Meal Ticket : Reed Doesn’t Let Van Nuys Teammates Go Hungry Anymore

Seated on a bench alongside the football field at Van Nuys High, senior tailback Larry Reed frowned slightly as he recalled the first play of his high school career.

“It was my first time ever in a game and I really messed up and let the team down,” said Reed, referring to a game against North Hollywood during his sophomore season when he played defensive back.

Van Nuys led, 20-0, midway through the second half when Reed stepped onto the field. As the ball was snapped, the rookie cornerback was focused intently on his receiver and was startled to find North Hollywood running a sweep in his direction.

Head down, Reed lunged for the back’s legs but grasped only air as the Huskie ballcarrier raced down the sidelines for a touchdown.

The touchdown itself was meaningless, but as the shutout disappeared so did a barbecue defensive coaches had promised the Wolves if they held North Hollywood scoreless.

“I had some tough times after that,” said Reed, whose older teammates were less than sympathetic to his plight.

These days it’s opposing defenders who tend to come up empty-handed against Van Nuys and Reed. The 6-foot, 180-pound back rushed for exactly 1,000 yards last season as a junior and slashed through Palisades for 170 yards in 18 carries last Friday in the Wolves’ opener.

Several Pacific 10 Conference schools have expressed interest in Reed’s talents, and with Taft, a City Section 4-A quarterfinalist last season invading Van Nuys tonight, Reed will have a chance to go against Toreador tailback Jerry Brown, a 1993 All-City selection who rushed for 1,761 yards.

“I’ve thought of that all this week,” Reed said. “I think it’s going to be the No. 1 game in the Valley and a lot of people think it’s going to be the Reed-Brown show. It’s a great feeling for me to play against the City’s No. 1 tailback.”

Reed will not just try to surpass Brown offensively, but as a free safety in the Van Nuys defense, he will try to bring Brown to a screeching halt.

“I’m not too comfortable with playing defense,” Reed said. “I never went both ways before and it’s really tiring sometimes, but that’s when you have to suck it up and play with a lot of heart.”

Although the game is a potential springboard to further glory for himself and Van Nuys, Reed denies being nervous as the showdown approaches.

“It’s a good chance to prove ourselves to people who doubt us,” Reed said. “No disrespect to Taft, but I told our guys not to put any unnecessary pressure on themselves. It’s going to be a fun game whether we win or lose because it’s a chance early in the season to find out how good a team we are.”

Reed’s abilities on a football field are evident to almost anyone watching and have been a boon to third-year Van Nuys Coach George Engbrecht, who has guided the Wolves to 16 victories in the past two seasons.

“(Larry)’s got a lot of natural instincts and he’s very quick getting off the ball,” Engbrecht said. “He’s also very adept at catching the ball in traffic and seeing the field.”

Reed owes much of his success to his father, Lawrence. Though the elder Reed didn’t allow his son to don a helmet and shoulder pads until he reached high school, that didn’t mean Larry’s skills went undeveloped. He and his father would spend time in a park near their Van Nuys home doing footwork drills around cones and working to hone Larry’s receiving talents.

“He’d be the defender and show me how to cut off of him, how to spin away, to go where he wasn’t,” Larry said. “He’s helped me to be patient and to learn to pat my line or fullback on the back if they miss a block and say, ‘You’ll get ‘em next time.’ ”

Reed, who wore No. 30 last season, has changed this year to 22, his father’s numerals, in honor of the time and dedication Lawrence has poured into his son’s game. However, it’s doubtful opposing coaches such as North Hollywood’s Gary Gray will have trouble recognizing the Wolves’ top back.

Hard to Catch

“All I ever heard over the loudspeaker last year was ‘Reed this’ and ‘Reed that,’ ” said Gray, whose team was lit up for 143 yards, two two-point conversions and three touchdowns by Reed. “He’s an elusive, attacking back but it wasn’t power so much as shiftiness. He’d hit the line and we had a hard time wrapping him up. We’d get one hand on him and he’d be gone.”

Reed carried the ball 159 times last fall despite being slowed by a midseason groin pull. He also suffered a concussion in the Wolves’ regular-season finale against Monroe. That concussion and a nasty case of the flu kept Reed from practicing for Van Nuys’ 49-13 defeat by Venice in a first-round game of the 4-A playoffs. Reed rushed only three times for 20 yards.

Spurred by that disappointment, Reed and the Wolves have set their sights higher in 1994. Reed mentions a City Section championship for the team and a 2,000-yard season for himself.

“If we make 2,000 yards I’m taking (the line) to Sizzler for all they can eat,” Reed said.

Whether Reed is good enough on the field and in the classroom to run at a higher level will be decided later this year. He said Arizona, Arizona State and Texas have expressed interest.

“I want to graduate most of all and then I hope there’s a college out there that will give me a scholarship,” Reed said. “I’m going to pick up my grades and get more serious about school. I want to still be playing football at this time next year.”