Sun Super 11: Calif. defensive end named top prospect

Steve Guiremand

Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2001 | 10:35 a.m.

Now Shaun Cody knows how opposing quarterbacks feel.

The 6-5, 255-pound defensive end from Los Altos High School in Hacienda Heights, Calif., the top vote-getter on this year's Las Vegas Sun Super 11 football squad, has pulled a nice disappearing act in recent days.

An apologetic Los Altos head coach Greg Gano said Monday afternoon that he hasn't seen his prized recruit since last week and was unable to relay multiple interview requests to Cody.

"It's been crazy around here," Gano said. "Shaun has been getting 20 to 25 calls a night from reporters and coaches. Heck, I got six calls at home last night, including one from a paper in South Bend. They all want to know the same thing: Where is Shaun going to go to school?"

So Cody, who excelled in putting pressure on the quarterback the last two years while rolling up an amazing 57 sacks for the two-time CIF Southern Section Division VII champs, apparently has bolted town for a few days to try to sort out his promising future and escape the media heat before Wednesday's national letter of intent signing period begins.

"I think he went down to San Diego with some of his family to try and figure things out," Gano said. "I hope he calls you. He really is a great kid. But things have been very intense with his recruiting here lately. And he's having a hard time telling the schools who are recruiting him, 'no.' "

Four schools made the final cut for the explosive defensive end who was named USA Today's national defensive player of the year: Notre Dame, USC, UCLA and Washington.

Whoever gets Cody will likely have an instant contributor for the 2001 season and a future All-America candidate.

"He's very deserving of being your top vote-getter," said one Pac-10 assistant who turned in a Super 11 ballot. "He's a Junior Seau/Jamir Miller type of guy coming into college. He has all the tools. I think he'll be a very good player in college but whether he goes on to win the Outland Trophy or something depends on him."

"He's just a helluva player," another coach said. "He has great acceleration to the ball. And he plays a position where it is so hard to find good ones. They're very few and far between."

It is because of that fact that Cody will play defense in college, although he has been compared to Tony Gonzalez by some scouts as a tight end prospect as well. He caught 49 passes for more than 700 yards and 10 touchdowns as a senior.

"He's just an unbelieveable athlete," Gano said. "Our tailbacks were hurt some this season and we were set to put him at tailback if we needed him."

In fact, Gano inserted Cody at fullback to jump start Los Altos' offense during the second half of this year's CIF title game against Covina Charter Oak and Cody responded by rushing for 91 yards and two touchdowns in a 28-21 win.

Cody, who was 6-4 in the eighth grade, didn't even play football until the ninth grade when he went out for the freshman team at Damien High School in La Verne. Instead, he concentrated on basketball and baseball.

"I was a skinny weakling when I was a freshman," Cody told the Long Beach Press-Telegram recently after he garnered a perfect 10 votes in that newspapers' prestigious Best in the West poll of college coaches. "You come in (the weight room) and you're embarrassed to lift in front of those guys. You get in there and get big while no one's around. Then one day, you're lifting with the big boys."

Cody left Damien, a private school that counts major league home run hero Mark McGwire among its alumni, after his freshman year and completed his high school career at Los Altos, his neighborhood school.

No one was happier about that transition than Gano.

"He was a big, strong, lean kid when he got here," Gano said. "But you knew he was going to be a good one. I don't think anybody ever figured that he would turn out to be the national defensive player of the year, though."

The good news for Gano? Cody has a younger brother, Paul, who is already 6-1, 290 pounds, and started as a sophomore for Los Altos.

Better get used to all those phone calls, Greg.