Wide Receiver Has Gone Long on Way to Tryout With Chargers

Distance never stopped wide receiver Nate Lewis from pursuing his love of football. He finds the latest destination, packs his bags and off he goes.

Major college, junior college, small college, Lewis has played at them all. Four schools in four states in five years have claimed him for their own.

This week, he once again is on a college campus, but this one he wants to make his annual summer home. Lewis is at the Charger training camp at UC San Diego. He hopes this is the start of many summers in La Jolla.

“I never thought I could get this far,” Lewis said.

Lewis had reason for his doubts.

At this time last year, he was about to start his senior and only season at Oregon Tech, a small college that in a football sense is as far away from the NFL as it is in distance from Lewis’ family home in Moultrie, Ga. Only one player in the history of the school had been drafted--linebacker Joe Cain of Seattle. Adding to his anonymity was his senior season: Limited to seven games because of a leg muscle pull, he caught 27 passes for 434 yards and two touchdowns. He had to wonder if he ever would make it out of Klamath Falls, Ore. (population 16,661).

He might not have, if not for the the work of his agent and Charger General Manager Bobby Beathard’s penchant for identifying otherwise unknown talent.

Sensing that Lewis might be worth the attention of NFL scouts, his agent, Harold Daniels of Los Angeles, prepared a videotape of Lewis’ highlights.

After watching the tape, Beathard was impressed. And after timing Lewis in 4.51 seconds for a 40-yard dash a few later, he was convinced. When the Chargers still had a shot at Lewis with their third pick in the seventh round of the draft, they took him.

His early progress was not exactly what the Chargers might have hoped. He pulled a groin in mini-camp in early May, and at 197 pounds, his weight was not what the team preferred on his 5-foot-11 frame.

But Lewis said he has worked hard to shed the extra pounds and weighed in Saturday at 188, just three above his playing weight. And both Beathard and Coach Dan Henning expect Lewis to be a strong contender for a roster spot. The Chargers have 10 receivers on their roster, but five are rookies, and only four of have caught a pass in the NFL.

“I’ve got a shot here,” Lewis said. “There is an opening.”

The Chargers’ greatest concern is whether Lewis can make the step up in competition from small college to the NFL. Their concern might be greater had Lewis played only at Oregon Tech.

But he played at Georgia as a sophomore and junior after transferring from junior college at Oklahoma A&M.; He grew up in southern Georgia dreaming about playing in Athens, he said, and that is where he would have finished had he not been dismissed from school for academic reasons after his junior season in 1987.

“It was very tough,” Lewis said. “It weighed on me for a while. But I had to keep moving on. I couldn’t just lean on one thing. That was in the past.”

So off Lewis went. He first enrolled at Western Kentucky but left after learning he could not become eligible to play football. He traveled to Los Angeles to stay with a former teammate, Horace Smith, who also had left Georgia. Needing to find a small college at which they could qualify to play and looking for one that featured a passing offense, they came across Oregon Tech.

Lewis would not let football get away.

“Self-motivation is what kept me going,” Lewis said. “Plus my mother kept me thinking that there is no sense in stopping once you start. Once you start something you should finish it.”

Several states and thousands of miles later, that is what Lewis has come here to do.

“I’ve come a long way,” he said. “Now I’m here to show them I belong.”

Charger Notes

The Chargers conducted physicals Saturday and will hold their first practice at 4 p.m. today. Two players likely will be cut before practice to meet the league limit of 80 players under contract. . . . The team reports that 64 of its 92 players are in camp. There is one holdout--first-round draft choice Junior Seau. Remaining veterans are scheduled to report Friday and begin practice the next morning.