11/18/2003 - Football
Clarity In A Confusing Age

Clarity In A Confusing Age

By Bob Socci

These days one could devote some serious thinking about the great complexities of sport as we now know it.

Much of such thought might be spent trying to muddle through the thick alphabet soup of college football.

Like, does TCU belong in the BCS?

Or, how does USC drop below OSU, even after it beats U of A by 45 points?

Really, can their S.O.S. (strength of schedule) possibly leave the Trojans literally S.O.L. (somewhat out of luck) when it comes time to play for a national title?

And, what about the non-BCS games? Just how many from the ACC and who from the SEC get to go where deserving members of the MAC do not?

These are questions that yield few answers and beget more questions.

Of course, in other sports on campus there are equally vexing issues.

They invoke a dialogue constructed with terms like "Title IX" or "performance enhancement." In too many places, graduation rates are too low. And, many would agree, financial stakes too high.

Matters demanding great thought, they are what trouble the college athletic landscape.

Beyond them, however, are the people who enrich it. Impacting the games they play and coach, they are the ones who keep us turning out and tuning in.

In this column, they're individuals who compete on behalf of the Naval Academy.

You can find them elsewhere too - if by different names, in different sports, in different college colors.

Not necessarily stars, mind you.

But each a story worth telling.

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The latest cliché come to life on the Navy football team is expected to start this Saturday at center.

His name is Marshall Green.

And wearing No. 64 as a sophomore from Baton Rouge, La., he's a walking reminder of the refrain his coach Paul Johnson often sounds - "You're only one play away."

A constant call to take nothing for granted, they're words meant to motivate each player to be prepared when opportunity arises.

Much can change in a mere split second. A single false step can derail one career and jumpstart another.

For Green, who briefly appeared in three early-season games, that "one play" happened to result in an injury to starter Shane Todd.

But this isn't just an example of another line Johnson recites - a case of "one man's misery being another's opportunity."

Green will be in his position, leaning over the football on Saturday, because he too faced - and overcame - adversity.

"Marshall's come a long ways," says assistant coach Ken Niumatalolo. "He was almost going to give up football."

Almost, but not quite, due to a neck injury that jeopardized Green's career.

Given clearance to continue playing, he delivered snaps first as a backup to August Roitsch, who suffered his own season-ending injury.

Then Green was understudy to Todd, until an ailing right foot relegated him to the sideline.

Now, even as he readies for his starting debut, Green continues to reshape his body, still trying to make up for the dramatic weight loss he endured after plebe summer in 2002.

Currently in the neighborhood of 230, he has added at least 10 pounds since last year. Still, Green remains a good 20 pounds short of his desired playing weight.

In time he figures to get there.

After all, this is a guy who's already come to exemplify the importance of hard work.

Without which, he'd be out of position when that one play took place.

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Like Green, Kevin Schwind understands how everything can be altered in the single snap of the ball.

Only his perspective is from the other side of reality, when a season comes to a crashing halt on but one play.

For Schwind, it was in the third quarter of the second game in 2002.

Playing on Navy's defensive line against N.C. State, he caught his left foot in the turf on a cut block and suffered a broken tibia with collateral damage to his knee.

In a matter of seconds, what was supposed to be a senior campaign comprised of twelve games was condensed into six-plus quarters.

"Under my left knee," Schwind told the Baltimore Sun. "The bone on the outside part kind of caved."

Unable to bear his body weight for 10 weeks, Schwind was confined first to a wheel chair and later to crutches. Either way, getting from one class to the next became too difficult.

Schwind temporarily left the Academy, returned to his parents home in Northern Virginia and began rehabbing his injured leg.

He returned to Annapolis and re-enrolled in classes in January, before starting to run a month later. By spring practice, he was back in uniform.

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So far, Marcus Sanders hasn't experienced that one play. At least this year.

Which isn't how it figured to be for someone expected in the preseason to contend for a starting role in the Navy secondary.

But in August, less than two weeks before the season opener, Sanders tore a pectoral muscle.

He's been sidelined since.

As the months passed by and the schedule shortened, Sanders could have walked away from the game, understandably contracting a case of senioritis.

Instead, he's drilled with trainers Jeff Fair and Mike Nagro, on the sidelines, in the weight room.

In doing so, he's positioned himself for a possible return - if not this Saturday, perhaps by early December, in time for Army.

Look for him to be on the field in Philadelphia, in jersey No. 31.

Even, if only for one play.

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There are similar studies in perseverance and toughness elsewhere among these Midshipmen.

You'll find them at other positions in football, and on different fields and courts around the Academy.

One way or another, they have learned about the broken promise of athletics. Whether it has changed their careers for better or worse, they've continued to compete.

Seeking to seize the day. Or, in some instances, simply regain it.

And, even when there is much to ponder about this business of college athletics, at the end of the day they provide clarity to the most important question we can ask.

What, who make it all worthwhile?