Monday, Dec. 4, 2006 | 7:24 a.m.
Minutes after Las Vegas High's 33-6 victory against Galena of Reno in the Class 4A state championship game at blustery Sam Boyd Stadium on Saturday, Daniel Durnian, who was perhaps the Wildcats' biggest man on the field in a manner of speaking, anyway was in a mood to celebrate.
Unfortunately, the first thing he saw wearing black and red was a man-mountain named Art Plunkett, a Las Vegas assistant coach who was a starting offensive tackle for the Super Bowl New England Patriots.
According to the program, Durnian stands 5-foot-8. Plunkett stands about 5-foot-19.
But Durnian, as the old announcers used to say, simply would not be denied. He literally got a running start so he could jump high enough to hug his coach. It looked like Mary Lou Retton doing a vault.
That will have to serve as the final overachievement of Durnian's competitive football career. Because guys who have to eat milkshakes and pump iron all summer just to get up to 148 pounds usually don't get to play on Saturdays after their senior proms.
"This is probably it," said Durnian, who caught four passes for 137 yards and a touchdown an 86-yard catch-and-run on the second play of the second half that turned the game in the Wildcats' favor.
Las Vegas would go on to win its second consecutive state championship, its third in six years, and I suppose that's how most in the stands who wrapped themselves in blankets to ward off the chill will remember it.
Not me. I will remember a sticky-fingered elf wearing No. 15 on his back running under a pass from O'Ryan Bradley at midfield, then outrunning about a half-dozen Grizzlies who were chasing him as if he were the Grinch who had just stolen Christmas.
Midfield 40 30
Initially, Durnian's legs were pumping like the pistons on a steam locomotive.
Twenty-five 20 15 10
Then his legs began to wobble and lose elasticity, like the rubber band on the Little Engine That Could.
"I'm not the fastest guy in the world," Durnian would say later.
Finally, he spotted the light at end of a very dark tunnel. It was the goal line pylon. He leaped. There was a collision. He went down in a tangle of arms and legs and assorted other body parts.
There was a hesitation from the referee, who must have blinked in disbelief like the rest of us. Had we just seen the smallest guy on the field go coast-to-coast?
We had. The referee raised his arms in silent confirmation. Touchdown!
That made it 13-6, Las Vegas. Galena might have still been in the game, but only on the scoreboard. You could almost see the Grizzlies, which up to then had out gained the Wildcats, reach for their backs in anguish.
Because Durnian had just broken them.
It wasn't quite time to celebrate. But soon it would be. Then Durnian would jump into Plunkett's arms. And plant a kiss on the only person on the field smaller than him, a terminally cute Wildcats cheerleader named Brittny Warren, his girlfriend.
She was crying, and although I can't be certain, I don't think it was because Durnian kissed her without removing his helmet and had conked her in the nose with his face mask.
A little later, when the Wildcats lined up for the official championship picture. Durnian was told to sit in front. That's where they always put the little guys.
Then a slight woman started shouting instructions to him.
"Put your chin down, Daniel.
"Smile, Daniel.
"Eat your vegetables, Daniel."
Actually, Eileen Durnian didn't tell her son to eat his vegetables.
But she did tell a reporter he was a good kid who got A's and B's and loved to play Madden on his computer.
She was wearing a Las Vegas High letterman's jacket that appeared to be her son's.
The reason you could tell? Because it was a perfect fit.
Then the woman from the photography studio handed Eileen Durnian's only son the championship trophy, to have and to hold if not from this day forward, at least until she could get all the big guys in back to stop messing around so she could click the shutter.
Once again, Daniel Durnian, the smallest man on the field, had come up huge.
archive
