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Small tackles make impact Photo by Bob Pennell Adam Barr, left, is dwarfed by fellow lineman Kyle Young during North Medford's practice Wednesday. Barr, Bier hold the line for Tornado By DON HUNT North Medford High defensive tackle Adam Barr is listed at 5-foot-9 and 192 pounds, but no one truly knows how much he weighs. That's because Barr won't get anywhere near a scale. Barr's counterpart at defensive tackle -- junior Norris Bier -- admits to weighing a shade over 200, 202 on a good eats, cool treats day. The twosome is tiny by today's standards when it comes to lining up in the trenches. Both players routinely give up 30 to 60 pounds to the man across the line of scrimmage from them, sometimes as much as 100 pounds. And yet no team -- not even the mammoth Roseburg Indians and their 300-pound offensive tackles -- has been able to push around the B & B boys. The Tornado duo's latest assignment will come Friday night in Salem when they exchange forearm shivers with Sprague in the second round of the Class 4A state playoffs. "They're definitely on the smallish side but they're both very quick and they keep their pads low," North Medford defensive coordinator John Beck says. "Plus, they're hard workers. "I'm sure other teams look at them and start licking their chops, but neither one of them is easy to block." Barr, a senior, first caught the coaches' attention last season against Marshfield. He entered the game in the third period after North Medford had fallen behind by five touchdowns. He sacked the quarterback on his first play and then tackled the Marshfield tailback for a 5-yard loss on his second play. "After that game we put Adam in on special teams and started to rotate him in more and more on defense," Beck said. "It became apparent that few people can block him." Motivated all the more by his late-season playing time, Barr lifted weights non-stop last spring, sometimes as much as three times a day. By the start of daily doubles in August his bench press had jumped from 240 pounds to 290 and his squat lift from 325 pounds to 430. But strength isn't Barr's forte. It's quickness, smarts and tenacity that have turned him into one of the better defensive linemen in the Southern Oregon Conference. "Getting off the ball fast and not giving up are probably my best qualities," Barr says. "I've made a lot of tackles after getting knocked down. If you don't give up on a play, there's always a chance you'll end up making the tackle." Barr also confounds opponents with spin moves and a "club and rip" technique taught by the Tornado coaches. "That's where you pin the outside elbow (of the opponent) and rip with the off-arm," Beck says. "What we're doing is taking on half the guy. We're not big enough to take on the whole guy." Barr also gets an edge by lining up in different spots. "Sometimes it's only a matter of inches," he says. "If I'm going to the left then I might line up to the right of the guy I'm facing and slant across his face. He'll start to question what he's doing and then I can take advantage of him." Bier, meanwhile, wasn't in North Medford's starting lineup at the start of the season. But when Barr suffered a concussion in North Medford's jamboree in late August and had to sit out a week, Bier joined Mark Fenton at defensive tackle. And then when Barr came back, Fenton focused on offense and suddenly it was Barr, Bier and opponents beware. "Bier came out of nowhere, basically," North Medford coach Rod Rumrey says. "The first time he caught my eye was at a football camp in Redmond last summer, but I didn't think he could crack our starting lineup." But Bier was there when the Tornado opened its season against Eagle Point, and he immediately made an impact. A wrestler during the winter, Bier is the stronger of the B & B boys. He's been known to bull rush right over the top of an offensive linemen. "For a guy his size Bier has a great straight-ahead charge," Rumrey says. Bier made his presence felt on the JV team last season as he routinely charged into opponents' backfields. But he had a bad habit of keeping his head down and didn't know who had the ball. "Sometimes I'd tackle the wrong guy," Bier says. "That's something I worked on in the summer -- keeping my head up." As usual, Barr and Bier will be giving up a lot of beef when they take the field against Sprague. The Olympians average about 250 pounds along the offensive front and they feature three all-league linemen -- center Jeff Livingston, guard Kevin Hansen and tackle Ryan Nack. But neither Barr nor Bier is the least bit intimidated. "I figure if we held our own against those Roseburg guys -- and I think we did -- then we can hold our own against anyone," Barr says. "You gain a certain confidence when you line up against a big guy and shed off his blocks." Today's Sports Index Mail Tribune Copyright� The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, OR U.S.A.