Corbin thrives on heavy workload

By THOMAS C. DOZIER

Playbook 2002

Since his freshman year at Colonial Forge High School, Chris Corbin has been known as “The Bus.”

It was a term of affection from his teammates for his resemblance to Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jerome Bettis.

Four years later, those Eagles teammates are hoping The Bus takes them to new areas the Colonial Forge football program has never seen, like a Commonwealth District title and a Northwest Region playoff berth.

The Bus has had some interior work done over the years as he’s developed into a finely tuned senior running back and defensive end.

Corbin, who once weighed 215 pounds, is now down to 200 pounds on a 5-foot-7 frame. He is adept at almost every single free weight station in the weight room.

Certainly no player boasts the numbers he has been putting up in the Colonial Forge weight room. He benches close to 400 pounds and can squat more than 500 pounds.

“My freshman year coach Mark Black basically told me lifting weights was what was going to get me through high school,” Corbin said. “I went at it hard my freshman year and kind of slacked off my sophomore year. But I got back into it my junior year and I have been working hard ever since.

“To be honest, I would have to say it kept me in there last year because I was going up against guys a whole lot bigger than me. And my strength and speed worked to my advantage.”

Last season, Corbin, who boasts a 3.0 GPA, was named to the first team all-Commonwealth District as a defensive tackle. This past summer, Morgan Weaver was his workout partner and they both dropped about 20 pounds and turned it into lean muscle. He ran track last season and qualified for the region meet and is thinking about wrestling for the Eagles this winter.

According to Eagles head coach Karl Buckwalter, Corbin is the right man to do all the driving. Buckwalter feels Corbin is one of the best linemen in the state and has earned the right to be a team leader.

“In my opinion there is not a single lineman out there that can handle him one-on-one, mainly because of the combination of his strength, speed and quickness.” Buckwalter said. “He bench presses 380 pounds and squats 510 and he runs a 4.7 40.

“He is the player we have built our defense around. We will use him at multiple positions. You might find him at defensive end, defensive tackle, and standing up on the weakside and so on. It will be his job to find the football. We have just one rule for him: He can’t get hurt.”

Corbin is modest about his abilities.

“I’m just going by what Coach Buck has told me,” Corbin said. “He knows football. If I can play the way he says I can play and I come ready to play, no one will be able to check me with one player. And if I get a double or triple team, then my teammates will have to back me up.”

Corbin is an emotional and intense player, who also likes to have fun on the gridiron. But never has he come to camp looking so fit. The Corbin transformation can be credited to his finding a second home in the weight room.

“He has been real diligent about doing his work,” Buckwalter said. “The one thing we have to get through to him is when we use him at running back we are using him for his power. He is a human bowling ball. I told him to go on the Internet and look up former Dallas Cowboys running back Robert Newhouse. That is how we want him to run.

“He has got to get out from dancing and just the hit hole first and figure it out after that. Corey Blue, with his speed, can get away with dancing. Corbin has to hit the hole.”

Each year the Colonial Forge players have grown and matured and Corbin has been at the forefront.

He has played everywhere: running back, fullback, linebacker, nose guard and this year he is slotted to play defensive end.

There are 18 senior players on the Eagles roster who participated in the team’s very first midnight practice at Gayle Middle School four years ago. That group played three varsity games, which they lost, and six JV games, which they won.

“This is the year,” Corbin said. “We all took our lumps those three years and have grown up a lot. Everybody now has an understanding of what coach wants us to do. If we do that we will be successful.”

Corbin will no doubt be an on-the-field leader for a team that expects to make the playoffs.

“Talk is cheap,” Corbin added. “We know we have some talent but we have to show it out on the field. If not, things aren’t going to work out. Everybody knows what they are supposed to. Now we have to go out and do it.”