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Show Chuck Ehin Good And Getting Better, But Ehin Looks Toward NFL By KEITH DUNCAN BOUNTIFUL The guardian angel who is working a masterpiece in shaping the lite of Chuck Khin, is tar from the final product. It's getting better with each day that passes. F.MN. WHO less than a month ago eon-eluded eon-eluded a brilliant tour-year stand w ith Brigham ' Young University and it's football program, ' has an unexplainable but undeniable feeling l- that his progress in football hasn't leveled out ;: yet. 1 "1 felt like I grew and grew at BYU. it was the ,; best place for me to progress. I feel like I'm just L ' starting to peak now and the potential is there to do well in the professional leagues," said Chuck. ;: THE CHICAGO Blitz, a United States Foot-( Foot-( ball League franchise, made Ehin one of their (I; choices in the recently concluded draft and !;: there is a good chance he'll be in Chicago this weekend or next to attend a training camp. But k nothing is official, it's just another step in mak- ing the final decision. That decision still leans heavily toward the NFL, where Ehin has had a dream since boy- hood to play. Seattle and Dallas have both lf: shown extreme interest in the BYU defensive standout, and perhaps the state of Washington being more preferable to play in. iB- BIT THE point of issue isn't w here he finally final-ly ends up, it deals with a ladder of progress he's been climbing that if continued will do some things that he nor those w ho are close to him never believed possible. As with most everything on earth, there is I usually a beginning, a birth so to speak and for I a Ehin he can recall a couple of those "ideal (1 beginnings." He remembers playing in Alabama Alaba-ma as a youngster, in fact as an all-star little leaguer for Gunter Air Force Station. That was a true beginning to what has turned out to be memorable football career, but the kind of be-i be-i ginning Chuck likes to remember was as soph- omore for Gary Hansen's Layton Lancers. - Ehin, whose father Charles did two tours of duty at Air Force bases in Montgomery, left there when he was 14 years old. fc "ONE OF the turning points in my career 10 was the day Coach Hansen invited me as a sophomnroe to play and practice with the var- sity. It boosted my ego and undoubtedly made C- me play better," commented Ehin. Hansen, who has a philosophy of never allowing a sophomore to be on the varsity team unless he's going to start, said this about Chuck, "His size and ability to move were definite factors in bringing him up. "HE LOOKED like a man out there with a bunch of kids. I can't take any credit for moving mov-ing him up, all you had to do was to sec it. "We stuck with Chuck even though some of the coaches became discouraged with him. He had a man's body but was still immature, lacking lack-ing some determination. I kept saying that we'd better stick with him and by state playoff time he was litteraly tearing people up. "BETWEEN CHUCK'S sophomore and junior year, we had a talk. I told him he could be all-state and high school all-America, let alone have a great college career. Maybe it helped, apparently it did." Another beginning, another right decision, was going to Provo to play football. Though Chuck nearly went back to Alabama to play, it was BYU in the end. "I've never regretted my decision, BYU has a thoroughbred program with plenty of winning tradition and enough recognition. "I WAS TOLD I probably wouldn't start until my senior year at Alabama, so why not go somewhere as good as BYU and get a chance to play. "My progress at BYU slowly erased thoughts in the back of my mind that I might not make it to the professional league or that I could even be a good college football player. But the more I played the more confidence I gained. I suppose that's the case in anything you really want to succeed in." AND OH EHIN did get better. From all-stae and a state championship at Layton in 1978, Chuck nailed down a starting position with the Cougars as only a sophomore being honored on three different occasions as the lineman of the week by the team itself. As a junior he shared time at the defensive tackle position and later moved into the nose guard position. As a senior he led the Cougars in tackles and five times was voted the defensive defen-sive lineman of the week. He shared the honor of 'Most QB Sacks" with his good friend and former Layton Lancer teammate, Brandon Flint. THE HONORS began to flow as the season drew to a close. Ehin, who will be 21 in July, made a fourth trip to the Holiday Bowl, experiences experi-ences Chuck says that were finer highlights than anything else. He was named first-team All-WAC, played in the Blue-Gray Classic in Montgomery with Bart Oatcs and Tom Hol-moe, Hol-moe, mentioned as honorable mention with Associated press and a number of other pieces too many to relate. About the last season, Chuck says it was a "feelling undcscribable" with BYU winning their seventh consecutive WAC championship. champion-ship. "Coach (La Veil) Edwards always told us that some people learn to lose, just as we were learning to win. However the thing we had going for us at BYU was that we won just a little more than anyone else, which in the end usually gave us the edge. "BUT JUST THE time we got a little too confident, a team like Air Force could come in spank ya, letting you know you're not Gods or something like that. "It was a big letdown in losing to Georgia, especially after coming so close to winning that game. Maybe our heads were in the clouds the next week against Air Force. "I'LL MISS the closeness that I had with 'Brandon' Flint and (Mike) Morgan. We were pretty close, there was something special there," Chuck admitted. Chuck, who used to room with Morgan and Flint his freshman year, married after his freshman fresh-man year to Barbara Bassett, a girl he'd went to school with at Layton High. He and Barbara have now been married for three years. "Before "Be-fore I got married, I used to turn to my dad or anyone in the family if I got frustrated or down. They'd slap me on the back and send me on my way. But now it's Barb that I can go to. With her, I not only get the emotional help, but the extra paychecks she brought in while I played football, were the only difference sometimes. She's special," Chuck related. EHIN, WHO has a hobby of building and flying radio controlled airplanes, is looking forward for-ward to his 5-year reunion at Layton High. "Those were three great years at Layton. I regret not having got back but I'm looking forward for-ward to the reunion." Having a son as well-known college football player, has Ehin's parents, Charles and Elizabeth, Eli-zabeth, to visit a few more places that Charles duties with the Air Force didn't take him. They went to Athens when BYU met Georgia and while there picked up a Georgia-Bulldog red T-shirt that Chuck started wearing under his practice gear after the loss to Air Force. "It soon became a voo-doo thing, as I started wearing it in the games. We didn't lose while I wore it," said Chuck. VfCT If " V I -, "v-" 'm zT ' 4 . . r.r - ?- & ' , r t ''"Con- ) I M y - , . f '"V. f 4 " ' i ' I ' ' . ' A A A - - A i ' v . - f j i.'l4' ' - , 4 It's been his childhood dream to play in the NFL and now both Seattle and Dallas are showing extreme interest in him. CHUCK, WHO isn't LDS, and admitted it didn't create problems not being a Mormon, but said he didn't quite fit in sometimes at BYU. "It's a different kind of environment, not an outcast situation but still a little diffe- rent. "As far as football was concerned, Coach Edwards didn't let religion get involved which I think is great. The guy is quite a diplomat, he does very well," concluded Chuck. |