ARVADA — When he was 10 years old and playing at a friend’s house in Erie, Dylan Carter climbed an aspen tree.
On the way up, he snapped a branch.
On the way down, while sliding to the ground as if on a fireman’s pole, he sliced himself open on the edge of what had been a branch. It looked as if someone had taken a switchblade to his belly.
“Other kids might have been freaking out, but I was playing with it,” Carter said proudly. “I was, like, ‘What’s this?’ “
Sixteen stitches, multiple staples and what he described as “some kind of glue” later, Carter began to hear his calling : dealing with pain.
Now a senior running back at Pomona High School, Carter leads the Panthers into Friday’s Class 5A semifinals against upstart Lakewood, and his drive hasn’t wavered. One of Colorado’s premier schoolboy rushers has inflicted physical and mental pain to opponents through an assortment of inside and outside moves.
But once he’s done with football, he wants to jump to the other side of the pain and become a nurse.
“Honestly, I do,” Carter said. “There’s a great demand for them.”
Carter knows pain. The 6-footer built himself into 210 pounds, only to have his coach Jay Madden ask him to cut to his current 185 pounds to be more elusive and take advantage of his quickness.
There also was the time he was at an Old Chicago restaurant and heard a nurse talking about a kid who had a compound fracture in his wrist while playing ice hockey years ago. They didn’t recognize him, but, yes, it was Carter.
During the quarterfinals last week, Carter helped the Panthers outlast three-time defending 5A champion Mullen 23-22. Carter, who has battled a leg injury all season, not only withstood the Mustangs’ physical defense (26 carries, 81 yards), but got tackled out of bounds and brushed the leg of Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow, who was on the sideline.
Carter has handed out quick, torturing performances all season to the tune of 1,145 yards and 21 touchdowns. Those numbers would have been much better had the Panthers (11-1) not been involved in only two games decided by seven points or fewer. Carter did not have a lot of carries after halftime.
“You know what, we’ve seen some good running backs,” Lakewood coach Mark Robinson said, “but the difference is that he has better moves and better field vision. And he’ll run over you. He’s tough.”
Sporting what appears to be an attempt at Elvis-like sideburns, Carter may be the most dangerous player in Colorado’s final rounds.
“He’s making people miss,” Madden said. “He’s reading his blocks really well. He’s being patient and finding his way.”
Not bad for a former soccer player who yearned for contact and didn’t play football until two years before high school. He watched Pomona football in fourth grade. Against the nervousness of his mother, Carter traded shin guards for shoulder pads.
“I kind of pressured my parents into it,” he said. “I wanted to get into something. People were telling me that I was a natural athlete and, for me, (football) just comes naturally. I just wanted to hit people.”
He saw spot duty for Pomona as a sophomore wide receiver before turning into one of the best rushers in the state.
“Without him, we don’t have a running game,” Panthers senior defensive tackle Kenny Shinley said.
Matt Woolem, Pomona’s other starter at defensive tackle, said Carter “isn’t afraid to be hit. He’s our guy and other teams know that.”
Carter’s considerable presence, according to Madden, was verified against Mullen, which “manned us up outside and that’s the most dangerous thing to do in football.”
Madden said it was because of Carter. If not, “why else would they do that?”
Added Pomona tackle Robert Carlson: “That sums it up right there. He’s pretty good.”
Carter insists he’s part of a tight group. The 2009 Panthers, which lost to Mullen in the title game, were more fragmented, Carter said, but this year’s group regularly hangs out, girlfriends and all, and goes to movies by the dozen.
And every running back has a relationship with his line.
“They call themselves Batman and I’m Harvey Dent,” said Carter, referencing the superhero and villain in DC Comics. “We have so many good players on this team. I don’t care if I get 20 carries for 20 yards, as long as we win.”
Carter and several prominent Panthers haven’t forgotten the embarrassment of being suspended for breaking team rules earlier this season. The punishment came before the Valor Christian game, the Panthers’ only loss, a 38-0 pasting to the defending 4A champion.
“Like any other high school students, we make mistakes,” said Shinley, who added that Carter being recruited by colleges has helped him draw more looks as well.
Carter said he isn’t fooling himself. He’d be more than comfortable at CSU-Pueblo, Northern Colorado, Fort Lewis, Augustana or Drake, where he could pursue his studies toward nursing.
“There aren’t too many kids from Colorado that will play in the NFL,” he said. “If you go D-II, you’re going for school; if it’s D-I, you’re going for pro.
“I just want a job where you won’t get laid off.”
Neil H. Devlin: 303-954-1714 or ndevlin@denverpost.com
