Kellogg Finds It’s All in the Right Moves

Matt Kellogg doesn’t like to fool anyone, much less himself.

“I’m fast, but I’m not lightning fast,” said Kellogg, Calvary Chapel tailback. “I got some good moves, but not great moves.”

Kellogg is right on both counts. He’ll never pose a threat to Carl Lewis, or Emmanuel Lewis for that matter, in a footrace. And his better moves usually come on the wrestling mat, where he is one tough customer.

But Kellogg might be a tad harsh on himself as a football player. No, he’s not the most gifted of running backs, but his determination and desire make him successful nonetheless.

How else, then, could a guy who’s 5 feet 8 and struggling to tip the scales at 160 pounds gain 1,308 yards rushing last season and score 16 touchdowns?

How else could he rack up more than 1,600 all-purpose yards?

How else could he crack the 100-yard barrier seven times in a pass-oriented offense and be named to the All-Arrowhead League second team?

With a great feel for his position, that’s how.

“One of the things that makes him a good running back is his ability to find a hole,” Eagle Coach Kris Van Hook said. “That’s probably his best asset. That and the fact that he’s durable. The year before (1990), he broke a bone in his hand and was back in three weeks.”

Now Kellogg is back for his third and final season with the Eagles, who won the league title last year but jumped this season to the more competitive Olympic League. The move means the Eagles will face better teams and Kellogg will have to run against more physical defenses. But the prospect doesn’t bother him.

“Because of my size I’ve learned that I have to be tough,” Kellogg said. “My thing is, if I take a real hard tackle, I try to get up as quickly as possible so he (defensive player) doesn’t think he’s got one up on me.”

That will be the day.

Kellogg, who was all of 5-3 and 115 pounds when he played on the freshman team at Mater Dei, has been going against bigger players ever since his days in the Garden Grove Pop Warner League. He has held his own at every level and has carried his football grit to wrestling--or is it the other way around?--a sport in which he can compete on even terms with his opponents.

It was wrestling, in fact, that prompted Kellogg to transfer from Mater Dei to Calvary Chapel after his freshman year.

“I really like wrestling and they have an awesome program here,” said Kellogg, the two-time Arrowhead League champion at 140 pounds. He will probably compete in the 152-pound division this winter in the Olympic League. “I also like the atmosphere here. It’s like a huge family.”

Kellogg believes that competing in one sport helps him in the other, that they are complementary and almost an extension of each other. He has a hard time choosing his favorite. “I love both sports a lot,” Kellogg said. “I started playing football first, so I fell in love with that first. Then up to junior high, I played basketball a lot, but I figured I’d be too short, so I got interested in wrestling because I had some friends who were in a wrestling club.”

“It’s difficult for me to compare football and wrestling. When I play football, that’s my No. 1 thing and when I wrestle, that’s my No. 1 thing. But they tie in with each other a lot. You have to be aggressive and mentally tough in both.”

Kellogg played outside linebacker as a sophomore and occasionally last year, and could see action this season at cornerback. But apparently only if absolutely necessary.

“We’ve moved him to corner, where he’s really good,” Van Hook said. “But we have some other guys who’ll probably start there, so he won’t have to be in there all the time.”

Van Hook also thinks if Kellogg stays healthy, he can accomplish more than last year.

“He has lifted (weights) since last year and has good strength for his size,” Van Hook said. “And the thing I like this year is that he’s even a little quicker. Last year he ran around 4.9 (in the 40-yard dash). He’s pretty consistent now at 4.75 to 4.8.”

Even Matt Kellogg would be fooled by that.