Sooner than later

BILL SPARKES/Acorn Newspapers FAMILIAR FACE—Joey Halzle played four seasons of varsity football at Oaks Christian, and helped the school win its first CIF football championship in 2003. After two years of junior college, he signed to play at the University of Oklahoma. The following message was recently posted on the website www.soonerfans.com.

It helps illustrate part of the reason why former Oaks Christian quarterback and longtime Oak Park resident Joey Halzle recently decided to accept a scholarship to play football at the University of Oklahoma.

“My dad’s birthday’s today and he is an old Sooner,” wrote a user that calls himself Lubbockorleavit. “Just picked up his new Tahoe about and hour ago and wanted to try and land one of those silver OU emblems that a lot of alumni have on the back of their cars. . . .If anyone knows where I could get one today it would mean a lot. I think he will be happy with his new Tahoe, but it will be better when he sees the chrome OU on the back.”

Understand this: in Norman, Oklahoma, home of University of Oklahoma Sooners, buying a new car is nice, but it doesn’t mean nearly as much if the Sooners aren’t winning football games and you’re not proudly representing the university.

“I liked that when I was down there,” the 19-year-old Halzle said. “You drive through the town, it’s a small town, but there’s OU stuff in all the windows.

“They take their football seriously out there,” Halzle said. “They’ll love you or they’ll hate you, one of the two.”

Halzle’s road to a four-year college scholarship hasn’t been the fairytale ride that some highlytouted prospects get to embark on.

After playing three seasons on the varsity team at Oaks Christian, including two as the team’s starting signal-caller, Halzle’s playing time was cut into significantly during his senior year in 2003 by a young freshman named Jimmy Clausen.

During the ’03 CIF title game against Oak Park, Halzle found himself watching a majority of the game from the sidelines as Clausen guided the Lions to their first football championship in school history.

“He wasn’t real happy when he left here,” OCHS head coach Bill Redell said.

“But I think he’s matured now and gotten over that,” Redell said. “We wish him nothing but the best. He’s a good guy, works hard, and he’s going onto an outstanding program.”

Halzle said the experience during his senior season at Oaks Christian ended up being a blessing in disguise because it forced him to work harder on the field and in the weight room.

“I learned a lot of lessons about perseverance and staying tough through adversity,” Halzle said. “You have to fight through it, and if you have a dream, you can’t let anything get in your way.”

Halzle planned to walk-on at the University of Oregon after graduating from OCHS in the spring of 2004.

But on the advice of his quarterback coach at the time, Rick Johnson, Halzle opted to attend Golden West College in Huntington Beach, where he could continue to develop his skills and prepare his body for the physical rigors of big-time college football.

After working with his new team throughout his inaugural summer at the junior college, Halzle suffered a broken ankle just before the season started.

“I went to cut and my ankle just busted,” Halzle said. “I was in a cast for six weeks and in a walking boot after that for another three (weeks). It took me out of the season.”

While he admits the injury had him feeling down at the time, Halzle again found a silver lining in a difficult situation.

“I was fortunate that I did it before the season so I could grayshirt and didn’t lose my redshirt year or any eligibility,” Halzle said.

With his ankle healed, Halzle hit the gym hard prior Golden West’s ’05 campaign, eventually putting on 25 pounds of muscle during the offseason.

Now standing 6-foot-4, weighing 210 pounds and running the 40-yard dash in under 4.6 seconds, Halzle earned the starting quarterback job at Golden West.

His team struggled, posting just a 1-9 record, but Halzle’s numbers were respectable.

In 10 games this season, the quarterback connected on 169of-363 pass attempts for 2,077 yards, 13 touchdowns and 13 interceptions.

He completed 46.6 percent of his passes.

Halzle’s offensive coordinator at Golden West, Lee Miller, who’s now the school’s interim head coach, said Halzle was a joy to coach and to watch play, adding that he wishes he had one more season to work with the quarterback.

“You talk about student-athlete, he puts student first,” Miller said. “He’s a 4.0 student—straight A’s. And that transfers onto the football field where he’s able to read coverages, recognize things that you want to do, check out of plays and gives you an extension of a coach out on the field.”

When the season ended in November, several major universities, including Michigan, Wyoming and Oklahoma, all came calling for Halzle’s services.

Halzle visited the Oklahoma campus and shortly thereafter committed to head coach Bob Stoops. Just before Christmas, Hazel signed his letter of intent.

Entering OU, Halzle has three years of eligibility remaining and can also spend a year as a redshirt.

Halzle, who plans to major in business, said the coaching staff at Oklahoma has told him he will be competing for the starting job against returning starter Rhett Bomar next year.

“They already told me it’s an open competition between me and him,” Halzle said. “One of us is going to be the starting quarterback next year, and the other one is going to be No. 2.”

Just last week, Bomar led the Sooners to a 17-14 victory over the No. 6-ranked Oregon Ducks in the Holiday Bowl at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego.

Halzle and his family were on hand to watch the game, and he knows the win certainly won’t hurt Bomar’s chances to start next season.

“Wherever you go you’re going to have to compete at this level,” Halzle said. “It’s not going to be given to you.”