High school football stars find hope with lightweights

At most schools, Rich Miller's dream of playing college football would have been over. Miller was not recruited to play Penn football. Now Penn coach Al Bagnoli was telling him the truth. The hard truth. He was last on the wide receiver depth chart. His chances of playing on Saturdays were between, well, none and none. It was Miller's choice. He could serve another year on the scout team, miming the opponent's offense to prepare the Penn defense for battle. Then on Saturdays, he cold wait for the chance to see game action. And wait?.And wait. He could quit. Or he could talk to Bill Wagner about playing lightweight football. Only five schools still play lightweight football. Fortunately for Miller, Penn is one of the quintet. So instead of spending his Saturdays on the sidelines, Miller spends them recovering. Friday night is Miller's time. The stands are empty. The band is home. The cheerleaders don't "want a touchdown." Miller, though, is playing again. And playing well. Lightweight coach Bill Wagner switched Miller to tailback, the position he played in high school. He has since shouldered the load for the Quakers' running game. In the Quakers win over Princeton two weeks ago, Miller earned Eastern Lightweight Football League Player of the Week honors when he rushed for 117 yards and two touchdowns. For the season, he leads the lightweights with 232 yards. "There is a lot more prestige playing on the varsity team," Miller said. "But that doesn't really appeal to me. I just want to play." It is the mantra of lightweight football. We are out here because we want to be. We may be too small or too slow to play big-time football, but we are out here to have fun. "The heavyweights have an excellent coaching staff and great players and they get the job done," Miller said. "But for me, it just wasn't fun anymore." Lightweight is the little man's revenge. The linemen don't block out the sun. Still, the hitting can be fierce. "I get hit hard," Miller said. "I get hit not by one or two, but three or more people. I get gang tackled. It is faster, so at the point of impact you are getting hit a lot harder. They are not as big, so it is not as overpowering, but you get hit hard." Miller is one of three lightweights who have spent time with Bagnoli's bunch. Freshman Adam Etre and sophomore Bill Goebel also made the switch to lightweight after the Quakers' fall camp in Lawrenceville, N.J. "The way I looked at it is that if I wasn't loving it, there was no way I was going to kill myself for three months," Etre said. Heavyweight would have meant switching his afternoon classes, leaving for road games on Thursdays and riding the bench. All the other stuff is worth it if you play, but not to sit. And 165-pound free safeties do a lot of sitting. "Originally I was thinking of not even going to camp, but I couldn't give up a shot," Etre said. The door is still open for Etre to bulk up and go to spring practice, but he will probably stay with the lightweight program. So will Bill Goebel. Of the three lightweights who played heavyweight, Goebel was the most heavily recruited. He entered fall camp believing he had a shot at kicking the short field goals. After a poor camp, though, he decided to make the switch to lightweight. Goebel had one advantage over the other two. "I don't have any problems making weight," Goebel said. Miller dropped about 10 pounds and Etre five. Still, both have to keep their weights below the 159-pound limit. Before the weigh-in for the Princeton game, Miller was out running laps to sweat off the last six-tenths of a pound. The practices, sweating and sacrifice are all worth it when you play. All three thank Al Bagnoli for being honest instead of keeping them around as insurance against injuries. And all three have no regrets about the switch. "I love it," Miller said. "I think it is a great league and something that should be around at more schools. There are a lot of small guys who want to play football."