Putting together the unbeaten 2000-01 Catawba football team has been like assembling a 100-piece jigsaw puzzle. Some of the pieces were easy to spot. Others required a little more effort — a little more compassion — on the part of the coaching staff.
Star defensive end Shawn Sanders, a 6-foot-2, 225-pound junior, is one of those pieces that required a little extra effort.
It’s been well worth it.
Assistant coach Chip Hester first spotted Sanders when he played for Cary High, near Raleigh. Hester was impressed and wanted to recruit him.”
But there was a major obstacle when the Tribe received Sanders’ transcript.
“He didn’t have the 2.0 GPA,” said head coach David Bennett.
Other schools gave up on Sanders. Catawba didn’t. Not after Bennett had the chance to talk with the kid face to face.
“We met Shawn and all of us thought that, my goodness, here was a kid with character and intelligence,” said Bennett. “We wanted him.”
And Sanders, taken under the wing of a teacher named Kermit Keeter during the final semester of his senior year, turned things around in the classroom.
“He made two A’s and three B’s that last semester,” said Bennett, grinning like it had been his own report card.
The rest is history. Sanders has become a key cog for defensive coordinator Richard Kent’s ferocious troops. An All-SAC selection this season, Sanders is fifth on the team in total tackles (54) and tied for third in tackles for loss (11).
And Sanders couldn’t be happier that Hester and Bennett had faith in him.
“I had never even heard of Catawba when Coach Hester showed up,” said Sanders. “I mean I couldn’t even pronounce Catawba. It was Cat-a-wa-ba to me for a while.”
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While Sanders’ No. 55 jersey has become an unpopular sight to opposing quarterbacks, he has become immensely popular with the Indian coaching staff and his teammates.
“He’s cool,” says defensive tackle Radell Lockhart, who plays right beside of Sanders. “He’s quiet in public, but when he’s with the boys he loosens up some.
“Oh yeah, Shawn is just perfect,” says safety Dyran Peake with a laugh. “I enjoy messing with him a whole lot.”
Peake and Sanders spend much of Saturday’s games — at least the one-sided ones — needling each other.
“Now don’t be making all the tackles,” Peake will chide Sanders.
And Sanders will answer back, “You’re lucky that I’m saving you any at all.”
That wasn’t an issue last Saturday in Catawba’s amazing win over West Georgia. West’s 270-pound fullback Chris Elam, who is sort of a human John Deere tractor, turned the corner and plowed into the 195-pound Peake on several occasions.
“I wish Shawn hadn’t saved me all those tackles on Elam,” Peake said, massaging his sore ribs. “Shawn could have had all those he wanted.”
Sanders is also in serious, but friendly, competition with fellow junior defenders Darris Morris and Shawn McBride for tackles and honors.
Sanders won SAC Freshman of the Year honors, but took a back seat the next fall to McBride, who emerged as 1999’s sophomore sensation. This year, Sanders has been recognized a bit more than his fellow Shawn, although it’s been a tight battle. Sanders made first team All-SAC, while McBride was relegated to second. And if Morris hadn’t missed the first four games this year, he may have challenged both.
“Any of our six (the regulars at defensive end and linebacker) could be all-conference,” said Sanders. “It’s too bad everyone can’t make it.”
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The appealing thing about Sanders is that he had no thoughts at all of stardom when he came to Catawba.
“I was really surprised I didn’t red-shirt my freshman year,” he said. “I was thinking maybe I would, because I was on the third-team on the depth chart. I figured I was the No. 6 man at linebacker.”
Sanders didn’t play at all in the first two games of 1998. But things happened in Game 3. A couple of Indians went down against Mars Hill. Suddenly, Sanders was on the field and suddenly he was making 12 tackles. And suddenly he was a star.
“Shawn did it all,” says Lockhart shaking his head. “Tackles for loss. Sacks. I knew I’d seen that guy in camp and everything, but I wasn’t even sure what his name was. Then, boom, he becomes freshman of the year.”
“When I saw him against Mars Hill, I said, ‘Hey, this kid is gonna be all right,’” chuckles Peake. “And he’s been an impact player since then. I’m glad he’s on our side.”
“Ooh, ooh, ooh is that Shawn fun to watch in that 3-4,” says Bennett sounding like a ‘50s backup singer. “That kid’s a winner and he just won’t quit.”
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Like most of his teammates, this has been the best month of Sanders’ life.
Starting with the Carson-Newman game when his deflection of a Leonard Guyton pass was one of the turning points, through the comebacks against Mars Hill and Lenoir-Rhyne, right up to last Saturday when he surged through and put enormous pressure on West Georgia QB Jeremy Clements every time Catawba was on the ropes.
“I’m always outsized,” says Sanders, “even by the fullbacks and tight ends. Last week, I was fighting past an offensive lineman that must have had me by a hundred pounds. But we did what we had to do and what Coach (Jimmy) Tomsula told us to do. We had to keep getting the ball back for the offense.”
This week, Sanders and his defensive mates will face their biggest challenge of the season in a Delta State team that is unstoppable on paper.
“They average 500 yards per game and last week they had 260 rushing and 260 passing,” said Bennett. “They’ve got two thousand-yard running backs and two thousand-yard quarterbacks.”
But Bennett has Sanders and a bunch of others just like him. A bunch of puzzle pieces that he and his staff searched out in every village and hamlet of Georgia and the Carolinas and then molded into one very special football team.
“You hate to see this sort of season — with kids like this and a staff like this —ever end,” said Bennett. “But I know the day will come when it’ll all be just memories.”
But, oh what memories, they’ll be.
And one of the best ones for Bennett will be the decision he made to recruit a kid named Sanders. The kid whose transcript told him no, but whose heart and character told him yes, yes, yes.
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