Sylmar’s Casey Enjoying Fun and Games

So what’s next for Jerome Casey?

Want him to score 25 touchdowns in Sylmar High’s 10 games?

Done.

Want him to gain more than 1,700 yards rushing and receiving?

Check.

What about defense? Can this guy make 70 solo tackles from his strong safety-middle linebacker position?

Got that one too.

All right, all right. We’ll get him eventually. How about daring him to throw a touchdown pass?

Well, he’s done that too. And he has run back kickoffs for winning touchdowns.

Bet he can’t leap tacklers in a single bound, eh?

Sorry. It’s been done. Casey, a 6-foot, 185-pound senior, has been filmed actually hurdling oncoming tacklers. He even did it against Poly last week when he rushed for 260 yards and scored six touchdowns in front of scouts from USC.

“I think the SC coach nearly dropped to one knee when he saw that one,” Casey’s coach, Jeff Engilman, said with a laugh.

“That’s one of the moves,” Casey says, flashing his million-dollar smile. “One of the many.”

Ho-hum, huh, Jerome?

Well, let’s bet we get him here. He has to be a prima donna. Has to have an ego the size of the San Fernando Valley. Has to be a first-class jerk.

Sorry, Charlie. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more likable, happy-go-lucky kid than Sylmar’s 17-year-old Casey. On-field star, off-field puppy dog.

So what do you call a guy like Casey? King of the hill, Jack-of-all-trades.

“The ace man, if that’s what you want to call it,” he says.

Oh, a trace of the ego, eh?

“ Nawwwwww, “ Casey says, wearing his ever-present grin. “I think of myself as a team player, man. I try to help out any way I can.”

Every high school team should be so lucky to have such a team player, one who may be chosen his league’s offensive and defensive player of the year.

Ah, to dunk a basketball as a six-footer, long jump 22 feet and bench-press 425 pounds.

Wait a minute. 425 pounds ? No way, Jerome.

“See, that’s something I should prove to all the writers,” Casey says. “Let me start working out again, and you guys come out one day and see me.”

Still don’t believe him? We’re talking about someone who weighs 185 pounds and can run the 100-meter dash in 10.7 seconds.

“I’ve never had a kid do it,” says Engilman, who coached two City Section championship teams at Manual Arts. “And we really, really, really push weights. At Manual Arts, we had some studs. And they never did it.

“But when Jerome did it, I had to go out and buy special shirts.”

Engilman generally rewards those who bench-press 300 pounds with T-shirts bearing the slogan: “Sylmar 300-pound club.” Go to a Sylmar practice and ask Casey to lift up his jersey. Look at the T-shirt. It reads, “Sylmar 400-pound club.”

Want a good gauge of Casey’s ebullient personality? Listen to him describe the day he broke the 400-pound barrier:

“It was in the summer, during hell week. I was hyped. I mean, I was excited . My adrenaline was going and everything . That’s why I think I did it, ‘cause I was hyped up to do it. I shocked myself and everything.” It’s scary.”

Casey is an animated speaker, and one has little problem realizing how he translates that energy to his running. When Casey runs, it generally takes quite a few hits--or a load of humanity--to bring him down.

“That’s determination, man,” he says. “I’m determined to get to the end zone.”

Case(y) in point: Two weeks ago, Sylmar was putting forth a lackluster effort in a game against North Hollywood. The score was tied, 14-14, after a third-quarter Husky score. Engilman asked Casey to return the kickoff to give the team a lift. He did--by going 80 yards for a touchdown and a 21-14 lead.

In the fourth quarter, North Hollywood answered with another touchdown drive and a two-point conversion to take a 22-21 lead. Again, Engilman asked Casey to return the kickoff to give the team a lift. This time he went 85 yards yards for a touchdown and a 29-22 victory.

“Yeah, he does (fire us up),” senior wide receiver Joe Vaughn said. “We weren’t hyped up for the game, and his kickoff returns inspired us to go out and play defense and hold the lead.”

“What else can I ask?” Engilman asks, rhetorically.

Engilman did ask Casey to consider all his options last summer when the Sylmar star considered transferring to either San Fernando or Granada Hills. Casey was concerned about the quality of the Sylmar team, fearing that his participation on an inferior squad would hurt his visibility among college scouts.

“I didn’t want him to go,” Vaughn says. “If he was gonna go, I didn’t know what I was gonna do.”

“We discussed all his options,” Engilman says. “I said to him, ‘We’ll develop the offensive line. You’ll get your yards.’ And now he’s having his best year. He’s been the main show. He knew it would be tough and his resiliency shows. He must get hit five or six times before he goes down.”

Casey does not regret staying at Sylmar--scouts from Washington State, Nebraska, USC and Colorado chart his progress--and neither do the Spartans, who will enter tonight’s 3-A Division playoffs with a 7-2 record.

But Casey’s senior season has not unfolded without a little controversy. Well, emphasize the little . Casey engaged in an amusing war of words with Reseda tailback Joe Tushnet, based on Tushnet’s ardent postgame comments after the Regents stunned Sylmar, 20-6, on Oct. 20.

After that game, the Reseda squad jubilantly shouted “Jerome who?” while, Tushnet, who gained 200 yards to Casey’s 77, hollered: “I was just proving a point. He ain’t the best back around!”

But two weeks later, after a victory over Grant in which Casey scored three touchdowns and threw for another, the Sylmar star greeted reporters thusly: “Tushnet who? Tushnet who? You tell him, pound for pound, inch for inch, I’m a better man and athlete than he’ll ever be.”

Asked later about it, Casey smiles and says: “I just gave him something to chew on. Ohhhh, I didn’t believe it when I read it. I said, ‘what’s with this guy ? ‘ I’ve never heard of him and all out of the blue he’s just gonna come and say this madness. I thought it was bad sportsmanship totally. I would never do that.”

The high-spirited Casey prefers to let his on-field performance speak for itself.

“I’m just a person who likes to have fun on the field. ‘Cause that’s what it’s all about . . . We’re not out there to try and kill one another. I’m just out there to have fun . That’s what it’s about. And doing what you like doing. That’s what I’m all about. I just go out there, and be a good sport.

And?

“And do my thing.”