FLOURNOY FLOURISHING IN FALL RECEIVER SHOWING TALENT FOR MAKING THE BIG PLAY.

Byline: RAMONA SHELBURNE 

Staff Writer

The special ones carry themselves a little differently. Confident, but not overbearing. Easygoing, but also serious.

On the football field, they don't run as much as they glide. Their movements are a twitch quicker than everyone else, their body adjustments a little smoother.

And it doesn't take long to pick them out from the rest. A play or two, at most.

De'Von Flournoy is one of those football players.

If you stand on the sidelines at Birmingham High of Lake Balboa long enough, people whisper to you that when all is said and done, Flournoy could be the best player ever to come from the school.

They keep it on the downlow, because on a team that has major-college prospects like running back Milton Knox and linebacker Donovan Carter, it's a little presumptuous to suggest that a 16-year old kid who only began playing football two years ago and is still learning how to run routes could ever end up being better.

But you watch Flournoy play, even just in practice, and you can see it, too.

"He's just got this natural ability," assistant coach Kevin Thomas said. "He's a once-in-a-decade talent."

There's a temptation, as a coach, when a player like Flournoy walks through the door, to rush him. His gift is obvious, maybe overwhelming, and all you can think to do with it is throw it out on the football field and see what happens.

Birmingham coach Ed Croson felt that. But he's also been around the game long enough to know that you've got to fight that temptation with every ounce of discipline you've got, because the real way to ruin a player like Flournoy is to put him out there too soon, let him get hit too hard, and walk away from the game for good.

Talent like his is like an orchid. There's a million and one ways to kill it, but when you grow it right, the flower is stunning.

"Playing football in pads and getting hit is a lot different than seven-on-seven," Croson said. "You can get hit hard enough that you don't like it and never want to come back because you think every hit is going to be that hard. I've had guys like that.

"And I've seen a lot of seven-on-seven wonders. But that doesn't make you a football player."

The lack of experience was even more pronounced with Flournoy, a well-rounded kid who modeled professionally when he was younger and spends his downtime doing some very unfootball-like things.

"I don't know if he'd want me to share this, but he's a really talented poet," his mother, Gina Sexton- Gumbs, said. "He writes poetry that'll make you cry. And it's because he's so sensitive and got such a big heart."

When Flournoy was growing up, his mom worried people would take advantage of his kind nature, or worse, that they'd shame him for it. So when they'd go to the park after church on Sundays, she showed him how to be tough.

"We'd play catch with the football all the time, and every time I dropped one, she'd throw the next one harder at me," Flournoy said. "I always remember that. It's what made me who I am today."

The original plan was to keep Flournoy on the junior varsity team last season. He'd get hit there, but not hard enough to scare him, and he'd star against the inferior competition, building his self-confidence.

The plan lasted two weeks.

In his second-ever tackle football game, a JV game against powerful Long Beach Poly, Flournoy caught threetouchdown passes. No one could stay with him. No one could tackle him. Everyone wondered why he wasn't playing with the big guys.

With the varsity team off to an 0-2 start and its receivers underachieving, Croson knew he couldn't wait.

"It was obvious he was too good for this level," JV coach Vincent Johnson said. "We couldn't keep him down there for too long."

In his first game with the varsity, Croson wanted to bring Flournoy along slowly. He penciled him in for about 10 plays against Valencia.

On his seventh play of the night, Flournoy caught a game-tying 75-yard touchdown. It changed the game, and later, many realized, the season.

"It was a little stop-and-go route," Flournoy said. "After I caught it, I didn't want to get hit, so I just ran like crazy to get away from the guy. That's how I pulled away."

Two weeks later, in a hard-fought victory against City Section rival Dorsey, Flournoy caught another touchdown. Each week, he got better.

By the end of the season, he had 22catches, 623 receiving yards and seventouchdowns.

Word of his talent spread quickly to college recruiters, most of whom had come out to watch his more heralded teammates. By the end of the year, Flournoy was starting to get letters from some of the best college football programs in the country. The secret was out.

Not bad for a kid who once watched a Birmingham game from the sideline and winced at how violent the action was.

"I saw the way Milton (Knox) would get hit and I was like, 'I don't know about this,'" Flournoy said. "So when I started playing, I picked out the biggest, safest helmet they had. It's the kind linebackers and offensive linemen use."

He's since switched helmets. Not the smallest one, but not the biggest either. He's also switched throwing partners.

Now, wide receivers' coach Jerome Riley fires balls at him, and just like his mom, Riley pushes him.

"When I miss one, I've got to do 10 fingertip pushups," Flournoy said. "I don't know, but I think he throws it harder at me, because I definitely do the most fingertip pushups of anyone."

It's paying off.

Last week against Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks, underneath the bright lights and in front of a national television audience, De'Von Flournoy made the play of the night.

Birmingham had jumped out to 14-0 lead on the Knights, but in the second half, you could feel Notre Dame starting to build momentum. Quarterback Dayne Crist was finding his rhythm, and it seemed only a matter of time before Birmingham cracked.

A fumble, an interception, a missed coverage, something bad was coming. You could feel it. Everyone could.

In moments like these, some players turn to mush. Their stomach flutters, their legs feel weak. They start picturing all the bad things that could happen to them, then lose focus just long enough to make their prophecies come true.

The great players, the special ones, stay calm. Everything slows down for them. Their focus grows stronger, but from the outside, they just look calm.

That is how Flournoy looked after Notre Dame cut his team's lead to 14-7 on the opening drive of the third quarter. While everyone else was saying, "here we go again," Flournoy jogged toward the northwest corner of the field for the kickoff.

The ball bounced once in front of him and he picked it up. At first it seemed like nothing much would happen. There wasn't much of a lane.

Flournoy didn't need one.

He just ran by everyone. No one could catch him. Two guys slid off his shoulder pads. And Flournoy just seemed to glide. Ninety yards. Touchdown.

He looked back and saw his team celebrating wildly. He looked over at the Notre Dame sideline and saw a few players shaking their heads.

Then he smiled.

"Just seeing everyone on my team so happy," he said. "That was great."

He was in full bloom.

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CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Birmingham's De'von Flournoy catches a pass in front of Long Beach Poly's Jeffrey Johnson.

(2) no caption (De'Von Flournoy)