Stars Fading At BC (Daily News-Record)

Daily News-Record - By Chris Simmons

Remember those superstars Mike Clark consistently lured to Bridgewater College?

Don’t exist anymore – at least not in Clark’s vocabulary.

After failing to reach the Division III playoffs for the first time in seven years, the BC football coach says he plans to emphasize the team concept above all else next season, a nod to two factors: 1) the Eagles don’t have the wealth of speedy talent they once had, and 2) the rest of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference is no longer filled with chumps.

"A year ago, I said you had program players, you had franchise players, you had development players," Clark said recently, "and from my perspective, from a head coaching perspective, I regret using that word – ‘franchise’ players."

Of course, franchise players are what turned Bridgewater from puny to powerful during Clark’s 12-year reign. Studs like Davon Cruz, Jason Lutz, P.J. Berry and Marcus Washington fueled a Formula 1 offense that simply sped past opponents. The Jermaine Taylors, meanwhile, gobbled up foes on defense.

The Eagles still have quality players, just not as many.

Clark pointed to one position -- wide receiver -- as an example. Brandon Copeland was BC’s deep-threat receiver, it’s only deep-threat receiver. Obviously, as the season progressed, other teams discerned they could cripple the Eagles’ defense if they stifled Copeland.

It had Clark longing for the good old days – aka, 2001, when Bridgewater played for the national championship in the Stagg Bowl.

"I’ve got a picture in my office," Clark said. "We’re lined up in a formation where we have five wide receivers on the field – it’s in the national-championship game – and any one of the those five wide receivers individually can beat you."

Why BC hasn’t attracted as many skilled speedsters is anybody’s guess. Maybe the fairy dust from the Eagles’ miracle run to Salem has finally worn off. Maybe the region’s other D-III schools have bolstered their programs (think: Christopher Newport) enough to siphon off players who might otherwise have chosen Bridgewater. Or maybe it’s just cyclical.

Regardless of the reason, Clark is changing his outlook for 2007. It’s the year of the Everyman, or more accurately, the Everyplayer. Rather than a morality play, though, consider this an action-adventure film.

Which is where guys like Andy Ropp come in.

Ropp, a former Broadway High School standout who tried his luck at Division II Catawba before transferring to BC this year, may be the embodiment of the type of player Clark intends to emphasize next fall.

He’s definitely not the border-line Division I-AA player Clark sometimes lures to Bridgewater. But he is a very good D-III athlete, meaning he’s probably a bit too slow and way too little for the big time.

Ropp remembers being 58 pounds as a third-grade Pee Wee football player and 95 pounds as a 10th-grader on Broadway’s varsity squad.

Now? Well, he still won’t be mistaken for Howie Long. But he’s grown to 5-foot-9 and 160 pounds – perfect for a scrappy D-III dude.

"I’ve always been small, so you know I’m just fighting every day, go out there and fight with guys that are bigger than me, you know, and get knocked down," Ropp, a sophomore, said after the Hampden-Sydney game in late September. "I told the guys on the team I’ll get knocked down a million times. I mean, it’s happened to me all my life. Just get up and keep going. That’s what I do."

That’s what he’s going to have to do if Clark is right – if the Eagles indeed will need to rely on their foundation rather than their flashy skyscrapers in 2007. Spooked by BC’s problems in the ODAC this year – and, sadly, with extra time to ruminate – Clark appears to be serious about de-emphasizing the star system.

"Next year, in the recovery, as we chase and try to reclaim the ODAC championship, it’s going to be about the team, not the individuals within the team," Clark said. "With that as kind of an overview, the Andy Ropps of the world are not only going to be key players, but they’ve got to get better, too."

One reason, he said, is that the gap between the ODAC and BC has significantly narrowed.

"In the past, at least particularly in the conference, we could identify the two games where you had to be ready, you had to be ready for those two. Bluntly, the other five, you’d have to work real hard to screw up two of them. Now, the mode of operation is I’ve got to play every week." Clark said.

How bad did it get this season? BC had trouble defeating even mediocre teams.

"We had to fight our butts off the last two games to beat the sixth- and seventh-place teams in the ODAC," Clark noted.

Not that next year figures to be much different, not unless the Ropps step up.

Even if Clark eventually stockpiles the speed-burners who defined his program in the first half of this decade, he won’t have enough of them in 2007 to build a season around. So, it’ll be foundation kids – like Ropp and a 30-plus senior class – who’ll get at least equal billing to the Copelands.

One more point: Despite everything, it’s not panic time at Bridgewater. As Clark noted, the Eagles have won 85 percent of their games since the beginning of the 2000 season. Even this year, they finished 8-2.

But sitting home at Thanksgiving with nothing to worry about except dinner isn’t exactly how Clark likes spending late November.

"When the season ends on Nov. 12," he said, "it’s a long offseason."

Long and thoughtful, it seems.