Despite his staggering numbers both on the field and in the classroom, Northwest quarterback Josh Volpe is having difficulty finding a collegiate program that wants him. (Jonathan Newton - The Washington Post)
Playing Is a Full-Time Job
As a High School Quarterback, Northwest's Volpe Spends About 40 Hours a Week Working on His Game
By Eli Saslow
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 17, 2006
Josh Volpe has heard legends about the perks of his position, but he's never had time to experience them. He's a record-setting senior quarterback for the undefeated football team at Northwest High School, and he calls his social life "almost nonexistent." He's never had a steady girlfriend. He avoids parties. Volpe turns 18 next month, and he has yet to obtain his driver's license.
Volpe grew up believing the pop culture myth that playing quarterback facilitates the perfect adolescent social life. More often, he said, it actually inhibits one. Volpe spends about 40 hours each week under the direction of his football coach, usually practicing, playing or studying opponents. He tries to go out with friends one night each week, often after his games Friday nights. Even then, Volpe typically goes home early, since he has to report to practice Saturday morning at 7.
His career has been indicative of a new reality in high school football: Most quarterbacks who aspire to lead a team to the playoffs must manage a professionalized athletic schedule no longer reserved just for top prospects on renowned high school teams. Volpe's average speed and unimposing physique have deterred recruiters, but he has compiled one of the most remarkable statistical seasons in Maryland history because he bought into what he calls the No. 1 rule of playing quarterback.
"Work at it all year, all the time," said Volpe, who has thrown for 29 touchdowns and no interceptions for No. 4 Northwest, which hosts Gaithersburg in the first round of the playoffs tonight. "The season is pretty much continuous work. It's not like you can be carefree. You're under more pressure than anybody else."
On Thursday last week, while most Northwest students congregated in a noisy cafeteria, Volpe brought two sandwiches, a Powerade and a Twix bar into a classroom on Northwest's second floor. He settled into a desk in the center of the front row and readied for what some of his teammates call Football Class. Coach Randy Trivers walked to the front of the room and pulled down a film screen, which showed recent game footage of Northwest's final regular season opponent, Richard Montgomery. When Trivers dimmed the lights, Volpe sat up in his desk and bit into his Twix. "The sugar keeps me awake," he said.
Volpe had arrived at school at 6:55 a.m., as Trivers requires every morning, so he could spend 30 minutes studying game strategies before first period. Then he had attended three classes in the morning before arriving here, at the varsity team's daily sequestered lunch. The rest of Volpe's day called for three more classes, followed by a mandatory, one-hour study hall for football players, followed by a three-hour practice, followed by a 30-minute meeting for quarterbacks, running backs and receivers.
During the football team's 50-minute lunch, one of Volpe's teammates launched a Milk Dud across the room that hit Volpe in the head. He hardly noticed. Even Volpe's teammates sometimes tease him for his focus and single-mindedness. In the two seasons he has started for Northwest, Volpe has never missed a football commitment. On game days, he cradles a ball in his right arm during school. He made his bedroom a shrine to the Dallas Cowboys, from the deep blue carpet to the wallpaper to the comforter and bed sheets. "If you want to be a good quarterback," Volpe said, "you really have to love thinking about football."
It's a mind-set many of his peers consider mandatory. Dunbar's Nathan Bussey practices with his team until about 6 p.m., and then goes straight to workouts with a personal trainer designed to improve his grip and arm strength. River Hill's Daniel Hostetler runs through plays in his living room to keep them fresh in his memory, and he sometimes finds himself dreaming about them.
"You can't even go out during the season 'cause you're so stressed and tired," said Paul VI Catholic's D.J. Mangas, who said he felt a little relieved when his private school season ended two weeks ago. "I tried a few times, but I just wanted to sleep."
Volpe's coaches call him a throwback because of his uncomplicated, boylike devotion to the sport. Extensive weight lifting has made his 5-foot-10, 175-pound frame appear almost stocky, especially in uniform. Famously impossible to fluster on the field, Volpe sometimes jams his hands deep in his pockets and blushes when girls approach him. His parents never gave him a curfew, because they can't imagine him needing one.
"Football keeps him in check," said Jim Volpe, his father. "We know he's not going to do anything stupid, because he cares too much about playing."
Even though he takes three Advanced Placement classes and his unweighted, 3.71 grade-point average could earn him admission to most colleges, Volpe has limited his list of possibilities to schools where he could continue to play quarterback. He dreams of walking on at Towson, but he would settle for a Division III school. "I'll go any place that has uniforms," he said.
At Northwest, Volpe found a football program to match his dedication. Trivers spent two years as a graduate assistant for Maryland before he applied to become the first football coach at Northwest, which opened in 1998. He vowed to model his team after elite college programs. His players lift weights four times and run five times each week during the offseason. Each varsity player must sit in the front row of every class.
An English teacher, Trivers breaks down film until 1 a.m., scripts the first eight plays of each game, laminates his team's stat sheets and monitors weekly grade reports for more than 60 players -- all for a coaching stipend of about $5,000.
"If you don't commit 100 percent, you can't be successful in high school football anymore," Trivers said. "It's like running a college team, but on a smaller scale."
Trivers, 33, led his team to a state championship in 2004 largely because he refuses to tolerate even the most menial distractions. During a team lunch last week, a few players told Trivers they had not received their report cards because they had unpaid fines or outstanding library books. The coach shook his head and pounded his hand on his desk.
"I'm telling you right now, I'm not dealing with this crap next week," Trivers said. "Get this taken care of. Now. Next week is the playoffs. It's straight football. I'm telling you jackasses, if you don't get this taken care of, your practice Monday will be three hours of straight-up, physical torture. We will run you until you physically cannot move anything in your body, with the possible exception of breathing."
Northwest players respect -- and sometimes adore -- Trivers because his relentlessness makes them better players. Volpe transferred to Northwest from Washington Christian Academy after his freshman year because he wanted to play big-time high school football. He ran the 40-yard dash in an excruciating 5.4 seconds. "They called me bucket feet," Volpe said, "because I couldn't even run right."
Trivers told Volpe to run track, and the quarterback gradually improved his 40 time to 4.7 seconds. Volpe lifted weights to improve the distance and speed of his throws. He met with receivers to play catch twice each week, even in February. "I just had to learn that Northwest football is a year-round game," Volpe said.
What resulted is an eerily flawless senior season. Despite throwing as many as 30 times each game, Volpe has yet to throw an interception. His 29 scoring passes are believed to be a Montgomery County regular season record -- the old mark of 25 was set by Einstein's Rick Eisenacher in 1966 and tied by Sherwood's Deontay Twyman last fall.
On the field, Volpe rarely scrambles. He stands in the pocket until the last possible second, unafraid of suffering a big hit. Volpe dislocated a finger on his throwing hand in a preseason practice, and he walked to the bench and asked Trivers to pop the finger back into its socket. Trivers refused, instead sending Volpe to the hospital. "His whole finger was basically hanging off," Trivers said. "Some of my guys would have milked that for at least a week off."
Volpe returned from the hospital and rejoined practice in an hour.
Acumen is his greatest asset. He takes AP Statistics, Literature and Composition, and Honors History of the Modern World. And since he arrived at Northwest, he's mastered an offensive strategy that includes possibilities for more than 1,000 plays and requires fluency in a complicated language.
For example, if Trivers calls for "Gun Spreads Tight Flip 190 Special H Leak Out of Jaguar," Volpe knows, instantaneously: He lines up in shotgun; two receivers stand on each side of the offensive line; the slot receiver, who will drag across the middle of the field, should come open about four seconds after the snap.
"It has be to total instinct," Volpe said. "You have to tune out all of the pressures and distractions."
Before his final game of the regular season, at the center of this whirlwind, Volpe found it easiest to retreat. He sat on a bench in the locker room, bouncing his knees up and down, and stared at the wall in front of him. "I just go into my own zone," he said. And it lasted through four touchdown passes in Northwest's 53-7 win.
After the game, Trivers gathered his players around him. Volpe knelt at the front of the huddle, his eyes fixed intently on his coach.
"Undefeated. Ten wins, no losses. That's one hell of an accomplishment," Trivers said. "Enjoy it, but also know this: This success alone is unfulfilling. The work doesn't stop now, men. The work never stops. And for the next month, we just work harder and harder."
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