Air Force's Perez has come a long way

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Aug 10, 2004 | by TODD JACOBSON THE GAZETTE

All Gilberto Perez heard growing up in a Cuban neighborhood in Tampa, Fla., was football was for animals.

The son of two Cuban-born immigrants, Perez heard it from his baseball-crazy friends, and relatives and his parents.

Even on the day he came home as a high school freshman and told his mother he wanted to give football a try, she worried her son would get hurt.

Stay away from football, they all said.

But Perez, who is now a sophomore on Air Force's football team, liked sports, and he wanted to add football to an overflowing plate that already included baseball, wrestling and judo.

"A lot of my friends were going to play and I was always into playing sports so I was like, 'OK, I'll try it out,' " Perez said.

There was only one problem. Perez didn't have a clue how to play.

"Our defensive line coach told me, 'You are going to play defensive end,' " Perez said, recalling one of his first practices. "I was like, 'Defensive end? I have no clue what you are talking about.' "

Patiently, John Moore, Perez's coach at Leto High School in Tampa, told him to line up on the defensive side of the ball in a three- point stance.

Then they hit another stumbling block.

"He says, 'A running back is going to come. You are going to make the tackle,' " Perez recalled. "I said, 'Sir, I don't know what you are talking about no running back.' "

Perez has come a long way since that first day.

His mom let him continue to play. He is big and athletic and he quickly figured out what a running back was, and he had no trouble making tackles.

"He went from zero," said his mother, Flora. "He never even watched it on TV like some little kids growing up."

"Basically my first two years of high school I was going off athletic ability," Perez said. "If the guy had the ball, I was going to make the tackle. That's all I knew."

The 6-foot-3, 275-pounder is listed atop Air Force's depth chart at left defensive end.

He has honed his approach to football -- he started watching NFL games in high school to learn rules and technique, and no longer has trouble figuring out what gap to rush -- but his basic strategy is the same.

He turns his bulky body into a running back-seeking missile and directs it toward anyone with the ball.

"He could be the next bigtime player in our program," coach Fisher DeBerry said. "He is the complete package. He is a strong young man but most importantly, he can run."

At Air Force's annual preseason agility run last week, Perez blistered the 300-yard course in 58 seconds, a time reserved for running backs and wide receivers.

He also bench presses more than 400 pounds, and he plans to make people forget that Air Force lost all three of its starters on the defensive line from last season to graduation.

Perez is slated to team with nose guard Russ Mitscherling and right defensive end Ryan Carter on Air Force's three-man front.

"It's just awesome," Perez said, "but I've still got a lot to learn."

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0256 or tjacobson@gazette.com

GILBERTO PEREZ

Hometown: Tampa, Fla.

Year: Sophomore

Size: 6-foot-3, 275 pounds

Noteworthy: Earned 10 letters in high school: four in football, three in baseball, two in wrestling and one in track.... Has lost 40 pounds since basic training.... Played in three Air Force games as freshman.