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Heil proves to be quite the catch for Panthers By Don Hunt Shortly before the start of last Friday's high school football game between South Medford and Redmond, Panthers wide receiver Ryan Heil suffered a torn tendon in the middle finger of his left hand during warm-ups. It hurt, but not enough to keep Heil from the game. And when it was over, the senior speedster had registered one of the top performances by a South Medford receiver in school history: eight catches for 181 yards and four touchdowns. "It hurt quite a bit, but once the game started I didn't notice it," says Heil, who sparked the Panthers to a 44-2 victory. "Adrenalin is a good medicine." If it wasn't clear before the season how much of a difference a player like Heil can make to a football team, it is now. Never mind that he hadn't worn a pair of shoulder pads in three years. Heil is one of those rare athletes who blends speed, coordination and concentration into every activity he tries. He's the kind of guy who could take up golf on a Monday and shoot an 85 by the weekend. "He's quicker and more explosive than anyone we've had in our program since I've been here," says South Medford coach Bill Singler, now in his fourth season with the Panthers. "He's at top speed in two or three steps, and that's just something you can't coach." Singler says the Panthers wanted to run the ball more against Redmond, but the Central Oregon team put seven defenders in the box and played Heil and fellow wide receiver Ryan Benson one-on-one on the flanks. "They played bump and run and it was a fatal mistake," Singler says. "He (Heil) kept blowing past their DBs (defensive backs)." South Medford quarterback Boomer Marshall had a monster game of his own, completing 22 of 35 passes for 346 yards and five touchdowns. He ran for yet another score, and had a 96-yard touchdown pass called back. Marshall and Heil have been best friends for years, playing on the same flag football, AAU basketball and Little League baseball teams. Heil quit playing football after his freshman year, however, to concentrate on the other two sports. He only weighed about 140 pounds back then - he's now up to 160 on a 6-foot frame - and didn't know if he could take the pounding of football at the varsity level. Marshall tried his best to keep his pal in pads, and finally talked Heil into coming back out this fall. "He kept saying there's nothing like Friday night under the lights," Heil says. "And he's right. I'm having a blast out there." The coaches thought it would take a game or two for Heil to regain the feel of football, to learn how to run his routes, but it didn't. He caught three passes for 48 yards in the Panthers' season-opening, 43-19 victory over Del Norte, Calif. "For someone who has been away from the game for three years, he runs disciplined routes," Singler says. "He's a very quick learner. You tell him the depth he's supposed to run on a certain pattern and from then on that's what he does. You show him how to run a comeback route and you don't need to show him again. "He's a special athlete and we're thrilled to have him on the football field." Heil has fit in nicely with the rest of his teammates. It would have been easy for the ones who have toiled through four years of practices and laid the foundation to the team's current success to give Heil a cold reception. But they didn't, partly because Heil is a likable lad who wants to fit in. "Everyone has been really supportive," he says. That includes his counterparts at wide receiver - Ryan Benson, Eric Fisher and Jonathan Wright. Benson, the second-leading receiver in the Southern Oregon Conference a year ago with 36 catches, and Fisher both stand 6-4 and can catch the ball in a crowd. All four receivers will need to be at their best Friday at Spiegelberg Stadium when the Panthers meet Ashland in the SOC-opener for both teams. With only three teams qualifying for the state playoffs this season, and with Roseburg and North Medford favored to take the top two spots, it doesn't take a corporate CEO to determine the importance of the Ashland-South Medford matchup. The top football game in the state last Friday ended prematurely when a lightning storm in Eugene halted a dandy matchup between then No. 2 Sheldon and No. 7 Roseburg. The game was suspended early in the fourth period with the Indians clinging to a 22-21 lead. Roseburg coach Thurman Bell says one lightning bolt nearly knocked him off his feet as he walked onto the field during a timeout. "I had my headset on and boom, a big one hit right overhead," Bell says. "I felt a bunch of static and an official right next to me said he saw an arc on my headset." Bell threw the apparatus on the ground and took inventory of his faculties. "I was OK, but it scared the heck out of me," Bell says. The game was initially postponed for 30 minutes and then called off by the officials when the storm persisted. "By the time we showered, got on the bus and started home, there was still lightning going on," Bell says. "It was definitely the right call." The Oregon School Activities Association determined Monday that the game won't count on either team's record. It marked the first time in 35 years of coaching that Bell has had a game stopped because of lightning, but not the first time a game involving his Indians has been suspended. A freak windstorm that blew off part of the press box at Spiegelberg Stadium and knocked out power in the early 1980s caused a game between Roseburg and Medford High to be rescheduled the following day at Crater. You can bet North Medford High boys soccer coach Rich Garcia is getting awfully tired of traveling up Interstate 5 these days. Garcia's team opened its season in Eugene on Sept. 6 to play Willamette High and returned there last weekend to play Sheldon and South Eugene. Guess where the Tornado is headed today? That's right, another 330-mile round trip to the Willamette Valley for a match against Churchill. Thursday it'll be more of the same as the team journeys to Springfield, and next Tuesday the Tornado is scheduled to play at Lebanon, which is about 50 miles past Eugene. Whew. That's five matches in nine days, all on the road. "We're adapting that Willie Nelson song, 'On the Road Again,'" Garcia says. "It's pretty brutal." North Medford's only home game thus far was supposed to have taken place last Tuesday against Redmond, but that school pulled out because of the terrorist attacks on the East Coast. Garcia wanted to play the match the following day, but Redmond held out for Thursday. That would have given the Tornado three matches in three days. Garcia nixed that idea, and the match was called off for good. Reach reporter Don Hunt at 776-4469, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.