Daily Pilot High School Football Player of the Week

A couple weeks ago, Taylor Ross walked into Coach J.R. Tolver’s office at Sage Hill School and asked for the football.

He wanted to carry it, not out of the office, but on the field in games.

The previous two games before Ross met with Tolver, a fractured right thumb prevented him from playing running back. Ross first wore a cast, then a wrist splint in the rehabilitation process. It ended rather quickly, or Ross turned out to be a fast healer.

Ross said he cut the cast off a couple of times because it limited the use of his hand. As for the splint the trainer made for Ross, it was useful for one game, his first game back since getting his thumb bent backward after it was stuck in a defender’s face mask on Sept. 18.

“It covers up part of my hand,” Ross said of the splint. “It was hard to grip [the ball].”

When Ross entered the coach’s office, he still didn’t have a firm grip. He was unsure whether he could secure the ball tightly enough with players tackling him and trying to jar the ball loose.

Ross was positive about one thing and he conveyed it to the first-year coach.

“Coach, I’m ready to do obviously whatever you want me to do, but I feel I can help out more with the ball in my hands,” Tolver said Ross told him.

“[Those words] did mean a lot. That took a lot for him to walk in and tell me that, and I respected that.”

In return, Tolver trusted Ross with the ball again. The junior more than held on to it last week.

He carried the Lightning.

Ross rushed 16 times for a season-high 134 yards as host Sage Hill beat Brethren Christian, 20-13, in an Academy League opener. With only three league games, each one is crucial.

Sage Hill is now one victory away from clinching one of the league’s berths into the CIF Southern Section East Valley Division playoffs. The No. 5-ranked Lightning (6-2, 1-0 in league) continue their remarkable turnaround from a year ago, when they finished 2-8, 1-2.

Last season was the first time Sage Hill missed the postseason since 2003. Back then, Ross’ older brother, Braden, suited up for the Lightning as a freshman.

Taylor is the third Ross family member to play football at Sage Hill. Braden is the second, and Taylor said Grayson was part of the school’s first graduating class.

“My family’s been here ever since it started,” Ross said of Sage Hill, which opened in the fall of 2000. “We were given tours here before it was even built.”

The youngest of the three Ross brothers has seen the ups and downs associated with the school’s football program.

More highs in Braden’s final three years as the team went 22-11 overall, compared to when Grayson played. In Grayson’s senior year in 2002, Sage Hill played a varsity schedule for the first time and suffered seven losses.

None of the brothers played together at Sage Hill, Taylor enrolling at the school after Braden graduated in the spring of 2007, and Braden enrolling at Sage Hill after Grayson graduated in 2003.

The three siblings are close and they keep in touch. Grayson is at the University of Arizona and Braden at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn.

Taylor said his brothers are sort of jealous of how far Lightning football has come.

“Braden always tells me that if he had our coaches, they would’ve been better,” said Taylor, whose head coach, Tolver, has NFL and NCAA playing experience like most of his assistant coaches.

One thing Ross appreciates about the staff members is they’re approachable. Tolver’s been all ears, even when Ross says he bugs him for more carries.

As long as Ross continues to work hard and contribute, which he also does as a safety, kicker and punter, Tolver’s more than OK with him walking into his office any time of the day.

“He came back last week, and from the first play, we saw the spark in his eyes,” Tolver said. “The way he was on the field, running around, creating excitement, we knew he was ready to play.

“When the game got close, we said, ‘We’ve got to give the ball to somebody that’s going to carry us where we want to go.’ It happened to be him.”

Ross asked for it.