Touchdown Tyler thrives in new role
ON THE GRIDIRON: Converted offensive lineman runs for 115 yards, three TDs in his debut at running back
It almost seems like Tyler Eckert has come out of nowhere, the way he’s suddenly emerged as the starting running back for Burnaby’s St. Thomas More Knights, one of the most storied positions in all of B.C. high school football.
That’s what happens when a Grade 11 kid who had taken eight snaps at the position last season, and who in his grades 8 and 9 campaigns played on the offensive line, gets the call at running back for his team’s season opener and proceeds to rush for 115 yards and three touchdowns.
“We’ve had a lot of great running backs at this school,” said Knights head coach Bernie Kully, “guys like Jon Cornish, Calvin McCarty, Keynan Parker and Marek Seta. But the big difference there was that we knew from as early as Grade 9 that they were going to be running backs. With Tyler, it’s a new position. It’s new territory.”
Yet it’s one that Eckert, Kully and new offensive co-ordinator Denis Kelly all agree makes total sense.
“I think the fact that I’ve played on the offensive line has really helped me, because I already know what’s going through a lineman’s head when I’m running the ball,” says Eckert, who gets perhaps his biggest challenge of the season on Saturday (1:30 p.m.) when the No. 5-ranked Knights (1-0) travel to O’Hagan Field and a triple-A showdown against their traditional rivals, the No. 1-ranked Vancouver College Fighting Irish (1-1).
Yet, grinding it out in the trenches at the start of his football career hasn’t been the only factor leading to his success along the ground.
Last season, the 6-foot, 205-pound Eckert not only clocked an 11.3-second time in the 100-metre final at the B.C. high school junior track and field championships, he tested himself as a first-year grappler on the Knights’ varsity wrestling team.
“I don’t like to just play one sport,” said Eckert. “I like switching over to other sports after the season. As soon as I started wrestling, everything started to come easier for me. My first wrestling match was the most tiring thing I’d ever done. But it gets you in shape. It makes you tough.
“And in track, I hadn’t run since elementary school,” he said, “but our track coach really helped me with my form and I got a lot faster.”
It doesn’t hurt when the track coach is David Mattiazzo, who in his high school playing days was a record-setting running back with the Knights’ other chief rival, Vancouver’s Notre Dame Jugglers.
And while all of that is impressive on its own, it’s important to note that Eckert is actually much more accomplished on the defensive side of the ball.
Playing a full year at the rush end position with the senior varsity in 2015, a position he continues to man this season, Eckert collected 10 sacks, despite missing a handful of games.
“The big thing is his motor and his explosiveness,” said Kully, who last Friday watched Eckert record a pair of sacks and make a fumble recovery in the team’s season-opening 28-6 win over the Jugglers. “He gets off the ball so quickly, and that first step is unreal.”
Despite the fact he’s still got another season of high school football remaining, the college recruiters have found their way to introduce themselves to Eckert via email and Facebook. No doubt, they’ll love his on-field mantra.
“I like being the hammer and not the nail,” said Eckert, who has developed a great partnership in STM’s offensive backfield with teammate Mateo Carteri.
“Hit before you get hit. I usually say that I’m a defensive end first, because I like defence better and I’m better at it.”
Yet, what Kully likes most of all, and what seems to make Eckert the kind of athlete every university program covets, are the qualities that will allow everything else he already possesses to flourish.
“His dad is a teacher and he’s so well grounded in terms of his upbringing,” the coach said.
“It’s the way he handles himself in his classes, the way he approaches sport, the way he addresses his coaches.
“You can just see how all of that manifests itself on the field.”
With all of that said, it’s clear that Eckert is no overnight sensation. It only seems that way.
“I usually say that I’m a defensive end first, because I like defence better and I’m better at it.” — Tyler Eckert