Tustin's Wilkerson a natural fit in end zone

TUSTIN - When DeShaun Foster had run out of high school end zones to conquer, he went to UCLA and did the same thing he did at Tustin.

When Foster was drafted by the Carolina Panthers, Tustin coach Myron Miller called him.

"You should play safety," Miller said. "Safeties can play for 10 years. But they go through running backs in that league."

Foster lasted six years.

"Coach," he told Miller, "you were right."

Miller isn't saying the same thing about Anthony Wilkerson.

In his 39-touchdown, 2,677-yard trek through his senior season, Wilkerson somehow has not convinced everyone he is indeed a running back. You'd think he fits the definition. In one recent game Wilkerson carried the mail 48 times, in a 32-minute game.

"And I was super-sore the next morning," he said.

But Wilkerson is going to Stanford next year because (A) Jim Harbaugh's staff identified Wilkerson during his sophomore year and (B) he can run there.

"I watch Toby Gerhart run and their offense is a lot like ours," Wilkerson said Wednesday. "They're run-first."

"I told him he should follow his dream," Miller said. "His passion is running the football."

Cal wanted Wilkerson to play defense, which he still does, on a Tillers team that generally uses 18 players a game.

Besides, Stanford had several other edges. Wilkerson's uncle, Mark Davis, played baseball there (as did another uncle, Mike Davis, the Dodger who walked before Kirk Gibson's home run in 1988).

His dad, William, is an art teacher at Magnolia High and an accomplished painter, and his mother, Melanie, is a tech specialist who went to UC Irvine.

"On my visit to Stanford, the place just blew me away," Anthony said. "My uncle showed me around. And now they're getting good at football, too. I had to say a few things to some USC fans around here after Stanford beat 'em. Pummeled 'em, really."

Wilkerson also has had some conversations with Trabuco Hills fans, when he runs into them near his Lake Forest home. That's Tustin's opponent in the Southwest Division final Friday night. That's also where Wilkerson would have gone to high school, but he had closer friends that went to Tustin. When he took a look at Miller's double-wing offense, also known as 30 yards and several clouds of dust, he was sold.

But that freshman year was Wilkerson's first contact with, well, contact since he was 7 years old. He had played Pop Warner football but quickly outgrew the league's weight requirements and never played again. He was concentrating on basketball, "the sport I thought I'd get my scholarship in," when he showed up at Northrup Field for practice.

"I just love the feeling of running, of getting your rhythm, of figuring out the angles," Wilkerson said. "I think the more I run the better I get, especially because our team is physically stronger than most of the teams we play. We're really good in the fourth quarter. Because of that, that's when most of the long runs happen."

Tustin has not lost a game this year with Wilkerson. He had ankle and back injuries in September and sat out the Tillers' loss to Orange Lutheran.

They have scored at least 30 points in each of their 11 victories, have rumbled for at least 300 ground yards seven times, and have four shutouts, including a 63-0 cruise over Huntington Beach in the second round.

And even though Miller has always wondered why the Wright Brothers didn't mind their own business and stick to bicycles, he's visibly proud of quarterback Nicholas DiMaio.

"Hey, he's thrown eight touchdown passes this year," Miller said. "And we've got five guys coming up from the freshman team that might be Division I guys. So we'll be able to do all kinds of things next year."

But he won't soon have another Wilkerson.

"Anthony will be a lot better player in college," Miller said. "He won't be playing basketball or running track. He can work year-round, and he's a great worker.

"The other thing about him, he's a pleaser. He just wants to do what he's supposed to do and make you happy. Those are the fun guys to coach."

And the touchdown that Miller remembers most distinctly is one that Wilkerson didn't score.

"We're on the 4-yard line against Canyon in the semifinals of the playoffs last year, and our wingback misses a block and they get Anthony," Miller said. "It was no big deal because we were down there, and we were going to score.

"But then I look up and Anthony is at wingback and another guy scores. He just took it upon himself to do that."

After the play, Miller asked why.

"I just knew the block had to be made," Wilkerson said.

When they tell you to act like you've been in the end zone before, that's what they mean. That's also the place Stanford is preparing for Anthony Wilkerson.