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Show Phelts puts pressure on By KEITH DUNCAN LAYTON For a couple of years, Layton High's Craig Phelts was the equivalent of Picasso without with-out a paintbrush - lots of potential and talent but no way to apply it. Phelts can play defense with the best of them, but he was playing on teams that didn't give him enough opportunity to put his signature on a game. But oh how things have changed. Today the 5-11, 165-pound bundle bun-dle of dynamite is spelling his name all over the opponent which hasn't been half bad for the Lancers who are 2-0 in a terrific start of the 1986 season. "Sometimes you have to change things yourself, or at least get it started," said Phelts as he described de-scribed Layton's successful turnaround. tur-naround. "It's weird how we (the Layton High seniors) decided to change, but the story is true. "It was last winter as we (the Layton wrestling team) were coming com-ing home from the Layton-Weber wrestling match. We had just lost the dual meet by one-point as Weber's We-ber's heavyweight pinned ours in the final match. On the bus ride home someone put in the Rocky VI soundtrack and for some reason it really psyched us up. "We started talking about this year's football season and we made a commitment right there that the following day when we went back to school, that we'd do everything within our power to put Layton High back on the map in football. It was a commitment that was made by guys who would be seniors this year, all of the seniors, not just a few. "We vowed to live in the weight room and work as hard as we could to make a difference this year." Of course not all of the present seniors that make up the 1986 Lancers Lan-cers were in that bus, nor were the juniors that are contributing this year, but because of Phelts' leadership, leader-ship, everyone got the word and the foundation was set. The coaching staff at Layton ought not only be thankful for Phelts' play on defense, but they had better love this kid's leadership leader-ship traits on and off the field. He's got the entire group rallied and that's one very good reason why his teammates elected him as a team captain in '86. From his linebacker position, Phelts has not allowed the offseason off-season commitment to die, but rather has been a truely positive force in Layton's two pre-season victories over Bountiful (38-21) and Viewmont (35-14). Against Bountiful Craig made nine unassisted tackles, six assisted and was credited with three quarterback sacks. And last Friday against Viewmont, he manhandled man-handled the Vikes with another 13 tackles and two more QB sacks. No. 67 simply has patroled from one end of the football field to the other. Said Joe Wood of Phelts, "Boy is he a player. "Everytime I turn around he is hitting someone. "Last Friday one of the coaches yelled we'd lost containment on one side and all of a sudden, out of no where, comes Phelts and allows the runner only a couple of yards. "He can run from sideline to sideline and fills the seams like no one's business. We also like his aggressiveness and can't thank him enough for his leadership." John Taurone, another Layton linebacker who accepts the defensive defen-sive plays from the sideline, commented, com-mented, "When I look around me on defense, there really isn't a player out there that I don't feel confident that he is a good defender. defen-der. We've got ten other guys besides be-sides me that love to stick people and get after it. "And having Craig beside me makes things even that much better, bet-ter, he's a winner." Wood said further, "It is a team effort and Phelts just makes us that much better." Wood also backed up Phelts' commitment to conditioning saying that Phelts had entered the weightroom last winter and had everyone around him committed to being in the best condition they could be in. "An indication of how well Phelts has improved was his eye-opening eye-opening feats at the Jordan High weightlifting meet held earlier this year," said Wood. For Phelts, it's a 'no pain, no gain' situation. He love aggression and is about as hard to yank from a game as it is to pull meat from a hungry lion. Sometimes even a referee's re-feree's whistle can't stop him from putting the opposition on their back. He runs the 40 in 4.5 seconds which combined with his aggressiveness, aggres-siveness, makes for one rrean, seasoned sea-soned linebacker. "There's a real strong desire to win a championship among our team this year," said Phelts. THE JOINT CHIEFS of staff at Layton High include Joe Wood, head coach; Craig Phelts, captain of the football team and a terror on defense; and Paul Smith, the principal. |