Carrying Clout : Observers Agree That Skill of Antelope Valley’s Smith Is Unequaled in Southland

Like the turbulent gusts that are born in the area surrounding his native Lancaster, Antelope Valley High senior Tommie Smith can blow you away. In much the same manner as the Santa Ana winds that emanate from the high desert, Smith buffets opponents, yet he remains as elusive as a leaf on a blustery day.

And like tumbleweeds after a December blow, he is seemingly everywhere. His impact, like that of a jackhammer.

“Good Lord, he gets his money’s worth on every hit,” Loyola High defensive coordinator Jon Dawson said. “Our kids still talk about him with respect. They talk about him before they talk about anybody else we played.”

Dawson’s players are hardly members of a small fraternity. Others, such as the players and coaches at Canyon--Antelope Valley’s opponent in the Southern Section Division II final Saturday at Antelope Valley--have been talking about Smith for years.

Smith, 6-foot-2, 210 pounds, is perhaps the most versatile player in Southern California. This season, he has started at safety, tailback and punter, and, according to many, he is among the Southland’s best at all 3 positions. He also returns kicks and punts.

As a sophomore, Smith played tight end and defensive end. As a junior, he started games at tight end and tailback and played every game at outside linebacker.

“He’s the best there is playing high school football,” Canyon Coach Harry Welch said. “That’s it, flat out. “

Flat out is where Smith started placing opponents 2 years ago. While playing defensive end as a sophomore, Smith participated in the biggest--and most painfully infamous--tackle in recent Canyon history. Smith helped stop Canyon quarterback Ken Sollom’s option run for a 2-point conversion inches shy of the goal line in the final moments of Antelope Valley’s 21-20 victory in 1986.

“Maybe it was a harbinger of things to come,” Welch said.

Not only had Smith stopped a quarterback but a string of huge proportions. Smith’s tackle halted Canyon’s 46-game win streak, which had tied the Section record.

Stopping Smith, conversely, has been no easy undertaking. He has rushed for 1,799 yards this season in 235 carries (7.7 average) and scored 26 touchdowns--3 of which came on pass receptions, 3 on kickoff returns, another on an interception return and yet another on a fumble return.

Loyola, which scored 17 points in the fourth quarter to defeat the Antelopes, 17-3, in a nonleague game Oct. 1, was ranked No. 1 in the nation for most of the season. The Cubs faced running backs Derek Brown of Servite (who led the Southern Section in rushing this season) and Russell White of Crespi (the state career rushing and points leader), and finished the season allowing an average of 61 rushing yards a game. Loyola limited Brown to 80 and White, a preseason All-American, to 18.

Smith gained 101 yards in 15 carries against the Cubs--the only player to break the century mark against Loyola all season and more than White and Brown combined. He also matched Loyola’s all-state punter Paul Stonehouse “kick for kick,” according to Dawson. Smith is averaging 38.1 yards a punt.

“If I’m starting a team, the first guy I take is Tommie Smith,” Dawson said. “We’ve played versus Brown, White . . . I’d take him in a moment. Period.”

Smith has earned some punctuation points as a defensive back, too. As punishing as Smith is with the ball, he hits like a sledgehammer without it. Against Loyola, All-Dey Rey League running back Johann Fuller was bruised early and often by Smith, the tactile projectile.

“He hits like a ton of bricks,” Dawson said. “We’ve got a good runner in Fuller, but he’d turn the corner and all of a sudden, you’d see a blur and Smith would knock Fuller right to the ground.”

Smith has been grounded on occasion, however. In Antelope Valley’s Golden League showdown against Canyon in October, he carried 15 times for just 46 yards. On the upside, Smith accounted for the Antelopes’ only score when he threw a 14-yard halfback option pass to give Antelope Valley a 7-0 lead. Smith has thrown 3 scoring passes this season.

Yet, with Antelope Valley trailing, 10-9, in the fourth quarter, Smith fumbled at the Canyon 1-yard line while trying to leap over the middle for the go-ahead score. Canyon’s Chris Peery recovered at the 2, and the Cowboys ran out the clock to preserve the win.

If there is a knock on Smith, it has been his tendency to fumble. Antelope Valley doesn’t keep statistics on fumbles, but even in Smith’s own eyes, it has seemed like a plague. “I’ve made lots of mistakes,” he said. “It seems like I fumble every game.”

Perhaps the ball feels like an anvil at times. In last week’s 23-13 semifinal win over Palmdale, Smith rushed 35 times, gaining 208 yards and carrying for a touchdown. He also scored on a fumble return.

Smith has 11 career interceptions, 2 of which he returned for touchdowns to help pad his school-record career total of 47 scores. And he is averaging 44.4 yards for 12 kickoff returns.

Welch, who is often accused of pregame puffery, stands by his evaluation of Smith.

“He’s the best I’ve seen in all my years as a coach--and that’s only been 24 years, so I guess it’s pretty limited,” Welch quipped.

But Smith can’t play everywhere at once, not in college, anyway. Will Smith--who said he would prefer to play tailback--be asked to play defense in college? Not likely.

“I think the only question is where he places his priority,” said Foster Andersen, a former assistant with the Rams, USC and UCLA, who operates a Northridge-based scouting service.

Andersen said any school that recruits Smith would be foolish to force him into playing out of his preferred position.

“If I was still at USC, I’d ask him where he wanted to play and put him there,” Andersen said. “I remember when I saw him last season. Some players, when they walk out on the field you say, ‘There’s a player.’ Sometimes you just know it.”

Others took notice even earlier. Division I scouts came out 2 years ago to watch Antelope Valley running back Eric Mortensen, who scored 29 touchdowns in 1986 and now plays at BYU, but left with other impressions as well.

“They came to watch Eric,” Antelope Valley Coach Brent Newcomb said. “But all eyes automatically went to the tight end. I had to tell them all that he was just a 15-year-old sophomore.”

Andersen related a story of a current Trojan who had been told by other schools that his future was in the defensive secondary. The player insisted he was qualified to play quarterback.

“When he came in for his recruiting trip, I ran into him,” said Andersen, who at the time was coaching USC’s defensive backs. “We had a nice little conversation, but he basically said, ‘I don’t even want to talk to you.’ ”

The player? Rodney Peete. The lesson? Let the blue chips fall where they may.