Explosive back defuses rebel side to focus on game, studies

Aug 26, 2009

Patrick McManamon, Akron Beacon Journal

ALLIANCE: Don Hertler sat in the end-zone bleachers at Mount Union College on a

late July morning.

His North Canton team had just concluded a morning workout at a football camp.

Hertler took a few seconds and pondered the status and the future for Erick Howard,

his all-everything tailback.

''This is not a movie with a happy ending,'' Hertler said. ''It's a long process.''

Growing up is a long process, isn't it? For anyone?

And might it not provide unique challenges to a young man who moved from

Cleveland to North Canton when he was just a kid? A young man who changed his

approach when it was (by his own admission) dangerously close to spiraling out of

control and who spent last season living in his coach's basement while his mother

resided in Seattle.

''He has a long way to go to reach his goals,'' Hertler said.

A long way to go — even with some significant achievements behind him.

There are two Erick Howards wrapped up in a 5-foot-10, 200-pound body.

There is the one the public sees, the running back who wears No. 5, who darts

through holes and around tacklers as if they are not there.

That's the back who won the state's Mr. Football award after he ran for 1,795 yards

and 25 touchdowns as a junior (regular season).

He's the same back who has drawn the attention of many Football Bowl Subdivision schools, including Ohio State.

He's the football player who comes back as a senior with the goal of getting 2,000 yards in 10 games — but more importantly, winning a state title.

''If our young guys can step up, we can get it done,'' Howard said.

That's the public Erick Howard. The guy who is always in the spotlight.

''All eyes are on me,'' he said. ''When that's true, everything is magnified.''

Is it difficult?

''It gets stressful,'' he said. ''But it's easy to chill.''

Therein lies the dichotomy with Howard and his career. Any junior who wins Ohio's Mr. Football is going to be pulled in many directions.

From friends and people who want to be seen with him, to others wanting him to be around, to focusing on what needs to be done so he can achieve what he wants as a football player — and person.

Howard the senior-to-be can drink in the glory that goes with winning Mr. Football — as long as he doesn't drown in it.

He knows. Because he knows he almost didn't go the right direction.

''I was so rebellious,'' he said. ''I just didn't care.''

The statement was direct and forthright, which Howard is when he speaks. He answers questions expansively and honestly.

He talks about past mistakes, how he got into a bad fight in eighth grade. He candidly admits his first year in high school was not productive, his grade-point average down around the low 1s.

But he said he woke up one day when he was about 16. There was no bright light, no speech, no single incident.

He just woke up . . . awakened.

''My whole perspective on life changed,'' he said. ''I asked myself: Why do I do such dumb things?''

He started to apply himself in school and improved his GPA to much more respectable territory. Hertler said he has gone from being a nonqualifier for a college scholarship to perhaps making the grade.

''He went from needing to pass, to needing to work so he could get B's and C's,'' Hertler said.

Now Howard knows he must improve his GPA further so he can go to a school like Ohio State, which he says he will attend if it offers a scholarship.

''He needs football to go to college,'' Hertler said. ''That's his passion, his love. It's what helps him get up every day. He's like his coach. When football season is here, we're all better off.''

Howard also swing dances, sings in the choir and acts in plays, including South Pacific.

''If he carries some of that passion to his schoolwork, he can have a successful life someday,'' Hertler said.

Howard wound up living with Hertler a year ago in a well-chronicled move that came about because Howard's mother moved to Seattle to be with his sister.

Things went reasonably well. At least as well as they can go for a high school junior who moves in with his coach and has to adapt to new rules, curfews and regulations.

''It was a challenge wearing a lot of hats,'' Hertler said. ''If he becomes a successful person someday, whatever he chooses to do after high school, it will turn out to be one of the most rewarding things I've done as a coach.

''Yeah, it was tough. It was a daily challenge. But he left a nice note for me and my girlfriend [Heather Maxwell of Akron] when he left, and he didn't have to do that.''

Both agreed that after nine months, it was time for Howard to be back with his mother, who had moved back to the area in July.

''She passed the baton to me for nine months,'' Hertler said. ''I passed it back. We're all working our way together in North Canton, as a community, as a school, to help raise a lot of kids.

''It's what we do as teachers and coaches.''

It is, isn't it? Every day in schools, teachers do something extra or coaches go out of their way to help.

It's what they do, and one day Howard will look back and realize what his coach did for him.

''Erick can do whatever Erick puts his mind to doing,'' Hertler said. ''I believe in him, and I don't give up on any kids.''

A senior year awaits. Howard plans to be successful on the field, but he needs to keep himself balanced, to keep working at his studies. Because he needs the grades to keep running.

The story is not finished.

The good thing is that Howard gets to write his own ending.

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Erick Howard defuses rebel side