Speed’s in the Air All Around Burgess

If a college football recruiter wants to meet with receiver Rudy Burgess of Desert High, getting past a soldier armed with an M-16 rifle is the first step.

Desert is a public high school in the middle of Edwards Air Force Base, which is a sprawling 301,000 acres and has its own Burger King, Pizza Hut, bowling alley and 18-hole golf course.

Once through the gate of Edwards, where America’s fighter planes are tested, coaches begin to understand where Burgess receives his inspiration for speed.

On any given day, look up and there’s a B-1B bomber gliding like an eagle or an F-117 stealth fighter swooping across the Antelope Valley.

Testing is underway for the F/A-22 “Raptor,” the Air Force’s newest jet fighter, so if football practice is disrupted by an occasional glance upward, no one is surprised.

“It’s real cool,” Burgess said of attending high school on an Air Force base. “We see so much it kind of gets old. I know if someone else came out to the base, they’d be in awe looking at the planes.”

Coaches can be in awe watching Burgess, a 5-foot-10, 165-pound senior with 4.4 40-yard speed and unquestionable athletic skills.

He leads Desert in tackles, has caught six touchdown passes, scored seven touchdowns as a running back, returned two punts for touchdowns, returned a kickoff for a touchdown, returned two fumble recoveries for touchdowns and returned an interception for a touchdown.

In track last season, he finished fourth in the state long jump, won the Southern Section Division IV 100 meters and has bests of 6-8 in the high jump, 10.80 seconds for the 100, 24-8 1/4 in the long jump and 47-10 in the triple jump.

He lived in New York, Mississippi and England before arriving at Edwards Air Force Base in 1994. His father is a retired Air Force staff sergeant.

Before Burgess enrolled at Desert as a freshman, the football team had three consecutive 0-10 seasons. People told his father it would be better to send his son to another school.

“A lot of people said, ‘You’re only going to get noticed if you go to a big school,’ ” Burgess said. “I figured if you’re good enough, you’ll get noticed. It’s up to you to get that exposure.”

Burgess helped Desert win the High Desert League title, finish the regular season 10-0 and earn a No. 2 seeding in the Division XII playoffs. The Scorpions have advanced to the semifinals after a 61-8 victory over Los Angeles Salesian and a 42-32 victory over North Hills L.A. Baptist.

He has made recruiting trips to Washington State and Oregon State, with visits set up for Oregon, Washington and Arizona State.

Burgess has attended public schools on military bases all his life and wasn’t going to change, though he lives only a couple of blocks from Rosamond High.

Most of his friends are sons and daughters of military personnel. He knows they can be at school one day and be gone the next, only to return a year or two later, depending on deployment papers.

“You never know who you’re going to meet again in the future,” he said.

Desert running back Jason Napoleon was one of Burgess’ best friends when the two were living in England. The Air Force transferred Burgess’ father to Edwards, then Napoleon’s father followed.

Thanks to the Air Force, Burgess has visited France, Italy, Belgium, Holland and Germany. The Eiffel Tower in Paris made a memorable impression.

“Going up all the way to the top is a real experience,” he said.

So is the thrill of watching a space shuttle land at Edwards when the weather prevents it from landing in Florida.

“You sit there in the bleachers, wait until the sonic boom comes and you see it coming out of space,” he said. “It’s weird. You feel excited, then it lands and you’re amazed.”

While Burgess has interests in computer graphics and animation, his ability to run fast will earn him a college scholarship. And his everyday environment of watching fast planes streak above serves as a reminder what speed means in football.

“I feel kind of privileged,” he said. “It’s like watching ‘Top Gun’ and seeing Maverick do the maneuvers.”

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Eric Sondheimer can be reached at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com