HIS BIG D: DETERMINATION GRANADA HILLS HIGH GRAD'S HARD WORK EARNS HIM NFL SHOT.

Byline: Matthew Kredell Staff Writer

OXNARD - Not since the John Elway era has a Granada Hills High player gone on to the National Football League - until Jamal Brooks.

Jamal who?

``I coached a player named Jamal Brooks,'' said his and Elway's former high school coach, Daryl Stroh. ``I'm not sure he is the same one you're talking about.''

Told that Brooks was on the training camp roster of the Dallas Cowboys and likely to make America's Team as a special teams player and backup middle linebacker, Stroh responded in disbelief: ``He is?''

Brooks, 24, was a good high school player, starting at linebacker and tight end. He was a team captain his senior year, making second-team all- conference with 77 tackles and 16 catches for one touchdown.

But NFL players aren't second-team all-conference, too slow and too small for the big time. They are all-state, or at least all-city. They are the elite of the elite.

Unless they truly believe and work as hard as Brooks has.

``I really knew I could do it when I played in the Daily News All-Star Game,'' said Brooks, now 6 feet 2 inches and a bulked-up 240 pounds.

``I dominated the game. I had three sacks. I had a hell of a game and started thinking maybe it's not so much that I can't do it but that I need to be put in the right situation.''

His former coaches couldn't imagine the right situation would ever come along.

``It's kind of surprising because of all the guys that go through the football program, he wasn't like all-world,'' said Granada Hills co-coach Tom Harp. ``He was a hard worker, but the NFL? I mean, you just would never know.''

Stroh and Harp didn't even know Brooks had tried out for the New Orleans Saints last year. Brooks was cut before the season started, but got a good recommendation to play in NFL Europe. His performance for the Scottish Claymores got him invitations to camp from four NFL teams.

He chose the Cowboys but was just a warm body to fill out the roster when camp started, a third-string linebacker not expected to make the team.

Brooks' performance has changed that. He jumped over undrafted rookie J.J. Jones - who attended football power Arkansas while Brooks went to a small college - to second on the depth chart at middle linebacker behind Dat Nguyen. He is also first string on special teams.

``I think Jamal is another guy with an excellent chance of making the team,'' Cowboys coach Dave Campo said. ``You can't make the team with one game, that's why you have to continue to do great things in practice and the games, and Jamal is doing that.''

It's been a long road from the days when he was bused into Granada Hills High from the inner city. Brooks had never played football as a child. It wasn't until his freshman year, when an injury forced him in as the starting varsity fullback that Brooks began playing the sport regularly.

Brooks, who graduated from Granada Hills in 1994, started playing linebacker as a junior, but wasn't very big and didn't have great speed. He had grown by the time he was a senior and had his first standout season.

That helped him get into Hampton University - a 5,000-student Division I-AA school in southeastern Virginia and a football backwater.

But for Brooks it was the right situation.

Never a good student in high school, he became a Burger King Scholar Athlete and graduated with honors. If football doesn't work out or after a career in the NFL, Brooks plans to return to school to become a lawyer.

``I promised my parents I would get my degree from college,'' Brooks said. ``But getting my law degree and my master's, I promised that to myself.''

Surprisingly, to those who saw him play in high school, the law will probably have to wait.

Jimmy Landress was the starting quarterback for Granada Hills when Brooks played. Landress' father, Steve, is a teacher and former coach at Cleveland High in Reseda.

Told that his son's former teammate was on the Cowboys, Steve said, ``Are you sure about that?''

Brooks admits that, for those who saw him play in high school, the idea he could play in the NFL would seem far-fetched.

``They used to call me a budding star,'' Brooks said. ``It's just that in high school, it didn't blossom for me. Second-team all-conference is a big difference from the Dallas Cowboys. There are people who are All-America who don't get to play in the NFL.''

Jimmy Landress, now a bartender going to school at Mesa College in San Diego, was surprised to find out the story on his former teammate.

``He was a good leader who worked hard,'' Jimmy said. ``He was a nice guy too. I'm really happy for him. But if he's NFL status, he certainly wasn't that in high school.''

Playing in Oxnard is a homecoming for Brooks, giving him the opportunity to see some of his friends and family in the area, including his father, Ray, who lives in Pasadena.

Brooks had circled last Saturday's game against New Orleans as a chance to pay back the team that released him. He finished with four tackles, two on special teams and two at linebacker, prompting Campo to single him out for his performance.

Cowboys teammates have also noticed Brooks' hard work.

``Jamal Brooks looks great,'' said fellow linebacker Markus Steele out of the University of Southern California. ``We looked at him on tape today. He goes out and makes plays. He's bringing a big boost to the team so hopefully he can just keep it up. I've seen a big improvement in him.''

The final 53-man roster will be submitted to the league Sept. 2. Brooks seems confident he will make the team. His father has already made plans to attend the first three games of the season, including a family gathering for the second game at Detroit. Brooks' grandfather lives in Detroit and is planning to go to the game along with Ray's seven brothers.

``I'm really proud of Jamal,'' Ray said. ``He has taken this from a dream to reality and done it the right way. He's a fine young man. Even if I weren't his father, I'd like him.''

Brooks' high school coach sees a lesson in Brooks' achievement: ``This is a real story of persistence,'' Stroh said.

Brooks said hard work is what it's all about.

``I may not have been the best player, but I was always good enough to start and I gradually became better,'' Brooks said. ``There are stories like this all across the league. The top athletes in football aren't always the ones who make it.''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Linebacker Jamal Brooks, a graduate of Granada Hills High, wears No. 50 while working out with the Dallas Cowboys at their training camp in Oxnard.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer

(2) no caption Jamal Brooks