Grin and Bear it

When you first spot Katon Bethay, who has a burly Paul Bunyan-like frame with just as much hair growing on his face as his head, he greets you with what could be interpreted as a smile.

By no means a big smile, no teeth involved. It’s more of an acknowledgment, with a hint of a tough-guy vibe – and in that sense, you figure he’s the quintessential lineman.

All 6-feet, 295 pounds of him.

Almost immediately, though, you sense that when it comes to the Spokane Shock’s veteran lineman there is more than meets the eye.

As he approaches a front office member at the Spokane Shock facility in Otis Orchards, there is a slight indication of concern in his manner. He has a question.

“Now what’s this TV thing, what do I have to do for that?” asks Bethay, who finds out he is doing an interview for the news.

The look on Bethay’s face says it all, but he finally shares his thoughts.

“Man, if I would have known that, I would have taken a shower.”

It’s a joke – kind of.

Everyone laughs, and Bethay makes it clear that he showers, but had he known about the interview on camera, the shower would have come before the ensuing football practice.

“Even if you showered, you wouldn’t look much different,” the Shock front office member jokes – kind of.

But Bethay, the Shock’s current starting fullback, has moved on. Something he’s gotten pretty good at.

Born in Phoenix, the 23-year-old Bethay moved to Texas, Utah and Louisiana before graduating high school in Wisconsin – where he won a state title in the shot put and was ranked seventh in the nation at one point as a wrestler. He was also a four-time All-State football standout and was named defensive player of the year as a senior in 2002.

He came out of Milton High School as a top prospect for all three sports. Wisconsin offered him a full-ride track scholarship and asked him to walk on in football. Stanford had a spot for him on the wrestling team.

His options included Georgetown, Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Stanford and Brown – but they wouldn’t give football scholarships and he couldn’t pay the hefty tuition. In the end, his dad’s advice – and his desire to play football – led Bethay toward a smaller school.

“He told me to go where I was most wanted,” explained Bethay, who chose Wofford, a small private school in South Carolina. “They flew out to see me and called me as much as they could. They really expressed the most interest.”

At the time, Bethay wanted to be a doctor, which is also part of the reason he chose to be a Terrier. That changed after he took instrumental chemistry.

It bored him, so he switched to philosophy and graduated in 2006 with a 3.78 GPA. He also was a part of athletic history at Wofford – four consecutive winning seasons in the Southern Conference for the Terriers in football and he became the first athlete to win conference titles in multiple sports. Bethay won a shot put title in 2006 during the indoor season and a football title in 2003, when the Terriers finished 12-4 overall, losing in the semifinals of the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs despite being the nation’s top-ranked I-AA team. He earned multiple conference honors and collected All-America honors as well.

“I went to a school that had very good academics and then we ended up having a good football team, too,” Bethay said. “I had a really great experience in college.”

Bethay’s sophomore year is also when doctors discovered his ACL had disintegrated as a result from an injury he sustained four years earlier as a sophomore in high school. He had major reconstructive surgery and was back on the field seven months later at the beginning of his junior season, despite the fact that his recovery time was expected to be a year and a half.

“I did rehab eight hours a day until I could walk on my own and just decided to work real hard until it was better,” Bethay said. “I hate sitting out. I hate it. I don’t like being injured and watching everybody do things.”

So instead, he takes matters into his own hands.

Last Saturday at the Arena, Bethay barreled through multiple defenders on more than one occasion – one time pushing a Tri-Cities player aside – as he ran up the middle. He collected 36 yards on six carries, gaining 16 yards on his longest run. This season, he’s reached the end zone nine times.

And his appearance, yeah, it throws you a little at first. He’s seen that happen.

“In school I was a tutor in multiple subjects and I didn’t get a lot of that there,” said Bethay. “It depends on where you meet me, because I goof off a lot. I have fun. A lot of the guys, when they first met me, I’m sure they thought I was just this big clown, because I enjoy life.

“If you’re not enjoying life, why are you living? You have to have fun sometimes.”

Lately he’s earned the nickname Hacksaw Jim Duggan after the famous pro wrestler. Some people think there is a resemblance, but mostly it’s just the facial hair.

Teammate Alex Teems had an idea of what a headline could be for Bethay’s story.

“So easy a caveman could do it,” Teems said.

The moniker “Polar Bear” is what has stuck, though, since he got the nickname in college from his coach.

“I’m huge and I’m hairy, it just works out,” Bethay said. “(In South Carolina) in January, when it’s 45 degrees out there, that was swimming weather in Wisconsin, and I was in shorts and a T-shirt, and everyone else was in their big parkas.

“I’m laughing at them – and coach is like ‘Let’s see. You’re white, you’re big, you’re strong, you’re fast, and you don’t get cold.’ “

Bethay will likely move on to the AFL after this year, but if not, there’s always Plan B.

“I got into Georgetown law … so maybe law school,” reasons Bethay, and the look on his face says it all – almost.

“It’s nice to have options.”