D’Errico

NORTH KINGSTOWN –– He knows some people think he’s gambling with his future.

He has heard the talk that maybe a kid who wants to be a college baseball player shouldn’t be playing high school football, especially when he sometimes carries the football 35 times in a game.

There’s a lot of injury potential in that many carries –– injuries that could affect a baseball career.

But Dave D’Errico isn’t going to give up something he loves just because it’s a physical challenge.

“I’m hoping to play baseball in college next year, but I love football. I have a blast playing it, so I figure definitely keep playing,” said D’Errico, the North Kingstown High senior who earned first-team All-State honors in football and baseball last year.

“Some kids play just one sport, then spend the rest of the time lifting or just working out for that sport. I wouldn’t want to do that, especially because I love football so much.

“I love to compete. I love being with all my buddies on the team. Don’t get me wrong, I have buddies on the baseball team who I love, but football is different. In football, the games are so emotional. I think you develop stronger friendships when you play football because you work real hard and you’re together all the time. It’s almost like you are going to battle with your buddies.”

He and about 2,500 other Rhode Island teenagers who will begin full-fledged gridiron battles next weekend.

The past two nights, the 43 R.I. Interscholastic League football teams participated in Injury Fund Round-Robin games. But those were only 24-minute abbreviated contests; the real 48-minute games begin next weekend.

It’s not Texas or Florida, but even in little Rhode Island, football is the one high school sport in which you find more than just the family and friends of the athletes in the stands for regular-season games.

“We get good crowds,” D’Errico said about the turnouts for North Kingstown football games. “It’s just more exciting.”

The thing that gets North Kingstown football fans excited is D’Errico running with the football.

He’s 198 pounds and just a shade under 6 feet. He has good speed. Maybe not the blazing speed that current Green Bay Packer Will Blackmon had when he was at Hendricken seven years ago, but D’Errico has respectable 6.9-seconds for 60 yards speed, combined with elusiveness and power.

Getting the ball in D’Errico’s hands quickly was a big reason North Kingstown coach Keith Kenyon installed a single-wing offensive scheme last year.

“We started looking at the single-wing last year as a short-yardage package,” Kenyon said. “After studying the offense in depth, we felt it would be an efficient offensive attack that would take advantage of our team’s personality and David’s ability as a runner and passer because we did not have a true prototypical quarterback in our program.”

A running back throughout the early years of his football career, D’Errico suddenly found himself getting the ball directly from the center rather than taking handoffs from a quarterback. He also found himself throwing a football for the first time.

The result was a season in which he rushed for 1,354 yards in 10 games and scored 18 touchdowns. He also threw 6 touchdown passes.

“I was excited,” D’Errico said about learning he would be basically the team quarterback without standing under center.

“Sometimes it was a lot of carries and sometimes throwing the ball was a little shaky, but I still liked it,” added D’Errico who is a pitcher and first baseman in baseball.

His return to the Skippers’ lineup this season is one of the reasons several Division I coaches have mentioned North Kingstown as one of the leading contenders for this year’s Division I state title.

In the 38-year history of the R.I. Interscholastic League football playoff North Kingstown has never won a Division I state title and it’s been 15 years since the Skippers played in a Super Bowl.

“We’re not thinking about that,” D’Errico said about any Super Bowl dreams. “Right now, it’s just one game at a time. It’s not just me. We have some other very good runners in the backfield with me. I think our offense is our strong point and right now we are working on building a solid defense.”

But while he may not be thinking beyond the Skippers’ game Friday night against Westerly, he can’t help but think that this fall means the end of a love affair with football he has had since he started playing the game in the seventh grade.

Last spring, he was one of the top hitters in the R.I. Interscholastic League baseball ranks with a .464 batting average in 84 plate appearances, including 8 home runs. Despite his impressive hitting stats, most college coaches are looking at him for his pitching talents.

“They like my arm strength,” D’Errico said about the college coaches. “Right now, I’m what they call raw talent. I need to polish my game, learn how to be a pitcher, not just somebody who throws the ball.”

All that will come in time, but for the next four months like most of the 2,500 Rhode Island high school football players, he will be playing the game not because of where it can take him, but because he loves being part of the game.

“This is my last year playing. I will never play football again,” D’Errico said.

The last chapter of a love story usually is the most interesting.

jgillool@projo.com