TSD’s Dalton Etkie hopes for another record-setting season
By Danny Davis
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Published: August 21, 2011
Dalton Etkie is not that different from the other high school quarterbacks
in Central Texas .
Like Hutto’s Ryan Higgins, Etkie, a junior at the Texas School for the Deaf
, set single-season passing records for his school last season. Like Zed
Woerner at Marble Falls and Tanner Rogers at Blanco, Etkie plays for a head
coach who also is his father. Like Copperas Cove’s Orlando Thomas, Etkie
dreams of one day playing for the University of Texas.
“Deaf or hearing, it’s really the same, we just can’t hear,” Etkie said
recently, speaking through an interpreter .
Etkie, who was born deaf, is coming off a sophomore season in which he set
school records for passing yards and touchdown passes in a season. He also
set a single-game mark by throwing for 412 yards against St. Dominic Savio.
A backup as a freshman , Etkie led the Rangers to a 3-9 record and an
appearance in the TAPPS Division III playoffs in 2010.
When the Rangers open the 2011 season on Friday with a home game against
Prince of Peace Christian, they will be led by a quarterback who threw for
2,392 yards and 21 scores last year.
“He’s a little raw with his skills, but he’s a competitor,” Regents coach
Beck Brydon said of the 6-foot-1-inch, 175-pound Etkie. “They’ve got a good
athlete at the quarterback position.”
This season, TSD will play in a district that includes Bryan St. Joseph ,
the Giddings State School and Regents, which won the Division III state
championship in 2010 . The Rangers will start the season with varsity and
junior varsity teams, and varsity head coach Kelvin Etkie estimated that he
has about 40 athletes in his program.
On the field, the Rangers wear wristbands they consult for plays. (Last
season, the playbook listed more than 50.) Etkie receives signals from the
sideline, and he relays them to his teammates. “He explains it to us clearly
so that we can understand it and so we know what the plays are,” senior wide
receiver Jonathan Ford said.
A communication barrier typically limits the Rangers’ interactions with
their opponents to facial expressions and fist pumps, although Ford admitted
that the team does exchange smack talk when it plays another state school
for the deaf. The Rangers also don’t talk much with the referees, and
although the team had a trainer last year who spoke and signed, she was used
as a last resort to question calls.
“If it’s a bad call, we can live with it and move on,” Kelvin Etkie said.
Kelvin — who is deaf along with his wife, Marlene, and each of their four
children — has been associated with TSD since 1993, coaching various sports
at the school since 1998. Marlene teaches second grade at the school. Kylene
, the oldest of the three Etkie daughters, set school records for aces and
digs in a volleyball season last year, when she was a freshman .
Kelvin Etkie began coaching his son in football when Dalton played in a
youth league with children who weren’t deaf. Kelvin stepped in to serve as
an interpreter and coach. Etkie, who has a 4-17 record after two football
seasons as TSD, then began to assist his son with baseball, basketball,
soccer and wrestling.
Now, the duo is trying to lead the Rangers’ football team to back-to-back
playoff berths. This season, Dalton hopes to cut down on his 23
interceptions of a year ago, when he completed 50.6 percent of his passes.
“It’s kind of odd, my dad being my coach,” Etkie said. “But when I play
football, I look at him as a coach, not as my father. When we’re done, he
goes back to being my dad.”
Etkie said he is comfortable at TSD, and “I’ve always just wanted to stay
here until I graduate.” However, he occasionally wonders what it would be
like to attend a bigger school. Etkie lives in Bowie’s attendance zone , and
he sometimes sees the Bulldogs out on the practice field.
“I drive by and I see them out there on the field and I feel like I want to
join them, but,” Dalton Etkie said.
“You want to join them? Do you think you’d be the quarterback? ” his father
interrupted.
“No, I’d be at a different position.”
“Like what?”
“Something on defense or tight end,” Etkie said, before pausing. “Or I could
play quarterback.”
[email protected]; 445-3952
Source: