By Mike London
mlondon@salisburypost.com
In Catawba’s offensive system, fullback is a collision position.
Thick-shouldered, bull-necked, 220-pound junior Adawi Revels owns one reception, zero carries and a million bumps and bruises after four games, but he’s not looking to change jobs.”I guess no one minds getting carries, but I’m not the offensive coordinator ó that’s Matt Barrett,” Revels said with a chuckle. “I really enjoy blocking, and I’m fortunate that we have talented tailbacks and an experienced line that can make me look good sometimes.”
Revels looks good often enough that it’s hard to believe he arrived at Catawba without fanfare as an invited walk-on. At the rate he’s going, public address announcers around the SAC will be forced to pronounce his unusual first name correctly. It’s A-day-wee, not A-dow-wee.
Revels, whose middle name is Sogwili, is of Native American ancestry. Both his parents are Tuscarora Indians, and he spent his early years in Pembroke. He follows in the footsteps of Darryl Locklear, a Native American who was a defensive standout for Catawba four years ago.
Revels’ father signed him up for Pee Wee ball, and he’s been looking for contact on football fields and wrestling mats ever since.
Revels’ father is a minister, a calling that transplanted the family to Charlotte and then Iredell County.
“He took on two churches near Statesville, and that’s how I ended up at North Iredell High,” Revels said.
Revels excelled as a linebacker for North Iredell and achieved notoriety in wrestling. He won two county and conference championships and placed fourth in the state at 215 pounds as a senior.
Revels aspired to play football in college, but interest was mild.
“The boys basketball coach at North Iredell had gone to Catawba, so I just went up to Coach (Tony) Davenport one day and asked him if he knew anyone at Catawba that he could call about me,” Revels said. “He said he knew D.J. Summers really well.”
That connection opened the door. Summers, once a standout player at West Iredell, was Catawba’s primary recruiter in his home county. Summers managed to beat out Lenoir-Rhyne, and Revels became a low-profile member of Catawba’s 2005 recruiting class.
His life since then hasn’t been all collisions. He has a good time sparring verbally with his roommate, East Rowan graduate Aaron Cauble. They played against each other in high school.
“Aaron always refers to East Rowan as Beast Rowan,” Revels said, rolling his eyes. “I tell him North Iredell beat East in football and wrestling. Aaron tells me East beat us in baseball and track. Unfortunately, it looks like East has the better football team this year.”
Revels was a football redshirt in 2006, although he did excel in wrestling for Catawba’s club team. He finished eighth nationally at 235 pounds and earned All-America honors.
Prior to the 2007 season, Catawba made the decision to shift Revels from linebacker to fullback even though it appeared at the time that gifted Walter Horne might be the long-term answer at fullback.
“It may not seem like it, but fullback and linebacker are very similar positions because of their physical nature,” Catawba head coach Chip Hester said. “Both are big-contact positions. That fullback gets a 5-yard running start and is cracking heads with a linebacker who’s doing the same thing. There are big collisions. Adawi enjoys the contact.”
The switch proved fortuitous, as Revels is now the program’s lone experienced fullback. He played in all 10 games in 2008 and started four. Now he’s the established regular.
“At first, when I made the switch, I was sitting a lot behind Walter and Erik Smith, but I was still fine with it,” Revels said. “Whatever the coaches thought was best for the team.”
Besides blocking and running an occasional pass route, Revels’ duties include a role on the kickoff return team and mentoring 230-pound freshman Aaron Rainey, Catawba’s fullback of the future.
A political science major who plans to pursue a masters degree once football is done, Revels has accepted his changing roles and unglamorous assignments without complaint.
And he keeps improving.
“You want a hitter at fullback, but it’s one thing to hit and another thing to be a good blocker,” Hester said. “Adawi is reading the lines, getting out to the linebackers. He really is one of our most consistent guys, and we value consistency very highly.”
Hester says what Catawba needs to bounce back from Saturday’s loss to Mars Hill is more execution, not more emotion.
Revels is ready to execute more loud collisions with linebackers when Catawba plays host to Newberry on Saturday afternoon.
“I still can’t believe we lost last week,” he said. “But I remember in 2007 when we beat Carson-Newman and then lost to Tusculum the next week. You do learn to take the good with the bad, but it’s time for us to come together and play a game from beginning to end.”