Felix Rouse is a wide receiver for the Penn football team. But if you've read the DP for at least two years, and especially if you're a faithful reader of the opinion page, you probably recognize his name for another reason -- he was a columnist last fall. And not just any columnist. Last September, Rouse authored perhaps the year's most talked-about column, in which he criticized Penn women for not having enough pride to care about their appearance. An excerpt: "Every person at this university is concerned with their education, but is this truly an excuse to not present one's self in a reasonable manner? Is this any excuse for a woman to look as if she is suffering through finals six days a week?" You probably remember. Even if you don't, right now you're either nodding your head in agreement or shaking your fist in anger. "I have friends now that tell me they still talk about it in class," Rouse says. "A women's studies class passed it out as a discussion topic, and they talked about it. I just wanted to spark some conversation. I don't regret it at all." The column certainly sparked conversation. It generated a huge response and made Rouse a hero or a villain, depending on your point of view. "It's my claim to fame," Rouse says with a laugh. He may forever be associated with that column, but this year Rouse has at least one other claim to fame. The senior earned a starting receiver spot on the football team and has clearly emerged this season as the Quakers' second pass-catching threat behind senior Miles Macik. "We had a void from last year to fill in Leo Congeni and Felix really stepped up," Penn coach Al Bagnoli says. "He was given an opportunity and he did a spectacular job." Although he's only appeared in seven games this year, Rouse has caught 23 passes, second best on the team behind Macik's 61 receptions. What has made Rouse special, however, is his receiving yardage. His total of 425 equates to an average of 18.5 yards per catch. "He's caught everything in sight," Bagnoli says. "He's blocked well, he's made big plays for us and given us a real deep threat." Rouse's performance this season has been especially important as opposing defenses have focused more and more on stopping Macik. He caught six balls for 82 yards and a touchdown against Princeton when Macik was stifled by double- and triple-teaming. "We expected that at the beginning of the year," Rouse says. "Even Miles said that a lot of us were going to have to play well, because this was his last year and a lot of teams were going to be keying on him. So it was no secret that some of the other receivers had to play big this year." "Teams always overload towards Miles when they throw sophisticated defenses at us," Bagnoli says. "We needed somebody we felt comfortable with to throw away from him and Felix has given us that along with [junior receiver Mark] Fabish." Coming out of high school, there was no guarantee Rouse would even be playing football during his senior year at Penn. In fact, his first taste of organized football came during his senior year at the Gunnery School in Connecticut, so being recruited by colleges was not very likely. "I just had a good time playing high school ball," Rouse says. "I picked up the game pretty well and I felt like I could play on the next level. And I said, 'Wherever I'm going I'm going to walk on and try to make the team.' " Rouse, a native of Newark, N.J., was prepared to play at Williams College or Union, but neither school pursued him aggressively. So when Penn accepted him, Rouse decided to walk on with the Quakers. But playing time came hard. He made his first appearance only last year as a junior, catching 10 passes for 168 yards in five games. Rouse was stymied by the team's depth at receiver and his own lack of experience. (Ironically, he received the most attention when he suffered a game injury the same week his infamous column appeared. Some fans recognized Rouse's name and tossed a few boos his way.) "He's had to learn how to play receiver," Bagnoli says. "He's made great improvements in that direction. He had to learn how to shake people at the line of scrimmage, how to sit in open areas, how to read defenses on the run and how to relax when he catches the ball. He came from a small prep school with a pretty unsophisticated offense, so those were difficult adjustments for him." "Last year was my year to get my experience on the playing field, backing up Miles," Rouse says. "It was definitely a learning experience. They needed me to do that, I needed to do that." This season he was ready, and he has responded, catching four touchdowns and being named twice to the weekly Ivy League Honor Roll. Penn football fans recognize him for his receiving prowess as much as for anything he's written. Now, as Rouse heads into the final game of his career against Cornell Saturday, he's making sure he soaks in the entire experience. "This year's been great," Rouse says. "I couldn't hope for anything more. I'm really enjoying myself at this point. Yeah, this is the last game, and I'm going to enjoy that too. I'm not going to get all sad about it. You have to enjoy it."
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