Dylenn Ramirez Last year Royal High running back Curtis Marsh ran for 1,608 yards. Fullback Dylenn Ramirez remembers it well, since he had the best seat in the house.

Even though he played the whole year hurt with a right ankle sprain, Ramirez was the main blocking back for a great season by Marsh. Marsh is now gone, but thankfully for Royal, Ramirez will return for his senior season in this fall, and this time he's healthy.

"He was the lead blocker for Curtis last year and he never complained once about his injury," Royal head coach Gene Uebelhardt said. "He just went out and played and did a great job."

During the off-season, Ramirez has had time to heal the ankle, which, he said, is now as good as new.

"The ankle feels perfect and new-to be honest, I hardly think about it anymore," Ramirez said. "The first game I played after the injury I was petrified. I kept trying to keep my right foot back in piles after tackles. Eventually, as more games progressed, I was used to it and realized if another injury is going to happen, it's just going to happen. If I was going to play good, I was going to have to play hard all the time."

For Ramirez, the start of the fall football season cannot come soon enough. According to Uebelhardt, the player has done a great job this summer showing he can catch the ball out of the backfield. However, Uebelhardt seems to be impressed the most with Ramirez's work ethic, one of the strongest the coach has seen.

"Nobody works harder in the weight room," Uebelhardt said. "He's the first one to show up and the last to leave. He sets a great example and he epitomizes what a player at Royal should be like."

Ramirez said that his great work ethic comes from his grandfather, Don Ardemagni. Ardemagni played football at Fresno State, and the Oakland Raiders asked him to be part of their team, though he declined due to his bad knees.

"His best advice was to always give it your all," Ramirez said. "He said after a game you should immediately want to go to bed. If you don't want to go to bed as soon as you get home, it means you didn't give it your best."

It was at Ardemagni's house that Ramirez first learned to love the game.

"Going to my grandpa's house on Sundays to watch the games and reading the old papers on him from Fresno State were my first memo

ries of football," Ramirez said. "I loved the game after that, so my dad enrolled me in Viking football when I was 9 years old."

Ramirez liked playing defense better at that age because there was more action on that side of the ball as opposed to the guard position that he played on offense. Though he became a running back after admiring players like the late Walter Payton, Ramirez never gave up playing defense. This year he looks to be a factor on defense for Royal by playing on the defensive line.

Ramirez thinks the Highlanders will be a team with great chemistry this year since, he said, only two or three players in his class have left since his freshmen season.

Ramirez also said he hopes to play well enough this season to get a scholarship to a Division 1 college. He's is currently looking at Oregon and Fresno State, where his grandfather went to school.

"Yeah, it would be kind of cool to follow in my grandfather's footsteps at Fresno State," Ramirez said. "But at the same time I need to do what is best for me and my situation. I need to go somewhere where I am going to be good."

Uebelhardt feels privileged to have Ramirez on his team. "I've been coaching for over 30

years and it's the kids with the big heart and strong work ethic that you remember," Uebelhardt said.

"Dylenn has that and I think any coach would be happy to have him."