at Ventura High and Montana State who pastes fight-or-flight Vince Lombardi credos on Ebell’s bedroom walls, wedging them between photos of Napoleon Kaufman and Warrick Dunn, little big men who carry the ball in the NFL.

Most of Ebell’s summer workouts were under the watchful eye of Dennis on his lunch break in dress shirt and tie, stopwatch in one hand and whistle in the other while sweating under the sun.

If his father could sacrifice, Ebell thought, so could he.

His added muscle came in handy when he had 393 yards and six touchdowns in 44 carries in a September game against Arroyo Grande, a team known for its strong defense.

“It didn’t feel like that many [carries],” Ebell said. “Like Coach [Phil] McCune said after the game, the ball’s not that heavy. It doesn’t weigh that much.”

His performance carried significant weight in the minds of college coaches, who had been recruiting Ebell as a cornerback because of his less-than-impressive size for a Division I running back.

“That game put a stamp of approval on him from all the big schools,” McCune said. “People wondered about his durability. Forty-four carries against a good defense, that’s pretty good stuff.

“They switched from recruiting him as a cornerback-kick returner-athlete type of guy to wanting him as a running back.”

Ebell would rather be an equipment manager than a cover corner and has compiled a mental list of schools that didn’t take him seriously as a running back--USC, Washington and Washington State, among others. Ebell said he wants to prove them wrong.

“Especially when we get to play them in the Pac-10,” he said. “Hopefully I get some playing time as a freshman and can break off a long run against them.”

He has had plenty of practice this year, scoring six touchdowns in a game three times and five touchdowns on four occasions.

But Ebell realizes he doesn’t do it alone. He’s quick to point out the help he gets from his offensive linemen, who average 275 pounds from tackle to tackle, and he names them one by one when asked the secret to his success.

Ebell even springs for burritos for his line every Saturday at game-film sessions. At $30 a pop, it’s not exactly chump change for a high school student.

“It’s an expensive habit,” he said.

But a wise investment for a player who acknowledges he doesn’t have overwhelming size. And revels in it.

On his left arm is a tattoo of Mighty Mouse, an artistic addition Ebell was allowed to get after his freshman year by meeting two incentives set by his father. He had to rush for more than 1,000 yards on the junior varsity team and he had to make the academic honor roll.

His game-day ritual, part superstition and part repetition, pays further homage to the cartoon character.

In the morning, he puts on an extra-small Mighty Mouse T-shirt--a child’s size--and watches video of Walter Payton before heading to school. He wears the T-shirt under his football jersey.

“I’ve got to make sure I do the same thing,” said Ebell, who orders the same sandwich on game day--turkey with mustard and provolone. “I don’t like to jinx anything,” he said.

If the pattern holds true Saturday, Ebell will shift directions faster than the wind and burst for 300-something yards.

And if Ventura wins, then he might finally take down that little article on his closet.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Nation’s Top Rushers

Top high school rushers for one season:

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Player, High School Year Yards Tyler Ebell, Ventura 2000 4,218 Travis Henry, Frostproof, Fla. 1996 4,087 Ken Hall, Sugar Land, Texas 1953 4,045 Rodney Thomas, Groveton, Texas 1990 3,701 Jermaine Marshall, Kilpatrick 1999 3,586

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CHAMPIONSHIP WEEKEND

* FRIDAY--City Championship, City Invitational, Southern Section Division II, III, V, VI, IX, X

* SATURDAY--Southern Section I, IV, VII, VIII, XI, XII, XIII.

VALLEY/VENTURA

Bobby Otani and David Garza are longtime friends with different playing styles. Otani is an intimidating hitter while Garza relies on finesse, but they make a devastating combination at linebacker for St. Bonaventure. D10