COLLEGE FOOTBALL: SMALL ROOTS, BIG TALENT : BORON'S SHEASLEY SHINES AT BAKERSFIELD COLLEGE.Byline: Gerry Gittelson Staff Writer Coming from a small town never stopped ex-Boron High football star Richie Sheasley from dreaming big. Sheasley, 1998's Daily News small-schools Player of the Year, has emerged at Bakersfield College BC was founded in 1913 and initially housed on the campus of Bakersfield High School (then Kern County Union High School) before moving in 1956 to its current location "on the hill" in northeast Bakersfield. . He's the Renegades' leading receiver with 17 catches (13.0 avg.) and two touchdowns. ``I remember when I first got here, the other players were saying, `You're from Boron boron (bōr`ŏn) [New Gr. from borax], chemical element; symbol B; at. no. 5; at. wt. 10.81; m.p. about 2,300°C;; sublimation point about 2,550°C;; sp. gr. 2.3 at 25°C;; valence +3. ? Were they in a handicapped league?' '' Sheasley said. ``Nobody had really heard of me. But I've proven that small-school players can play.'' Sheasley, a 6-foot-4, 230-pounder, is out to prove his accomplishments at Boron - he scored 26 touchdowns as senior and had 31 career interceptions, second in state history - weren't a product of inferior competition. They were merely a circumstance of his surroundings, Sheasley swears. ``I've got bigger plans,'' said Sheasley, who didn't meet NCAA NCAA abbr. National Collegiate Athletic Association academic requirements after high school. ``I've been talking to Noun 1. talking to - a lengthy rebuke; "a good lecture was my father's idea of discipline"; "the teacher gave him a talking to" lecture, speech rebuke, reprehension, reprimand, reproof, reproval - an act or expression of criticism and censure; "he had to UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX .'' For Sheasley, Bakersfield is quite a metropolis compared to Boron. ``The biggest difference has nothing to do with football,'' he said. ``It's just nice to be able to go to McDonald's. I've put on 25 pounds, so I'm definitely not the fastest guy on the field anymore.'' Sheasley plans to work on his speed so by next year he'll be fully ready to play major college football. ``I'm going to work my butt off during the summer,'' he said. He's also concentrating on his classwork, and he said won't achieve anything less than C in all of his classes this semester. For now, he's enjoying the attention of playing in front of larger crowds, as the Renegades (5-1) have attracted as many as 5,725 fans to their home games. The local ABC ABC in full American Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. television network. It began when the expanding national radio network NBC split into the separate Red and Blue networks in 1928. affiliate recently did a television news feature on him. |
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