September 27, 2007

Whicker column: A hitting and catching Orange Lutheran machine
Blake Ayles is spreading havoc again as Orange Lutheran's tight end, and next year he'll join some old friends at USC who know how rough he can get.

MARK WHICKER
Register columnist

ORANGE - Enemy linebackers bounce off Blake Ayles and sometimes don't get up.

Friends, too.

"Here's a funny story about Aaron and me," Ayles said the other day at Orange Lutheran. "I was the quarterback and then he came and beat me out. This is when we were playing for the Orange Chiefs (junior team). Well, one day we had a drill in practice and I wound up breaking his collarbone. And that meant I had to play quarterback in our playoff game, against some team from L.A.

"It was a mud bowl. I must have fumbled five times. After that, forget it. I wasn't a quarterback anymore."

Aaron is Aaron Corp, who quarterbacked the Lancers to the state championship last year and, whenever he needed a third and five, found tight end Ayles for at least six.

And their friendship, like Corp's collarbone, healed.

Now Corp and defensive end Michael Reardon are at USC, going through their redshirt season. Ayles will join them next year, but first he's drawing a bead on Los Alamitos, tonight at Cal State Fullerton.

Ayles is 6-foot-5 and 250 and plays a little defensive end, too. As a discus thrower, he was fifth at the state meet last year. His growth has paralleled that of the Lancers, who threw a 14-year-old Ayles into a CIF title game at Angel Stadium, against Newport Harbor, and watched him go over the middle, where the men are.

"It was hard to believe the plays he was able to make," said Jim Kunau, the Lutheran coach. "He's always been a great instinctive player. But he was only about 180 then."

"Ayles just wants to come out on the field and hit you," said John Barnes, the Los Alamitos coach. "He and Clark Evans are two guys that when you see 'em you say, 'You mean these guys are in high school?' ''

Evans is a junior, the latest model in Los Alamitos' long product line of quarterbacks. Except this guy isn't fading back for anybody.

"He reminds me so much of (Florida's) Tim Tebow," Kunau said. "Next year, in the county, we'll probably have the nation's best dropback quarterback in Matt Barkley (Mater Dei) and the best combination runner/passer in Evans."

And Orange Lutheran will still show up. Corp and Reardon are gone, but Ayles and 13 other starters return.

"We probably have more seniors this year than last year," Kunau said. "We haven't talked about last year much. Memories are nice. But they don't make tackles and they don't sustain blocks."

Ayles says Saturday mornings make him feel old. "I get out of bed and I'm stiff from head to toe," he said, grinning again. "But that's OK. When I get on defense I get to let it all out."

"He doesn't have to get beat up as much as he does," said Dave Ayles, Blake's father. "He goes looking for that type of stuff. As a young kid? He was a handful, I'll say that."

Dave Ayles is a longtime UPS driver who threw the discus at La Quinta High and Golden West College. His family is from Wisconsin, and the Ayleses are still Packer fans. Dave and Blake like to find open fields near their mid-county home and toss the plate every now and then. Except, Dave said, the kid surpassed him long ago.

"I want a 20-foot improvement next year," Blake said, "to 214. It's a fun sport, a nice change. A little more stress-free. That was one thing I insisted on, that I'd get to throw the discus as well as play spring football, and they're going to let me do that at USC."

"Blake and I both had to smile last week when we saw (tight end) Fred Davis catching all those passes at the Coliseum," Dave said. "With (offensive coordinator Steve) Sarkisian calling the plays, the tight end is going to be back in their offense.

"But we're taking it one step at a time. Just like when we made decisions on high school. Blake could be catching 10 balls a game somewhere else. At Orange Lutheran it's about the team and the school and the coaches."

The Ayleses also buy into classic cars. Blake and Dave are fixing up a 1973 Camaro, the inaugural edition. "We put a 383 engine in there," Blake said.

Then there's Dave's '63 Corvette.

"Blake's got his eyes on it but he's not touching it," Dave said. "But he is going to have fun driving that Camaro to school before long."

And then there's actually running full speed. The Ayleses have been to Pomona several times to watch the dragsters.

"Me? I mean, that's a dream," Blake said. "When Aaron was trying to get me to come here, he told me they were going to get an auto shop class. He lied. I'm still waiting."

Ayles laughed again, like a carefree kid who isn't afraid to own anything he breaks.