Daily Pilot Football Player of the Week, Blake Hacker: Not short on

desire

Barry Faulkner

The measuring stick for the 2000 Corona del Mar High football team

is a mere 66 inches long. That’s 5-foot-6 and, in this case, 170 pounds

of boundless energy and relentless effort.

Indeed, Coach Dick Freeman likes to think of senior two-way starter

Blake Hacker as a darting, churning, pinballing visual aid. The control

in the ongoing experiment to get the most out of his 50-plus players.

“The way he works is amazing,” Freeman said of the tailback-outside

linebacker, who helped key a 38-35 nonleague victory over Saddleback

Thursday.

“If you want your players to work hard, you have to have an example.

It’s easy to say you’re giving 100%, but if we have anyone wondering what

that’s like, we tell them to just watch Hacker. If you want to gauge how

hard you’re working, all you need to do is watch Hacker.”

Hacker labored for 209 rushing yards, including a 54-yard touchdown,

on 29 carries and posted double-digit tackles on defense against

Saddleback. The performance earned him Daily Pilot Player of the Week

honors and also topped what, until now, had been a frustrating varsity

career as a ballcarrier.

Hampered by a severe ankle injury last season, the former freshman and

junior varsity Most Valuable Player carried only 19 times for 96 yards.

He did earn All-Pacific Coast League laurels on defense, but his favorite

thing to do on a football field is carry the ball.

As the featured back this fall, he managed 166 yards on 39 carries the

first three weeks, as his vastly inexperienced offensive line struggled

against quality opposition.

But, against Saddleback, upon which the CdM brain trust unleashed a

new student-body sweep to help get Hacker more room to rumble, everything

seemed to click.

“Everyone blocked who they were supposed to and the offense came

together,” said Hacker, who, once he gets a hole, can accumulate large

chunks of yardage.

“He’s not going to make his own hole,” Freeman said. “But he’s hard

for only one guy to bring down. His legs are moving all the time and he

has a lot of forward lean. To get him down, you need to get into his legs

and, with his wrestling background, he does a good job of keeping people

away from his legs.”

That wrestling experience, which included a PCL championship and a

fifth-place finish in CIF Southern Section Division IV last season at 160

pounds, has enhanced Hacker’s ability to push himself.

“I’ve always been a competitive person,” he said. “Whatever I do, I

don’t like to lose. Wrestling is, physically, one of the toughest sports

and you have to learn to motivate yourself when you’re tired. You’ve got

to push yourself, because if you let up, then you’ve lost the battle.”

Freeman said it’s tough to tell when Hacker is tired on the football

field, or in the weight room, where he holds all the program’s records in

the cruiser weight class (125-170 pounds).

“He does everything 100%, whether it’s practice, lifting, or a game,”

Freeman said. “He never stops.”

This approach, while admirable, does not come without a price, which

Hacker gladly pays in perpetual and prolonged visits to the trainer’s

room.

“He usually has something wrong with him, whether it’s a sore shoulder

or a leg,” Freeman said. “The injuries haven’t been anything major, but

the pounding he takes is a concern. We’d like to give him more of a rest

on defense, but we’ve had trouble keeping our linebackers healthy, so he

has had to play more than we’d have liked.”

Hacker, still the brunt of occasional short jokes from teammates, is

more then happy to endure the physical toll. Expecting as much, he

approached his offseason weight training with added vigilance.

“I knew I wasn’t going to get any taller and I’m not the fastest guy,

either,” he said. “So I wanted to put on as much muscle as I could.”

Hacker increased his maximum squat 100 pounds to 465 (he also bench

presses 300 and cleans 260), added 10 pounds and lowered his time in the

40-yard dash from 5.0 to 4.6.

“I worked as hard as I could in the offseason, because I didn’t want

to have any regrets. I knew this would be my last year of football.”