Football: Father's memory burns deep inside Crane's Black

Cody Black still talks to his dad.

As he gets ready before every game, Black tells his father that he’s going to play the game the way he was taught, to leave it all out on the field and make every run count.

Lined up in the end zone at the start of every football game, ready to race onto the turf at El Ave Stadium, Black keeps talking to the man who taught him to play football.

Right up until kickoff.

“I tell him I’m going to try to do my best for him,” Black said. “Try to make the best out of life for myself and my family.”

And then it’s time to play.

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To those who saw Dennis Black carry the football for Rankin in the early 1980s, the resemblance is amazing. Like grainy game film come to life.

Upright running style, legs pumping out in long, smooth strides, the ball clutched tight to his test, changing direction with a smooth, quick step, rather than the sudden-stop, herky-jerky motion of most high school running backs.

“They run the same way,” said Crane coach Naldo Esparza, a fullback who blocked for Dennis on the Rankin team that played Valley View in the 1980 Class 1A state title game. “You watch highlights on Cody, you watch his running style, and it’s identical.”

That figures.

An engineer at West Texas Gas, Dennis didn’t always have the time to spend every waking minute with Cody and his younger brother, Josh. Too many calls from his workers, desperately needing him to fix this or check that.

But every time he got a chance, Dennis took his boys hunting, took his boys fishing, to the golf course.

“I loved hunting with him, but fishing isn’t really my style,” Cody said. “He liked to sit by the lake and just listen to the water. He was real in tune with nature.”

Fishing might not have taken hold.

But football has grabbed on and hasn’t let go. Black’s trademark moves — the ball cradled tight to his body, a stiff-arm that could stun a bear — came from Dennis.

“I couldn’t tell you how many football passes both of them caught in the backyard,” Bridgite said. “Both Josh and him.”

Up until last year, Dennis had always been in the stands to watch his son play.

Two days before the Golden Cranes played Greenwood last season, Dennis took his own life.

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“It was pretty hard to deal with right away,” Cody Black said. “I didn’t how I was going to feel about it, or what it was going to be like a year later or anything like that.”

Esparza lost his best friend that night. Leading up to the game, Esparza and Greenwood coach Steve Taylor agreed to push the game back to the open week for both teams.

Black decided to play. Dennis would have wanted him to take the field.

That Friday night, Black caught a 34-yard touchdown pass to help Crane pick up a 27-21 win. Through the funeral, he stepped up to take care of his mother and little brother.

“During the funeral, I don’t think he ever left my side,” Bridgite said. “He’s just a kid, and he’s dealing with this stuff, too, but he’s trying to help us the whole time.”

Black only missed two days of school, to attend the funeral and to make the trip with his family to San Angelo to take care of some things.

“You kept thinking, ‘He’s got to have a lot of that on his mind, it’s got to be building up,’ ” said Crane track and field coach Henry Anderson, a football assistant. “But we never saw it.”

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Black understands responsibility better than most his age.

A senior at Crane, Black has two sons, 2-year-old Gavin and 9-month-old Kobe.

Gavin was born when Black was a freshman.

“I was really stressed out,” Black said. “I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, or how I was going to take care of him.”

Black never needed to worry.

When Gavin was born, the Black family headed up to the hospital to meet his son. Most people — adults included — aren’t sure how to hold a newborn.

“He just held on to him,” Bridgite said. “He just did it like he always had been.”

For two years, Black took care of Gavin and eventually Kobe every day. Bridgite picked up Gavin every day after work, and on the weekends that Cody had him there, he spent the entire weekend playing with his son.

After the kids’ mother graduated from Crane in May, she moved to Grand Prairie. But Black is still close to his girlfriend. Still working hard to support his family.

“Everything I do in life is for them,” Black said.

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Crouched at the starting line, Black couldn’t get comfortable in the blocks.

Right before the gun, his leg moved.

False start. Disqualification.

Crane’s 1,600-meter relay team — the No. 1-ranked Class 2A relay in the state — never had a chance to run in Austin. Black’s false start disqualified Crane at the Region I-2A meet.

“I really felt like I let the team down,” Black said. “I know it wasn’t intentional. But I thought about it, and it’s one of those things you can’t change. You just have to move on, take the good and learn from it.”

Black learned that mentality from his dad.

Dennis won the Class 1A 400-meter state title as a sophomore.

During his junior year, Dennis raced away from the entire field. Had he sprinted through the line, he would have won state three times.

Thinking he crossed the finish line — the track was covered in lines — Dennis stopped short. Two runners passed him. Rather than running away with the title, he finished third.

Like his dad, who took back the title as a senior, Black bounced back.

The day after Crane got back from the state track meet, Black headed up to the weight room to start working out for football. Throughout the entire summer, he never missed a day.

“At first, you wonder why something like that had to happen to him,” Anderson said. “But then, after a while, you start to think that maybe he’s the only kid who could handle something like that.”

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All summer long, every day, Black headed up to the weight room twice a day.

In the morning, he and linebacker Justin Mendoza conducted their own workout, then came back to work out with the team in the afternoon.

Day after day, Black kept putting on muscle, 15 pounds of muscle, enough muscle to morph into a powerful, leg-churning running back after a year spent at receiver.

And all that work has paid off.

Led by Black’s 1,201 yards and 12 touchdowns, Crane won the District 4-2A title and is headed into the playoffs.

“He has taken some shots this season,” Anderson said. “But he’s never complained. Maybe he’s had to come out for a few plays, but he always gets right back in there.”

Black knows his goal.

A scholarship. To play running back in college. Right now, he’s been contacted by Montana, North Texas and UTEP, and a strong playoff run might be the kicker that seals a future for his family.

“Life’s not always going to be given to you,” Black said. “My dad pretty much gave me everything. With him gone, it’s harder, but this whole thing has taught me to work harder to get to college. That’s the best way to take care of my family.”

Black has a scrapbook full of his dad’s old press clippings.

Every once in a while, he pulls the scrapbook out, leafs through it and remembers the first running back in the family to wear No. 10.

“You’d think, with the dad taking his life and the kids, you’d think you’d just throw up your dress, and that’s it,” Anderson said. “But he’s so dedicated in what he wants to do. He’ll use that later in life.”

His dad would already be proud.