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11-28-2009, 08:48 AM
http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll...911270362/
Highlands football coach Dale Mueller remembers when center Tyler Combs first caught his attention.
Mueller peeked into the weight room on the way to the football office one day during winter weight lifting after Combs' freshman season. Most of the players who took part in the offseason workout already had scattered.
But not Combs.
"First of all, you've got to understand Tyler came to us his freshman year in bad shape and never got in the weight program and never got on the field, and I hardly knew him," Mueller said.
"So now here he is in the weight room one day, just pumping. I mean, he was really going at it. And I said to him, 'What's up with you? Why are you working so hard?' He said, 'I want more playing time.' So I'm thinking, that's nice. Is he going to keep it up?
"Now look at him. He looks like a body builder, and he's made himself into a very good football player."
Combs, now a senior, is in his second season as the Bluebirds' starting center.
But Combs might be outsized most of the game tonight when Highlands (13-0) plays Pulaski County (10-3) in a Class 5A state semifinal in Fort Thomas. The size disadvantage will be just one more thing he'll have to deal with in his already busy role.
"He's got to do what all the other linemen do," Mueller said. "But first, he's got to check with us on the sideline, then he's got to check to see if there's a nose tackle or not, which sets the blocking scheme before the ball's snapped. Then he snaps it five yards to the quarterback, then he blocks. And he's usually blocking a bigger guy."
Combs is listed at 6-feet-1, 222 pounds. But Mueller said weight isn't much of an issue for his center.
"When you've transformed your body into a good working body like Tyler has, and then you add in all the heart, intelligence and technique, you can block anybody," Mueller said. "In our run-blocking, Tyler almost always increases the size of the crease. And in pass protection, his man does not ever make the play."
Combs said several things motivated him to succeed on the football field. First and foremost was his father.
"I really wanted to make Dad proud because he was real sick, and I wanted to give him something positive to think about," Combs said.
His father, Norman Combs, suffered cardiac arrest and had resulting brain damage when Tyler was in the seventh grade.
"That's when things started getting hard for me and my mom," said Combs, who is an only child.
As his father's health condition fluctuated, Combs found refuge in the Highlands weight room. He made some friends among the upperclassmen, who showed him how to lift weights properly and how to read the playbook. Combs lost 30 pounds before the start of his sophomore year, then gained most of it back in muscle by the end of that season.
"He totally surprised us as a sophomore," Mueller said. "We wound up making him the starting JV center, and he was making a case to be our starting varsity center through nothing but hard work."
As Combs' father continued to struggle with health issues, the young lineman hit the weight room in earnest after Highlands won the 2007 state title with a senior center. Tyler was hoping his father would get to see him make his first varsity start for Highlands eight months later.
But on Christmas day, just a few weeks after Highlands won state, Combs, his mother and his father were driving home from a relative's residence in Harrison, Ohio. Combs was in the front passenger seat and his father was behind him.
"I just looked behind me and Dad didn't look good," Combs said. "He was having trouble breathing. We pulled off an exit and tried to give him mouth-to-mouth, and we called 911 and they called an ambulance. After we got to the hospital, they said he didn't make it."
Suddenly, Combs was fatherless at age 16. After the funeral he didn't know what to do with himself, so he hit the weight room even harder.
"He was just a beast, getting bigger and stronger," senior lineman Cameron Dierig, Combs' workout partner, said. "It was amazing."
Mueller keeps before-and-after pictures of Combs, and he occasionally shows them to players who doubt they can transform their bodies into top football shape through weight lifting.
"I've seen those pictures," senior lineman Hunter Schlosser said. "Tyler is living proof you can do whatever you want if you put your mind to it. He's been through so much, but he kept wanting to play football and just stayed with it. What he's done is really incredible, and it motivates everybody on our football team."
Highlands football coach Dale Mueller remembers when center Tyler Combs first caught his attention.
Mueller peeked into the weight room on the way to the football office one day during winter weight lifting after Combs' freshman season. Most of the players who took part in the offseason workout already had scattered.
But not Combs.
"First of all, you've got to understand Tyler came to us his freshman year in bad shape and never got in the weight program and never got on the field, and I hardly knew him," Mueller said.
"So now here he is in the weight room one day, just pumping. I mean, he was really going at it. And I said to him, 'What's up with you? Why are you working so hard?' He said, 'I want more playing time.' So I'm thinking, that's nice. Is he going to keep it up?
"Now look at him. He looks like a body builder, and he's made himself into a very good football player."
Combs, now a senior, is in his second season as the Bluebirds' starting center.
But Combs might be outsized most of the game tonight when Highlands (13-0) plays Pulaski County (10-3) in a Class 5A state semifinal in Fort Thomas. The size disadvantage will be just one more thing he'll have to deal with in his already busy role.
"He's got to do what all the other linemen do," Mueller said. "But first, he's got to check with us on the sideline, then he's got to check to see if there's a nose tackle or not, which sets the blocking scheme before the ball's snapped. Then he snaps it five yards to the quarterback, then he blocks. And he's usually blocking a bigger guy."
Combs is listed at 6-feet-1, 222 pounds. But Mueller said weight isn't much of an issue for his center.
"When you've transformed your body into a good working body like Tyler has, and then you add in all the heart, intelligence and technique, you can block anybody," Mueller said. "In our run-blocking, Tyler almost always increases the size of the crease. And in pass protection, his man does not ever make the play."
Combs said several things motivated him to succeed on the football field. First and foremost was his father.
"I really wanted to make Dad proud because he was real sick, and I wanted to give him something positive to think about," Combs said.
His father, Norman Combs, suffered cardiac arrest and had resulting brain damage when Tyler was in the seventh grade.
"That's when things started getting hard for me and my mom," said Combs, who is an only child.
As his father's health condition fluctuated, Combs found refuge in the Highlands weight room. He made some friends among the upperclassmen, who showed him how to lift weights properly and how to read the playbook. Combs lost 30 pounds before the start of his sophomore year, then gained most of it back in muscle by the end of that season.
"He totally surprised us as a sophomore," Mueller said. "We wound up making him the starting JV center, and he was making a case to be our starting varsity center through nothing but hard work."
As Combs' father continued to struggle with health issues, the young lineman hit the weight room in earnest after Highlands won the 2007 state title with a senior center. Tyler was hoping his father would get to see him make his first varsity start for Highlands eight months later.
But on Christmas day, just a few weeks after Highlands won state, Combs, his mother and his father were driving home from a relative's residence in Harrison, Ohio. Combs was in the front passenger seat and his father was behind him.
"I just looked behind me and Dad didn't look good," Combs said. "He was having trouble breathing. We pulled off an exit and tried to give him mouth-to-mouth, and we called 911 and they called an ambulance. After we got to the hospital, they said he didn't make it."
Suddenly, Combs was fatherless at age 16. After the funeral he didn't know what to do with himself, so he hit the weight room even harder.
"He was just a beast, getting bigger and stronger," senior lineman Cameron Dierig, Combs' workout partner, said. "It was amazing."
Mueller keeps before-and-after pictures of Combs, and he occasionally shows them to players who doubt they can transform their bodies into top football shape through weight lifting.
"I've seen those pictures," senior lineman Hunter Schlosser said. "Tyler is living proof you can do whatever you want if you put your mind to it. He's been through so much, but he kept wanting to play football and just stayed with it. What he's done is really incredible, and it motivates everybody on our football team."
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11-28-2009, 10:30 AM
A both moving and motivating story. Would it be possible to show some of those transformation pictures for everyone to see, tradition?
11-28-2009, 11:09 AM
tradition Wrote:I guess they are filed in Dale's motivation file.
Those pictures could act as motivation for kids everywhere. Always a fan of those who work above and beyond to acheive something.
11-28-2009, 02:59 PM
Great read about a great young man.Tyler has definetly worked for everything he has.
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