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Klamath Crusaders Semi - Pro Football |
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Pioneer Press Fort Jones, CA Wednesday, April 9, 2008 Page 21, column 1 pioneerp@sisqtel.net Pay it Forward (But Hit ‘Em Hard) By Phil Hayworth Standing at 5-feet, 8-inches tall and 140 pounds, Zhuo Yuan Qian is an unlikely football figure. The diminutive Klamath Crusaders wide-receiver walked onto the semi-pro team this season with zero football experience, but his desire to play the all-American game is like a 300-pound monster roaring to get out. “I’m here because I want to learn the game and I want the confidence,” Qian said. Camaraderie, too, drove Qian onto the practice field last Saturday – and not even the sudden snow flurry and freezing temperatures kept him from suiting up and showing up. He came to America from Shanghai, China seven years ago, he said. Today, he’s about as American as a guy can get. And he was pumped, he said, to take on the Springfield Buzzards club this Saturday. He missed the Crusaders’ first game against the Eugene High Desert Lightening and so the Buzzards would be his first taste of an opponent. “I’m ready,” he said – a bit of innocent swagger in his words. “Yeah, he’s a tough little guy,” admitted Don Gruener, Crusaders administrator. “It’s that kind of player that makes this thing worthwhile.” But while Qian, 21, might be new to the game, most of the 60 or so players on roster this year are football veterans. Most have played high school ball here and around Oregon. Some have played college ball. Some have played semi-pro here or in the military leagues. But all are full-time fathers, brothers, sons, uncles and employees with a deep love for the game and the pain that a good “stick” brings to the beating heart of the football player. They play for free, they say, but the emotional and physical payback is awesome. The only problem, admitted Head Coach Don Nelson, is that most of his team this year are rookies to the semi-pro Oregon Football League. “They’ll learn,” Nelson confidently said. They’d better learn fast. Because last Saturday, they got torn up pretty bad by the Eugene Lightening. “We were down 38 to zip in the first half,” Nelson said, “but we shut them down in the second half.” What happened in between? “I chewed them out pretty good,” said Defensive Coordinator Kent Taylor. Taylor has been on the receiving end of those “inspirational” half-time speeches himself. Now a coach, he was a player until recently. Indeed, many of the coaches on the Crusaders’ staff were players themselves. Stranger yet, some coaches are still high-school coaches here, and Nelson’s own son, Rocky Nelson, is a Crusader now who once coached at least two men from his Bonanza High School football club now playing for the Crusaders. “Yeah, I guess they want to take a bite out of the old coach,” he joked.But they’d better be careful. While football is a team sport and players rarely want to blast one of their own, Rocky is a handful – and his former charges aren’t exactly in the same weight class as the 215-pound linebacker. This year will likely be a learning experience for the Crusaders, who in years past have had winning records and even took home the OFL championship. Veterans like Rocky and seven-year vet Jantz Kahl – a speedy 280-pound defensive end and head hunter – are the teams “institutional knowledge” and leaders who will likely have to bring the others up to speed. No problem, says Kahl. “We’re young, inexperienced,” he admitted, “but we’ll be fine.” In the end, the Crusaders – all of them, from the smallest to the biggest – are in it for the love of the game, win or loose. “My girlfriend actually was the one who suggested that I come out for the team,” said Cameron Robinson, a 5-foot, 8-inch, 150-pound wide receiver who played for Mazama High. “She’s all for it.” It keeps him out of trouble, he says, and helps to keep him in shape. His girlfriend knows he loves the game – and if he’s happy, then she’s happy, he figures. Indeed, the semi-pro team is a way for grown men to keep fit and stay out of the trouble that so often menaces young men in a town where there is little organized sports outside of high school or college. “We’ve had guys on the team who came out of prison,” said Coach Nelson. “They come up to me and say, ‘Coach, thank you for all the help.’” For Nelson, it’s not so much a matter of helping as it is “paying it forward,” he said. “Look, it’s about helping others to help others,” he said. “If a guy can pass it on, pay it forward to someone out there in the community, then that’s what it’s all about.”The term comes from a 2000 movie starring Kevin Spacey where a school social studies assignment leads to social changes that spread from city-to-city. Assigned to come up with some idea that will improve mankind, a young boy decides that if he can do three good deeds for someone and they in turn can “pay it forward” and so forth, positive changes can occur.With that in mind, Nelson said he and the Crusaders hold Pop Warner football camps and other events designed to help Klamath kids overcome and thrive in a world where too often young people go un-helped and unnoticed. But that won’t happen under his watch, Nelson said. “Giving back means everything to me,” he said. The Crusaders collect $5 from the 900 to 1,000 attendees at their seven games each season, and at least $4,000 of that goes back to Klamath high schoolers in the form of scholarships. The rest, he figures, goes back to the team. For example, it cost him $12,000 to pay for the new uniforms for this year’s team. Now decked out in Oregon Ducks’ green and yellow, the team has the sharpest-looking uniforms in the league. That’s big time marketing for the team and a big-time pride for the boys from Klamath, who travel the state representing the valley and the families who support their football heroes. Just take a look at their Website, www.klamathcrusaders.com. Jantz, for example, is a seventh year veteran, attended Mazama High School and College of the Siskiyous, played one year for Mazama High School and one year for COS, is a department manager for an automotive dealership, is married and has one son and one daughter.Or take Rafael Hernandez -- a 200-pound running back. It’s his 2008 season rookie and Hernandez attended Lost River High School and Southern Oregon University, played four years for LRHS, is a real estate appraiser, is married and has one son. Most Crusaders are family men – or soon to be – and integral elements of the Basin community. So the next Saturday where you’ve got time to kill, come out to the Crusader’s game. The money you spend – and the time that you give – will surely come back to you and the Basin community. To see the roster, schedule and pictures, go to: www.klamathcrusaders.com. To comment, email: presscomment@yahoo.com.
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