Valley Pair Spring Into College Life

Somebody’s shadowing Drew Brees.

An unfamiliar face on the Purdue campus has been spotted in the same eateries, the same neighborhood, even the same athletic complex as the Boilermakers’ quarterback.

Apparently, the person has a long list of questions for Brees, one of the leading candidates for the Heisman Trophy next season.

That person is Brandon Hance, who was taking final exams nearly 2,000 miles away at Taft High only a few weeks ago.

The former Toreador quarterback graduated early in order to enroll at Purdue this semester. Hance has been in West Lafayette, Ind., for only a week, but has already attached himself to Brees.

“I’m bugging him as much as I can,” Hance said. “I’m being his little shadow right now. He’s been walking me through the weight room. I’ve been throwing with him Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. He’s been real good with me.”

It’s happening exactly the way Hance envisioned.

He wanted to show up a semester early, even though college football goes into mini-hibernation from the end of the bowl season to the start of spring football, so he could get a head start on freshmen in the fall.

What better time to go east and start firing away with questions? And what better person to ask than Brees, who announced last month he will return for his senior season? Hance breathed a sigh of relief.

“Everybody thought I would be mad because it meant I wouldn’t get playing time,” Hance said. “I thought it would be the greatest thing because I get to come in and learn from him. He’ll probably be the best quarterback in the nation next year.”

Hance will almost surely redshirt next season--three quarterbacks could be ahead of him on the depth chart--but it doesn’t hurt to make friends with Brees, a Heisman finalist last season.

It also doesn’t hurt to get used to the concept of a true winter.

“There’s been snow on the ground since I got here,” Hance said.

Hance isn’t the only quarterback from the region to graduate early from high school. Casey Clausen of Alemany, enrolled at Tennessee last week.

Like Hance, the reasons were many. Get ahead in classes. Get adjusted to college life. Get to know the football playbook.

Clausen, who is taking 12 units like Hance, noticed right away college football would be different.

“Everything’s in order,” Clausen said. “Everything’s planned for four months from now. It’s a business here. They’ve got to win and they do what they have to in order to accomplish that.”

The size of the athletes is tough to miss.

“When you walk around the weight room, everybody is All-American this and that,” Clausen said. “Everyone here had the choice to go wherever they wanted.”

So far, neither player has felt homesick. They haven’t been away all that long and they’ve been too busy.

“To be honest, I kind of thought it would be overwhelming to give up your family and senior year,” Hance said. “But it’s not like that because you have no time to think about things.

“It’s very regimented. You have academic meetings or you’re studying film. From morning to night, you’re loaded with stuff.”

Clausen said he still can’t believe the size of his introductory psychology class.

“They don’t take roll there,” he said. “If you want to do good in class, you show up, sit down and take notes. If you don’t want to do well, you don’t show up or you sleep in class.

“College is quite a bit different. There’s a lot of responsibility.”

Both players are familiar with the story of J.P. Losman, the former All-City quarterback at Venice who enrolled early at UCLA last January.

The strong-armed quarterback left UCLA last July and ultimately transferred to Tulane. Under NCAA rules, he sat out last season.

Hance has taken the low-key approach to his new surroundings.

“I didn’t want to go in here thinking I’m a hotshot and have the guys get the wrong perception of me,” Hance said. “I came in here a little quieter and am trying to learn as much as I can. Everybody already has a perception about an L.A. guy, but I wanted to come in here level-headed.”

To further the point, Hance has taken out the earrings he used to wear, one in each ear.

“It was a childhood thing,” he said. “I’m done with that. I’m a college guy now.”

Said Clausen: “There’s always people that are going to say you should have stayed [in high school]. But if somebody wants to do something, I say go for it. It’s the right decision for me.”

Both players are not entirely done with high school.

They will be allowed to go to senior prom and attend graduation ceremonies.

But for now, they’re thousands of miles away, beginning the transition from boys to men eight months earlier than most of their counterparts.