Hart Throb

NEWHALL — Surprise! The overwhelming admiration for Hart High quarterback Kyle Boller is not quite universal.

He still has one patch of swampland to sway.

Florida not only dismissed Boller, but took the time to write a terse note, slap a stamp on it and tell him so via first-class mail.

Hart coaches sent videotape of Boller to the Gators, expecting them to express at least mild interest in the 6-foot-3 quarterback with a howitzer-like arm who has chased national records.

Boller has recruiting trips scheduled to Florida State and Tennessee, so he took getting summarily spurned by Coach Steve Spurrier of Florida in stride.

“Either they aren’t real smart or Spurrier didn’t look at the tape,” said Bob Boller, Kyle’s father. “The letter said that maybe we don’t understand the [Southeastern Conference] is a big-time conference and that Kyle isn’t of the caliber SEC teams look for.”

That’s news to Tennessee, SEC champion this season. And to Florida State, Tennessee’s Fiesta Bowl opponent, which filed away a copy of the letter.

One rebuke won’t bother Boller, whose file of his magnificent senior season is full of glowing references and gushing testimonials.

Yet contrary to popular belief, Boller’s life was charmed long before he took his first snap this season, his first as a varsity quarterback.

He was surrounded by stellar Hart High athletes years ago. No disrespect intended to the guys in pads, but the scent was decidedly more pleasant than any football huddle.

His first coach, so to speak, was his sister, Candace, an All-Foothill League volleyball and basketball player at Hart. Two years older than her brother, she made him welcome in her circle of friends.

Boller never complained.

“My brother wasn’t a pest and he liked all my friends,” Candace said. “He had crushes on them, definitely.”

Now Boller is an object of desire himself, a certain All-American who has all manner of hearts aflutter.

Girls, he can handle.

“He explains to them, ‘I don’t want to get serious because I’m going away to college,’ ” Bob Boller said. “So he dates a lot of different girls.”

Boller will follow a similar plan to avoid falling in love at first sight with a college program.

Beginning Monday, he will visit, in succession, Florida State, Oregon, Colorado, California and Tennessee, the five finalists in the high-stakes game of Boller Derby.

Florida can drop into the Gulf of Mexico for all Boller cares. Seldom has a player from the region drawn as much nationwide recruiting attention.

‘I’m going one school a time, just like I’ve taken this season one game at a time,” Boller said. “I’m not going to get attached to any school too early.”

Emotion is his enemy. Whether it’s a girl, a college or a go-to receiver on third down, Boller understands. The proper choice requires an analytical mind.

His infatuation growing up was with Notre Dame, and his parents bought him all the blue and gold gear. But when Irish recruiters contacted him two months ago, he told them he wasn’t interested.

“I want to go where they pass the ball,” he said.

Besides Florida, the only top passing school to ignore Boller is UCLA.

The Bruins locked up J.P. Losman of Venice High last summer, telling him he would be the only quarterback the Bruins would sign. Despite getting pressure to recruit Boller from alumni that included Jim Bonds, a former Hart quarterback, Coach Bob Toledo is sticking to his word.

“I can respect that decision,” Boller said.

*

As a toddler, something as disappointing as the Florida letter--say, not getting his juice bottle quickly enough--had Boller holding his breath until he lost consciousness.

Emotion was an enemy that nearly beat him before he could stand up and defend himself.

At nine months he had his first of many breath-holding spells. He was mad at his mother, Karen, crying and crawling after her. He figured out how to get her attention.

“He totally passed out, turned purple and was stiff as a board,” she said. “I thought he died. I opened the back door and screamed at the top of my lungs for someone to call 911.”

Bob is a firefighter in Burbank, where the family lived at the time, and he was on duty.

“The entire fire department responded to the call,” Karen said. “By the time they got here, Kyle was happy as can be. They thought I was nuts.

“To this day, he is determined to get what he wants. That’s why I’m not surprised at what he’s done this year.”

Mom might be the only one.

Regardless of the obvious potential of a 17-year-old who can throw 70 yards, no one could have guessed Boller would enter the Southern Section Division III final tonight with 58 touchdown passes and only three interceptions.

And 4,687 yards passing, a state record.

And 279 completions in 433 passes (64.4%).

And with poise and pocket presence lacking from many older quarterbacks.

Boller played defensive back as a junior and even in youth football played more linebacker than quarterback.

Yet, these days, opposing defenses are the ones having difficulty breathing.

“You can’t let the pressure get to you,” Boller said. “I was nervous in my first game because I knew I had to live up to all the great quarterbacks who’ve played at Hart. I told myself that if I was timid, I wouldn’t play well.”

His composure, he believes, comes from the many nights he quietly mentally rehearsed playing quarterback.

“I’d lay in bed and picture what would happen,” he said. “I’d think, ‘I can’t wait until the season starts.’ ”

*

Candace, a volleyball player at Loyola Marymount, came home to watch her brother play in Hart’s opener against Quartz Hill.

Boller hit high gear in a hurry, passing for 422 yards and five touchdowns, numbers that in retrospect are barely above his averages.

She was excited by his performance, but she’d seen him put the pedal to the metal before.

Boller was 15 when his sister handed him the keys to her first car and watched apprehensively with their parents as he drove around the parking lot at the Burbank Fire Station, where Bob works.

He was easing into a parking space when instead of stepping on the brake, he hit the accelerator and plowed through a fence.

“It was horrible,” Candace said. “I was so disappointed, but I couldn’t get mad at him because he was devastated.”

Most of the time, it is Kyle looking out for Candace and his younger sister, Casey, 15. Sometimes to the point of suffocation.

“With my boyfriends he couldn’t be the intimidating older brother, but he would give me his opinion,” Candace said. “If he heard any news, he always relayed it to me. And he still looks out for me.

“He is extremely protective of Casey and she has a hard time. With her, he can be in complete control. I worry about it but she handles it really well.”

Casey, a sophomore known primarily as the star quarterback’s kid sister, will have her time in the limelight. Like Candace, she is a talented volleyball and basketball player.

Last week, Casey made a shot at the buzzer to give Hart a 40-39 victory in the final of the Palmdale junior varsity basketball tournament. A local reporter approached her after the game. First question, “Are you related to Kyle Boller?”

Casey nodded yes, but her father interceded: “Please don’t mention that if you write anything.”

Back home, though, Casey eases up and laughs. She wouldn’t want to be anything else in the world but Kyle’s kid sister.

“It’s different but he’s a good brother,” she said. “He’s really good to me.”

*

That’s what they all say. Coaches, teammates, starry-eyed youth players asking for his autograph. What a neat guy. Kyle Boller is nice to everyone.

After he took his worst beating of the season in a hard-fought 21-13 victory over Alemany on a cold, windy night last week, Boller remained on the field for an hour, signing game programs, shaking hands, getting his picture taken with kids.

“I finally had to say, ‘Kyle, it’s cold, we’ve got to go,’ and pull him away,” Coach Mike Herrington said.

A week earlier, Boller accepted an invitation to appear at a youth football awards dinner.

“It was a mob scene,” said Dean Herrington, Hart’s offensive coordinator. “He’s like a magnet for kids. They love him. He’s so genuine and courteous. He treats everyone with respect.”

The All-American image of the All-American quarterback doesn’t seem forced with Boller.

Linebacker Scott Hunt of Hart has lived down the street from Boller since they were 3. They’d set their alarms an hour early just to play sports before riding their bikes to elementary school.

“Kyle’s never been in trouble his whole life,” Hunt said. “He broke a window once with a football. That’s about it.”

The Boller house, about a three-minute drive from Hart, is a favored gathering spot for Kyle’s friends.

“I love hanging out there because the entire family makes you feel at home,” said Jerry Owens, an All-Southern Section receiver who first caught Boller’s passes on a fifth-grade flag team.

Bob, a fourth-generation firefighter, wields considerable influence on his son’s friends. Asked to list their career goals, several Hart players, including receivers Shane Lavoie and Owens, indicated they want to become firefighters when their football careers are over.

Several educated onlookers believe Boller possesses the physical tools and mental makeup to play in the NFL. Exhibiting the determination his mother recognized years ago, he doesn’t expect to be peeling off his pads for some time.

“That would be neat, to become another Boller fireman,” he said. “But I really do want to play football as long as I can.”

*

Football player or firefighter. Just don’t expect Boller to become a model, his good looks notwithstanding.

Along with Owens and two girls, he appears in an advertisement in the Hart football program for a western apparel store.

Boller is decked out in jeans, cowboy hat and boots, but missing is his usual easygoing smile. In fact, he looks as uncomfortable as a city slicker on a cattle drive.

“I don’t usually dress that way,” he said.

The casual attire of a golfer is more like it. Boller loves the links and entertains the idea of going out for the Hart team in the spring.

“Golf is the thing at Hart,” he said.

With recruiting visits on the horizon, he’ll have plenty to keep him occupied. And he’s sure to mix in frequent visits to Loyola Marymount.

Not only isn’t he a pest, he’s a welcome sight.

“Just look at him,” Candace said. “Now, my friends have crushes on him.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Boller Watch

A game-by-game look at how Kyle Boller of Hart High has fared this season:

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Opponent Com. Att. Yds. I TD Quartz Hill 25 40 422 1 5 Thousand Oaks 20 44 399 0 3 Sylmar 13 21 269 0 5 Palmdale 22 36 348 0 6 Loyola 22 40 362 0 2 Saugus 25 31 408 0 6 Burroughs 28 39 426 0 5 Valencia 16 27 265 1 2 Burbank 29 36 475 0 7 Canyon 15 21 347 0 5 Highland 21 33 351 1 5 St. Francis 29 35 425 0 5 Alemany 14 26 190 0 2 Totals 279 433 4687 3 58

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The national record for passing yards in a season is 5,526.