Thursday, September 2, 2004
Timberline star could lay waste to record book
He's fast approaching all-time rushing mark
By MOLLY YANITY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
LACEY -- Wind your way through this neighborly little town and down evergreen-lined Mullen Road. If you don't know the field is behind the school tucked into the trees, you'll drive right by it.
There are no lights on the field that serves as Timberline football's place of practice, and just a small, rickety bunch of bleachers. The goal posts seem to be ancient and the grass is in need of a trim.
Nothing to see here, right?
Wrong.
Jonathan Stewart, the state's top recruit and quite possibly the best Washington running back ever, mows this field with his speed, strength, balance and precision.
Entering his senior season, Stewart is 649 yards shy of the state's career rushing record of 6,128 yards, set by Wahkiakum's Jerrod Moore from 1996-99.
Stewart's mug graces the cover of the Sporting News/Student Sports national high school football preview magazine. Rivals.com ranks him the fourth best running back prospect in the nation, and WashingtonPreps.com says he's the state's best player.
"(He) never, ever goes down on the first hit," said WashingtonPreps.com editor Mike Warschol. "He also has the breakaway speed that will help him tons at the next level. He could quite simply be the best running back ever to come out of the state of Washington."
Stewart has attended the Nike Camp in Eugene, Ore., and twice been named the camp's most valuable player. Last year, he earned The Associated Press' 3A state player of the year honor after a season that included 2,592 rushing yards and 34 touchdowns -- including an eight-touchdown game against River Ridge.
Included in the mounds of mail from college coaches have been scholarship offers from every Pac-10 school except USC, along with letters of interest from Notre Dame, Florida State, Nebraska, Ohio State and Michigan.
"Is there a better back around?" asked Bellevue coach Butch Goncharoff, who watched Stewart rake his Wolverines for 163 yards and a touchdown in Bellevue's 21-14 3A state quarterfinal victory last November.
Patrick Pacheco, a senior lineman for Timberline, said of Stewart: "He's incredible. It's fun to watch him, but it's even more fun to block for him."
With all the attention surrounding him, though, Stewart fits right into the serene landscape at Timberline.
While his physical stature sets him apart -- he's 5 feet 10, 224 pounds and looks like a fully-developed man with muscles straining against his t-shirt and circling his arms -- his demeanor is sweet, quiet and sincere.
"I try to keep myself humble. I won't get big-headed. I'll stay at a level where I look at all of this and am just thankful," he said with a shrug. "I mean, I'm not the greatest running back in the world by far."
Deeply religious, Stewart said there is nothing like the feeling of breaking a tackle or two and seeing open field in front of him. It's liberating, in a way.
"You feel like you have a lot of power," Stewart said, staring off toward the far end of the field at Timberline. "Like you're unstoppable."
Then he snaps out of it, thanks God, his offensive line, his mother Lora Faison and her former boyfriend, who refused to switch off a football game for a World Wrestling Federation event that a 9-year-old Stewart wanted to watch.
"It was the first time I remember sitting down and actually watching football," Stewart said. "(Shortly thereafter) they broke up, but I'd still call him to come over and play catch."
Faison didn't want her son to play football at first, fearing he would get injured. But by Stewart's seventh-grade year, things changed. Other boys stayed skinny and his body became "cut," he said.
"He's physically mature beyond anything I've seen," Timberline coach Kevin Young said. "He has had a man's body since he was a freshman."
Stewart said he didn't realize what he could do on a football field until his freshman year in a breakout game against Chehalis.
"It was homecoming and I wasn't starting, but I went in and had 256 yards on 10 carries. I really realized I could do some things," he said.
As his skills and body continued to develop, Stewart's ego never did.
"That is for real," Young said. "He's honestly humble and just not big-headed. That might even be better than the yards -- that he's not a problem and doesn't create any problems."
Young worried when Stewart came up his freshman year, fearing resentment and jealousy from players and parents. Yet where issues could have risen, yards happened instead. Victories happened.
The Blazers turned back-to-back 5-4 seasons into an 11-1 campaign in 2003 that ended with that loss to Bellevue.
"It felt good to get to state last year and then increase it (by getting deep into playoffs)," Stewart said. "The best way to make this year better would be to get back and win state."
With Stewart leading the way, that would be something to see.
