GREENSBORO — Duran Lipscomb doesn’t exactly fit the existing mold for football players.

But expect the A.L. Brown High grad to give Catawba College opponents fits in the near future.

Lipscomb is different — from that unusual first name that’s usually associated with boxers and rock stars — to that blocky body you’d expect to find on a catcher, not on someone who spends most of his time catching up to ballcarriers.

Lipscomb, a 5-foot-9 (on his good days) fireplug, won’t impress on first glance, especially from a distance. But when you get up close and personal, you can see how he compensates for being vertically challenged with arms that look like legs and legs that look like the trunks of redwoods. His 69 inches contain 185 pounds of muscle, skin and bone that are packed as tight as a UPS truck on Friday morning. It is safe to say there are goalposts that have a higher percentage of body fat than Lipscomb.

Lipscomb has rare strength and courage, which is why he was able to survive on Wednesday night in the East-West All-Star Game while playing linebacker. When 210-pound backs came his way he stuck his nose in and tackled them. And when 250-pound linemen came his way he aggravated them enough that one of them actually took a swing at him. Fortunately for the lineman, he missed.

Lipscomb has made it a habit of surprising people. He won a starting job on defense at A.L. Brown his sophomore year, which is at least as hard to do as crossing the Pacific in a kayak.

The most surprising thing about Lipscomb has to be his speed.

“His hips aren’t the greatest,” says Catawba grad Glenn Cook, who coaches Wonder running backs. “But his straight-ahead speed is just phenomenal.”

Lipscomb spent a chunk of May working with Florida State’s Nick Maddox on getting out of the starting blocks better. Then Lipscomb went out and surprised even Maddox by finishing second in the state 3A meet in the 100 meters.

“Everyone there was like, ‘Boy, you’re pretty big to be running that fast,’ ” laughs Lipscomb.

West Rowan saw that speed during the 1999 football season. The Falcons and Wonders were locked up 7-7 early in the fourth quarter when A.L. Brown quarterback Justin Hardin made a handoff to a stocky fullback who looked like he might plow straight ahead for a yard.

But the fullback’s name was Lipscomb and instead of getting a yard he plowed for 78 of them — shooting right up the gut and then shooting by a startled secondary for a game-breaking touchdown.

Lipscomb thought he was headed to North Carolina Central until two weeks ago. That’s when he got the good news that he had qualified academically to play for the Indians. Now, coach David Bennett and his assistants just have to figure out where this kid that doesn’t fit the mold fits in.

Is he a fullback? A linebacker? A strong safety?

“I don’t care. I’ll play anywhere” said Lipscomb. “I’m just happy to be going to Catawba.”

Probably what the quiet Lipscomb will be during the early stages of his career is one heck of a special teams player. He’d throw his body in front of a cement mixer if Bennett asked him to stop it.

“I don’t think Catawba will miss a beat anywhere they put Duran,” said Cook. “He works hard and he’s just a very determined kid.”

Wonder head coach Ron Massey, a West assistant who had an opportunity to share a sideline with Lipscomb one last time last night couldn’t praise him enough.

“Kids like that don’t come around all that often,” he said. “Now that he’s getting an opportunity at Catawba, I think he’s gonna make people stand up and take notice.”

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Contact Mike London at 704-797-4259 or mlondon@salisburypost.com .