Friday, October 15, 1999
Biggest Colonel fits just fine
6-foot-6 lineman impresses coaches with character, skill
BY RAY SCHAEFER
Enquirer contributor
Sometimes you don't have to finish first at something to be a winner. By that scale, Covington Catholic senior Matt Lubbers has claimed victory.
The 6-foot-6, 3891/2-pound offensive tackle nicknamed “Lubbs,” is showing coaches and teammates that a player who isn't the fastest on the team can contribute.
Lubbers doesn't even think his size is a big deal.
“I like being tall,” he said.
Count CovCath coach Lynn Ray among the impressed. He wasn't sure how Lubbers would fit in — or if he would even play — until he noticed Lubbers' increased flexibility and watched him run every sprint in August's humidity.
“It took a lot of effort on his part,” Ray said. “He didn't miss a sprint.”
To former CovCath and University of Kentucky lineman Barry Jones, it's Lubbers' character and personality as much as his ability to deal with being big that sets him apart.
“He handles it well, he handles it better than I ever did,” said Jones, who now coaches CovCath's linemen. “Our fans, they chant for him.”
Lubbers, 17, has had a lot of practice at coping with his weight.
He has cousins 6-10 or 6-11 and his late maternal grandfather stood 6-4, 290. As a first-grader, there wasn't a desk big enough to fit him.
And last year, a group of grade-schoolers teased him during a game at Highlands.
“I just ignore them,” he said. “I don't hear it a lot of times.”
Matt's mother, Mary Lou, hears the taunts and cringes.
“I guess when I hear things like that, people don't look at the inner person,” she said. “When they make a comment like that, they're being superficial.”
Lubbers said he never thought about playing football until sixth grade and joined a Boone County youth league that had no weight limits. He was just as content on the basketball court or baseball field, though he admits he wasn't much of a baseball player anyway.
“I didn't know much about (football),” Lubbers said. “I liked it ever since.”
Lubbers is completing his fourth year in CovCath's program and finding practice pants that fit have been among the challenges. Jones called several sporting goods stores before finding one in Cincinnati that stocked Lubbers' size.
Ray and Jones said Lubbers has been great to coach because he listens and knows his job on every play. Ray has noticed something else.
“He has become more aggressive,” he said. “That's how we knew we could use him.”
CovCath turned Lubbers loose on Louisville St. Xavier to open the season Aug.21 and he made an immediate impression. Much of the Colonels' offense in a 24-14 win went around Lubbers' right side.
“They tried to play a guy head-up on him,” Jones said. “That (wasn't) going to happen. He had probably five, six pancake blocks easy.”
Lubbers said that was his best game.
“(St. Xavier) was No. 1 in the state (in Class AAAA) and No. 24 in the nation, and we beat them,” he said.
Lubbers' goal is to help CovCath (2-5 entering tonight's district game at Holmes) reach the Class AAA playoffs and get Ray his 200th career victory, which could come tonight.
Would he like to play football in college?
“I guess,” Lubbers said. “If I get a chance.”
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