Brett Stubbs doesn't look like he weighs 300 pounds.
The fact he stands six-foot-five might have something to do with that.
He's not exactly the Duchess Park Condors' answer to William "The Refrigerator" Perry, the 315-pound former defensive lineman for the Chicago Bears, best known for his short-yardage touchdown plunge as a fullback in the 1986 Super Bowl.
But tonight in Kamloops, Stubbs might get his chance to take a run into the end zone when the Condors (7-0) square off against the Seaquam Seahawks of Surrey (7-1) in a B.C. High School Football Association double-A varsity quarterfinal playoff game in Kamloops.
Stubbs plays sides of the field as a defensive lineman and offensive tackle and there's a good chance he'll take a more prominent role in the Condors' offence rushing the ball as a fullback. In a game as big as this is for Duchess Park, that would be a dream scenario for the 17-year-old Stubbs.
"I'm pretty excited about that, I've never played fullback," said Stubbs. "Ever since Grade 8 I've always wanted to run but never had the chance to. Coach (Richard Bundock) said he had a surprise for me and kind of just threw it on me coming into provincials. I've always wanted to, but I was too big."
Stubbs spends a lot of time in the gym and his strength in the trenches in unquestionable. He knows no team from Prince George has ever advanced to the provincial semifinals and they will be hard-pressed to knock off the Seahawks, the No. 2-seeded team in the West Division, who draw from a larger population base in the Lower Mainland and have lost only one of their eight games this season. But he's not lot letting the stacked odds bother him. As a Grade 12 player, he knows if the Condors lose tonight, his high school career is over.
"We've been working hard these past few weeks and we're going down there to win," Stubbs said. "I just want us working together with no mistakes and for us to give it our all. It's going to be hard, but if we all play to our full potential we should come away with the win."
Stubbs has come a long way in his development as an athlete since he joined the Grade 8 football team at Duchess Park at the suggestion of his elementary school librarian. He was one of 10 Condors who made the Northern Conference all-star team this season. He's also an accomplished wrestler who qualified last winter for the high school national championships.
"This is my fifth year of football and it's changed me completely," Stubbs said. " In Grade 7 I did no sports. I was always big and overweight, not muscular. When I first started I couldn't even run a full lap. My first practice I didn't even go on the field, I was too nervous.
"It's been crazy this last five years. It's changed me completely."
More than half Condors varsity team are Grade 12 athletes facing the possibility tonight could be their last game. Gage Reimer is one of those seniors. The receiver/outside linebacker has had two weeks to rest a rib injury that flared up in the Condors' 26-20 win over Nechako Valley in the P.G. Bowl and he can't wait to start the game tonight to try to prolong the season.
"We just want it all, we want to leave it on the field and go down for the best time ever and hopefully this won't be our last game," said Reimer. "This team is my family, I've played with them the last three years and it's probably the best thing that's ever happened to me. I'll do anything for these guys.
"Football has made me a better person. It's put me on a track to be a better student and it's helping me through school because it makes me look forward to my schoolwork so I can play. We had a tough fight in the P.G. Bowl and we're going to try to bring that win down south with us and knock the door down. We're just going to try our best and hopefully come out with the 'W.' This is going to be a good memory for us."
The game at Hillside Stadium in Kamloops starts at 6 p.m.
