Medley ran wild for Delsea
Published in The Daily Journal, Friday, Dec. 11, 2009
A spot in the record book is assured for the Delsea Regional High School football team, which this season set a new South Jersey mark for points scored in a single season. But the player who may have been most responsible for attaining that feat never got the witness the record-setting play.
When Sean McPherson crossed the goal line in the Crusaders’ victory over Haddonfield in the Group II South championship game, fullback Austin Medley was face-down on the turf his own head ringing from a block that helped spring his teammate.
“I was actually on the ground, because I made a block,” Medley said. “I didn’t see it, but I heard everyone screaming, so I guess he made it.”
In the brief celebration that ensued, Medley’s headache completely was forgotten. What will never be forgotten is the impact Medley had on Delsea’s historic season.
Medley rushed for 1,697 yards to break Assad Hafiz’s school record for rushing in a season, led South Jersey with 35 touchdowns and 212 points, and made all the blocks and little plays to enable the Crusaders to repeat as sectional champs for the first time. To top it all off, he collects The Daily Journal’s 2009 Football Player of the Year award.
The credit for that, in Medley’s opinion, doesn’t belong to him.
“I had the greatest line,” Medley said. “That’s all that means.”
Delsea center Kyle Jones, who cleared a path for Medley since midget league, respectfully disagreed.
“He’s phenomenal,” Jones said. “You make your block and he’s gone. He’s a physical specimen, that kid. He’s just a great running back. Watch out for him at the next level. You can’t hold him to high school. He’ll play in college, and I cannot wait to watch him on television.”
The process of running the football is not complicated: Receive the handoff. Secure the ball. Find the hole. Get through the hole. Get to the second level of the defense. Break a big run.
It’s simple, but it’s not easy. Medley made it look easy through endless hours in the weight room and on the track, transforming himself into a back who was both bruising and blazing.
“Track was a big thing,” Delsea coach Sal Marchese Jr. said. “He didn’t have blinding speed when he was a young kid. He learned how to run through track. He came out here and busted his butt on the track team to get fast for football. He just attacked that.”
Along with Medley’s talent and work ethic come instincts. Late in the third quarter of the sectional final, with Haddonfield attempting a comeback, the Bulldawgs attempted an onside kick after scoring a touchdown to close Delsea’s lead to 26-14.
Fundamentally sound, Medley waited patiently for the ball to travel 10 yards, then gobbled up the ball at Haddonfield’s 43 yard line.
The play did not add an inch to Medley’s stat total, but it allowed the Crusaders to shave another four minutes off the clock and eventually seal the win.
“He’s a heady kid, and he wants the ball all the time,” Marchese said. “He wants to make big plays, and he usually does.”
Benjee
