Playing By The Book Ewu Standouts Pine For Another Big Sky Title After Making The Grade In The Classroom

Football 2000

It was never about trying to prove that they weren’t stupid. Or that the NCAA was, for that matter. It was never about trying to prove anything.

For Dario Romero and Julian Williams, it was always about football, the game they love most. And a chance to play one last season with the teammates they’ve come to love just as much.

“If you love the game, you’ll pretty much do anything to get back on the field,” said Romero, a 6-foot-3, 290-pound defensive tackle, who - like Williams - struggled from under weighty classroom loads the past four years to earn an extra year of eligibility at Eastern Washington University. “There’s nothing like college football and college teammates,” added Williams, a 6-0, 196-pound strong safety. “We came here with our (recruiting) class, and we always felt like we should leave with the team.”

And now, thanks to the unwavering support of family, coaches and teammates - not to mention their own remarkable diligence - they will. But not until they take care of some unfinished business.

Romero and Williams are among 19 returning Eagles starters, who hope to make up for last year’s 7-4 season that had its moments but never lived up to its promise. They are back after earning 22 credits - each - along with bachelor’s degrees in physical education over the summer.

And they have their sights firmly set on another Big Sky Conference championship, like the one they helped the Eagles earn in 1997, when Eastern advanced to the semifinals of the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs before losing to Youngstown State.

“Everybody wants to end their college career with a championship ring, and we felt we missed a good chance to do that last year,” explained Romero, a three-year letterman from Lewis and Clark High School, who was a first-team All-Big Sky pick last season. “Now we have another opportunity with a team that’s got a lot of talent and a lot of seniors.”

There were times, both players admit, when getting another chance seemed like a pipe dream.

Romero and Williams, who prepped at Vancouver’s Mountain View High School and earned All-Big Sky honors of his own last fall, enrolled at Eastern in the fall of 1996 as academic non-qualifiers.

Both had devoted more time to playbooks than textbooks in high school and, despite decent scores on their college boards, were ineligible to practice with the team. They paid their own way to school that first year and concentrated on classroom assignments, while their teammates prepared for the upcoming season.

“There were plenty of jokes and wisecracks,” Williams said, looking back on his freshman year. “The hard part was that we would be out running by ourselves during practice, so it almost felt like we were part of the team - until practice ended. Then, everyone else went to the locker room, and we went home.”

Romero admitted he missed more than his fair share of school days in high school.

“I just wasn’t thinking that far ahead at the time,” he said. “And then you always hear the (high school) coaches saying you just have to graduate and then you’re automatically eligible, but it didn’t happen like that.”

As a result, Romero realized early in senior year at LC that he wasn’t going to have enough time to make up for his classroom indiscretions.

“I had accepted the fact that I wasn’t going to be eligible,” he said. Which wasn’t the case with Williams, who showed up for two-a-day practices that fall with his parents.

“I didn’t know I was ineligible,” Williams recalled. “I had come here with my bags packed and was ready to stay. Then Coach (Mike) Kramer called me into his office and told me I wouldn’t be able to play.”

According to Williams, he had made up a final exam in a foreign language class and had a grade changed from the one on the original transcripts he had sent to the NCAA. He sent in an updated transcript and then scored a 920 on his SATs.

“But when I got here, I learned the NCAA wouldn’t accept that second transcript,” Williams explained. “That was probably the most humbling experience I’ve ever gone through - especially after bragging to my friends about getting a full ride to play football at Eastern.”

Williams had already said his goodbyes to those friends. And when he returned home, things got downright embarrassing.

“It was a real slap in the face,” he said. “When I got back, everybody was saying, `What are you doing here?’ and I was like, `Uh, freshmen don’t report until next fall.”’

Under NCAA rules in place at the time, Romero and Williams lost that freshman season of eligibility and were facing abbreviated three-year college football careers. Since then, the NCAA has softened its stance. Today, academic non-qualifiers can have that lost year of eligibility restored - provided they obtain their college degree in four years.

Romero and Williams did just that, taking heavy classloads each quarter and sweating through two-hour blocks of instruction in such classes as adapted physical education and mechanical kinesiology this summer. The two shared many of the same classes and many of the same discouraging moments.

“From Day One, we both kind of had our doubts,” Romero said, “but we kept on each other about going to class. It helped to have somebody going through it with you.”

Williams said there were times over the summer when he and Romero called each other and exchanged words of encouragement.

“There were times when I was like, `Oh, man, I can’t do it anymore,”’ he recalled. “And when I’d call Dario, he wasn’t like, `It’s easy, man, you can do it.’ He was going through the exact same thing and knew how tough it was. “We helped each other get through it.”

Eagles coach Paul Wulff was confident they would from the start.

“They’re smart kids,” he said. “They just didn’t realize early enough what they had to do to be eligible.”

Among those most thrilled by their achievement is Eagles co-captain and senior linebacker Greg Belzer, who understands what their presence means to his team.

Romero enters the season with 117 career tackles and ranks No. 6 in career sacks with 16. Williams had a hand in 83 tackles last fall.

“Getting Dario and Julian back is huge,” Belzer said. “They both bring a lot of intensity to the field, and they’re both very skilled players. But most of all, they bring great leadership.”

Belzer counts himself among those who believed Romero and Williams would earn their extra year.

“I think they were kind of bitter that we didn’t do better than we did last year,” he said. “They both really wanted to get back to play with us and try to win the championship again. That was their main drive, and we welcome them back - with open arms.”