Canton
[FONT=Verdana,Times New Roman,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Alliance quarterback Charles Babb rewriting the record books[/FONT]
Thursday, October 5, 2006 [FONT=Verdana,Times New Roman,arial,helvetica,sans-serif]By JOSH WEIR REPOSITORY SPORTS WRITER[/FONT]
ALLIANCE - The next Charles Babb? Alliance High School football coach Ron Kuceyeski won?t hold his breath.
?I don?t think we?ll ever see another one like him,? Kuceyeski said about his four-year starting quarterback.
Catch the show while you can. Time is running out. Babb has the Aviators leading the Northeastern Buckeye Conference and poised for a return to the playoffs as they make the short trip to Beloit on Friday to face West Branch.
Babb also has been busying rewriting the record books.
Last week at Minerva ? on the same field where he threw a late TD pass to win his first varsity game as a freshman ? Babb tied Stark County?s all-time touchdown passes record of 63, set by former Massillon star Justin Zwick. Babb already holds Alliance records for career TDs, passing yards (5,257), total offense (6,514), single-game TD passes (6) and single-season TD passes (20).
In his cross hairs are the county?s career passing yard mark of 5,830, held by McKinley?s Ben McDaniels (1996-98), and Alliance?s single-season yard mark of 1,638, held by NFL Hall of Famer Len Dawson (1951-52).
It?s hard for Babb to fathom.
?I?m really happy to be up there with the best players in Stark County history when it comes to quarterbacks,? he said. ?You don?t want to be thinking about breaking records during the game. The main goal is to win and get better.?
In previous years, Babb was either scrambling like a madman or winging the ball downfield like a mad bomber. Now, he?s progressed as a complete quarterback, something for which Kuceyeski credits assistant coach Mike Schott.
Babb described it as ?being smarter, checking off receivers, not just looking at one receiver and throwing, making two or three reads before you decide to run.?
?It?s hard when you?ve got Coty Bates and Chris Bivins, who both have height and speed, to not throw it 60 yards and go deep every play. But that?s just part of maturing. You want to sustain drives and eat the clock away.?
A GLIMPSE OF THE FUTURE
Babb, who was born in Washington D.C. and moved to Alliance when he was 3, has always been mature for his age. Kuceyeski remembers him as a 160-pound freshman, making two defenders miss and running over two more for a TD against Lake. He remembers the Randall Cunningham-like scramble and TD pass to Josh Baker in a regional semifinal loss to Northwest in 2004, calling it Babb?s defining moment.
McDaniels, in his first year as quarterbacks coach at McKinley, has never seen Babb play. But he can identify with the pressure of playing QB as an underclassman.
?Kids who can come in and play as freshmen, sophomores or even first-year starting juniors, that?s tough,? McDaniels said after a Bulldogs practice. ?To speak to a career-long record is a tribute to him and his ability to handle all the pressures, bumps and bruises and learning experiences along the way.?
It?s all come to a head this year. Babb has 20 TDs and 1,465 yards against only four interceptions. He?s run for another 455 yards. The Aviators are 5-1 overall, 3-0 in the NBC.
?As a quarterback, it becomes easy when the game starts slowing down and everything isn?t coming at you 100 miles per hour,? said McDaniels, who led McKinley to state titles in 1997 and 1998. ?The only thing that can get you to that point is game experience. So getting those games under your belt as a young guy, learning from all the experiences, the successes and more importantly the failures, is what gets you better along the way.?
Making room at the top
Dawson doesn?t mind that his records are falling. He set the Alliance single-season TD mark at 19 in 1952, a mark Babb passed last week. Babb also is 174 yards away from breaking Dawson?s single-season yardage mark.
?Hey, records are made to be broken,? Dawson said by phone Wednesday. ?That?s the thing about football. The game has changed so much that I?m shocked any of them still stood. I mean, that was over 50 years ago. I hope it doesn?t take another 50 years for these to be broken.?
The Aviators of Dawson?s era ran a fullhouse backfied, with a fullback, two halfbacks and two tight ends. Rarely was anyone split out wide, and everything basically came off of play-action.
?We didn?t even have facemasks,? the 71-year-old Dawson joked.
Dawson also laughed at the idea of starting as a freshman or sophomore like Babb. What was he at that age?
?I was on the fifth team,? Dawson said. ?I was nobody.?
ALLIANCE?S BEST EVER?
With apologies to Dawson and other Alliance QB greats, Kuceyeski calls Babb ?the greatest package of a quarterback? Alliance has seen. The 210-pound Babb has run for 1,257 yards and 13 TDs in his career.
?When he scrambles, we as coaches turn into fans too,? said Kuceyeski, who singles out Babb?s leadership and his 3.7 grade-point average.
?Over the last four years, he?s single-handedly meant more to our resurgence than anyone,? Kuceyeski said. ?That?s no disrespect to Kendell Davis and Chris Banks, but really Charles is the main guy.?
Unlike Davis (Michigan State) and Banks (Indiana), Babb has no Division I scholarship offers. That?s not to say there isn?t interest. Kuceyeski has 10 highlight tapes on his desk being sent out to coaches. University of Colorado assistant Darian Hagan, who as a QB led the Buffs to their only national title in 1990, called this week to inquire about Babb.
Babb said the process is frustrating, but is aware of the claims that, at 6-foot, he is too short to play quarterback in college, or that he?d be better suited to play running back or on defense at the next level.
?I hear a lot of people saying I?m a good athlete and a good player, but then when you don?t get the feedback from college coaches, it kind of wears on you a little,? he said.
?There?s a place out there for you; you just got to wait and see where it?s at.?
