Booster Club’s Favorite Son Catches On 1995 Decision Gives Unbeaten Eastern Washington Its Leading Receiver

It was mid-October of 1995 and Eastern Washington’s young football team was in a dead-engine plunge.

The Eagles were in the middle of a losing streak that would stretch to five games and help define a disastrous 3-8 season. In juries were at an epidemic level - especially at wide receiver, where Jeff Ogden had just gone down with a season-ending back injury and Jerrold Jackson had suffered a concussion.

And second-year coach Mike Kramer was frantically searching for a way to soften the impact of his team’s impending crash landing.

Every coaching instinct Kramer possessed screamed for him pull the redshirt off wideout Steve Correa and play the slightly built, but highly gifted, transfer from Fullerton (Calif.) Junior College.

Forget that the season was already half over and headed nowhere. Ignore the fact that Correa would have missed five of the 20-plus games he was hoping to play at the Division I-AA level. This was about survival.

Mayday! Mayday!

Fortunately for Kramer, Correa and the entire Eastern football program, cooler heads prevailed. It was a normally impatient band of boosters who advised Kramer during a weekly luncheon to avoid any knee-jerk reaction, ride out the turbulence and save Steve Correa for another flight.

So today, Correa is delighting Eastern fans with his speed, shiftiness and big-play capabilities, instead of watching from the stands with his eligibility used up and his emotional scars from the 1995 season still showing.

Last Saturday, the 5-foot-10, 170-pound Correa caught a 20-yard scoring pass and returned a kickoff 97 yards for another touchdown in Eastern’s 31-14 road win over Portland State.

And last Monday Kramer again had lunch with those same boosters who talked him out of using Correa in 1995.

“I told them that their son (Correa) was doing just fine, thank you - mainly because he was still playing in ‘97,” Kramer said. “Really, if I had not talked to those guys at that meeting two years ago, we would have played Steve Correa in 1995. And he would have been a lot more student than athlete right now.”

Correa, a Los Angeles-area native, came to EWU following two seasons as a track and football standout at Fullerton, where he was an All-Mission Conference wide receiver and clocked personal-best times of 10.5 seconds in the 100 meters and 21.8 in the 200.

He was recruited by Eagles defensive coordinator Jerry Graybeal, who liked his toughness and productivity as much as his speed. And he realized he was a perfect match for Eastern the minute he hit campus on his recruiting visit.

“Southern Illinois had recruited me, but I didn’t return any of their phone calls because I didn’t want to go that far away from home,” explained Correa, who will start his 15th consecutive game when the Eagles entertain Big Sky Conference rival Weber State Saturday night at 6:35.

As a junior last fall, Correa caught 33 passes for 771 yards and six touchdowns. Four of his catches produced gains of more than 45 yards, and three of his touchdown receptions - including a 73-yarder - came from more than 50 yards out. His average of 23.4 yards per catch was well ahead of the career school record of 18.1 set by Tony Brooks (1990-93).

“He’s a big-play guy with great open-field speed,” said Kramer. “Steve was very productive early in the year last fall, but as the season wore on and he handled the ball more and more he started to typify our whole football team - he really wore down at the end of the year.”

To prevent a recurrence of the problem, Kramer has moved Correa from the slot position, where pass routes are normally more physically demanding, to the outside. And he has cut back on his return responsibilities.

Correa has done his part by spending more time in the weight room and working harder during the off-season on his conditioning.

“I think this team has a really good chance of becoming a great team - if we give the effort,” Correa said. “Which makes me glad I didn’t play in 1995.

“Now I don’t have to sit around watching and thinking, ‘Wow, that would have been neat to be a part of a team that good.”’

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 color photos

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: LONG-RANGE STRIKES EWU scoring plays for wide receiver and return specialist Steve Correa the past two seasons:

1997 Season: 97-yard kickoff return vs. Portland State

1996 Season: 73-yard TD catch vs. Idaho State 57-yard TD catch vs. Montana State 55-yard TD catch vs. Cal State Northridge 42-yard TD catch vs. Cal State Sacramento 36-yard TD catch vs. Cal State Sacramento