BC Linebacker Seizes His Chance (Daily News-Record)

Because of a teammate’s injury, Venancio Biela will start at linebacker for Bridgewater College’s football team this weekend.

Daily News-Record - By Jeremy Cothran

BRIDGEWATER — The Bridgewater College linebacker with easily the most unique name on the roster is more interested in the present than the future.

He’s not thinking about four weeks down the line, when the player he’s replacing is set to return, but only of Saturday, the date he plans to make his first collegiate start.

For Venancio Biela, this is all about carpe diem. Seize the day.

"He’s one of those ‘program kids,’" Eagles football coach Michael Clark said after practice. "He’s coming into his fourth year, and he’s never played significant field time. To me, that’s a great story of his persistence."

Biela, a senior, will start at whip linebacker in BC’s season opener at McDaniel, thanks to a little bit of bad luck among his teammates.

With senior Brandon Borst entrenched at the strongside linebacker position, Craig Smith retaking the middle after returning from a torn Achilles tendon, and Antwaine Campo set in the weakside (whip) role, Biela was not in the coaching staff’s plans. In fact, he was third on the depth chart at the whip position behind senior Brandon Kelley. Barring injury, there was a good chance the 5-foot-9, 200-pound Biela wouldn’t come close to sniffing the field this season. His last season.

Slowly but surely, though, the dominoes began to fall his way. First, Campo tore an anterior cruciate ligament during a pick-up basketball game this summer. Then, during the first few days of preseason practice, Kelley shattered his finger.

Campo was lost for the season, and Kelley is out for about four weeks. So, for now at least, Biela gets the nod. And his coaches apparently aren’t worried.

"I feel real comfortable," defensive coordinator Grant Higgison said. "The [linebacking] group is a good corps of players. … It’s the strongest corps of linebackers in the [Old Dominion Athletic] conference."

In Higgison’s defensive schemes, the whip position carries perhaps the most responsibility. It requires discipline to protect against tailbacks cutting back against the grain, coverage skills to shadow backs and receivers on pass routes, and enough muscle and speed to effectively rush passers.

Biela’s newfound role came in the nick of time. At the end of every season, Clark would conduct exit interviews with each player; when Biela’s number was called, the conversation always drifted toward playing time. Clark stressed patience and the Hampton native trusted him.

"We don’t give rewards here," Clark said. "But you have to cheer for those guys like Biela. They are kids that I would love to play, but sometimes it’s just not their time."

Biela’s teammates are glad he’s getting his time. The former Kecoughtan High School player spent this summer in Bridgewater working out with Borst and Smith, knowing he was not in the initial mix but preparing as if he were a starter.

"It’s a shot he’s well-deserving of," Borst said. "He’s what this team is all about."

What intrigues Borst -- and the rest of the BC team -- about Biela is the linebacker’s name. His full name is Venancio DaRessarreicao Biela Jr., and his appearance alone can result in some Michael Buffer-style introductions on the practice field.

"The funniest thing is that he’s a ‘junior,’" Borst said, laughing. "I can’t believe there were ever two people with that name."

The name has Portuguese roots – Biela’s father was from Angola, a former colony of Portugal – and Biela is intensely proud of it. It wasn’t always that way. When Biela was a child growing up in Hampton, he was teased often as being the kid with the funny name, but as he grew older it became more important to him. It became a legacy for his dead father – Biela Sr. died when Junior was a toddler.

As for football, Biela knows he can’t get married to the starting position, but admits it’s nice to think about himself as starting a Division III college game. And he’s already thought about how he’ll feel if Kelley returns from his injury to reclaim the starter’s role.

"We’re all really tight here," Biela said. "I wouldn’t be upset. He’s worked just as hard as I have. There would be no jealously, just as I’m sure there would be none with him if I ended up with [the position]."

It’s all about seizing the day.