<p>CHIPPEWA VALLEYS DELIZ ASSUMES LEADERSHIP ROLE FOR NAVYS FOOTBALL TEAM</p>
<p>Everything, Jeff Deliz believes, has proven worthwhile. All the hard work has
paid off the earlymorning training sessions, the gruel of plebe summer, the transition to college football and the adjustment to a military mind-set.</p>
<p>Now Jeff Deliz can call himself captain of the Navy Midshipmen, one of the nations most storied college football programs.</p>
<p>I like to say I came full circle, said Deliz, a Clinton Township resident and graduate of Chippewa Valley High School.</p>
<p>I left high school on top as a captain and had some success, he said. I got here, and it was straight to the scout team. It was right on block one.</p>
<p>Deliz rose back, though, overcoming disappointments, doubts and injuries to earn two varsity letters and claim the starters spot at free safety on Navys depth chart following spring practice.</p>
<p>In addition, teammates selected Deliz and senior slot back Reggie Campbell as captains for the upcoming season.</p>
<p>It really made me feel good, Deliz said. I worked hard.</p>
<p>Still, theres more work for Deliz.</p>
<p>He wants more.</p>
<p>For himself. And, most importantly, for his team.</p>
<p>After all, Jeff Deliz is a leader among leaders at the United States Naval Academy.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Four-thirty a.m., a time in the morning when most people and certainly most of his classmates at Chippewa Valley would still be asleep proved a vital time for Deliz in high school.</p>
<p>At that early hour, Deliz always was training, riding his stationary bike, jogging through the early darkness or lifting weights to improve his strength
and quickness.</p>
<p>At first, Jeff wanted to be just like his idol, his older brother Jimmy, who played quarterback at Chippewa Valley and played baseball at Michigan State.</p>
<p>I really looked up to him, Jeff said. Whatever he was doing to make himself the athlete he was, I wanted to do it.</p>
<p>Soon, though, Jeff had other, more personal motivations. He wanted to earn an athletic scholarship to play Division I college football.</p>
<p>To do that, he knew he had to improve his time in the 40-yard dash to attract the notice of colleges at summer camps.</p>
<p>So Deliz started working with Tommie Boyd, a former Detroit Lion who now coaches track and field at Fraser High School.</p>
<p>He knows what it takes to get the job done, Deliz said.</p>
<p>The training helped as Deliz thrived at the high school level.</p>
<p>As a sophomore, he started at safety on Chippewa Valleys Division 2 state championship in 2001, though an injury suffered in the playoffs forced him out of the title game victory over Jenison.</p>
<p>By his senior year, he had started three seasons for the Big Reds, served as the captain on a team that won a regional championship in 2003 and lift a lasting impression on Chippewa Valley coach Mike Carr.</p>
<p>I still remember after his last game I never do this because I dont want to slight anyone I called his parents and left a message on their machine saying he was the finest person I ever coached for, Carr said.</p>
<p>He would do anything for the team, Carr added. On most teams, he wouldve been a running back, but we used him as a blocking back. He never complained. He was always about the team.</p>
<p>In the winter of his senior year, Deliz realized his dream of receiving a football scholarship from a Division I program when he signed a national letter of intent with Navy.</p>
<p>Everybody thought he wasnt a Division I football player except for Navy, Carr said. It never bothered him, but he proved them wrong.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Summertime. Jeff Deliz had just graduated from Chippewa Valley, and while many of his friends were enjoying life, Deliz went through an experience called plebe summer, a demanding, boot camp-like orientation for incoming Midshipmen.</p>
<p>Eventually, the process promoted leadership, confidence and motivation skills, but it proves tough on everybody, and it was difficult for Deliz to endure.</p>
<p>Plebe year or freshman year at other colleges also proved tough, with few, if any, privileges.</p>
<p>The football field offered little solace for Deliz. He was relegated to the scout team, and he did not play in any varsity games, and he wasnt sure if the rigors of a military academy were right for him.</p>
<p>That first year was extremely difficult, Delizs father, Jim, said. I dont care how gung-ho they are. Plebe summer, that military indoctrination is different.</p>
<p>I must have called my mom twice a week, Deliz said. One day I was all high on life, things were going great. The next day, I wanted to get out of there right then.</p>
<p></p>
<p>But with the support of his family, Deliz hung in at Annapolis.</p>
<p>After his plebe year, he reported for duty on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Dwight D. Eisenhower. It was a great experience, Jim Deliz said.</p>
<p>On the football field, Jeff made some strides, seeing action on special teams and appearing in all 12 games in the 2005 season.</p>
<p>But he suffered an ankle injury just before spring practice and fell, Jeff said, completely off the depth chart.</p>
<p>It was a roller-coaster ride from freshman to sophomore to junior year, he said.</p>
<p>He went into summer camp feeling that he had to make an impression on the coaching staff, but he didnt play at all even on special teams in Navys season-opening victory over East Carolina.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, Deliz kept working. He started playing special teams, and he worked his way up to No. 2 on the depth chart at safety.</p>
<p>Then, against Stanford in Navys third game of the season, the coaches put Deliz in at nickel back late in the first half.</p>
<p>My name was called, and I didnt want to waste that opportunity, he said. From there on out, I played nickel back the rest of the way.</p>
<p>Delizs play improved as the season went on. He made five tackles against Tulsa, then made three tackles in a game against Eastern Michigan at Ford Field.</p>
<p>Against Army, he made two tackles, including a sack, and intercepted a fourth-quarter pass as the Midshipmen prevailed over their arch-rivals 26-14.</p>
<p>For Deliz, he had found validation on the field.</p>
<p>I wanted to play Division I football, Deliz said. I did whatever it took to get a Division I scholarship to play football. That stuck in my head.</p>
<p>It really is an indescribable feeling that I started out at dirt level and I just built myself up, he added. It didnt come easy, but at the same time I didnt do it by myself.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Jeff Deliz only comes home for a few weeks now, mostly for holidays and spring break.</p>
<p>Still, there isnt too much time to relax as he still finds time to work out for Boyd, getting his body ready for football and his military duties.</p>
<p>When he does rest, Jim Deliz said, his mind tells him to train.</p>
<p>He wants another challenge, another duty, another responsibility. </p>
<p>This summer, Jeff has stayed at Annapolis to work as a detailer, one of the people in charge of plebe summer.</p>
<p>You have to be the one to take them everywhere and show them how to conduct themselves as Midshipmen, Deliz said. Its been fun.</p>
<p>In addition, it is a huge responsibility as is his role as captain on the football team.</p>
<p>Coach Paul Johnson has led a football revival at Navy, guiding the Midshipmen to three straight winning seasons and three consecutive bowl games. Navy also has gone to the White House in all three of Delizs seasons to pick up the Commander-In-Chiefs Trophy for defeating Army and Air Force.</p>
<p>Deliz would like to see the Midshipmen continue those streaks and more.</p>
<p>Why cant it be to win a bowl game? he said. Why not go for it all?</p>
<p>Off the field, he also has work to do.</p>
<p>He is finishing up his major in quantitative economics, and he wants to become a pilot. Both will require more studying and more training.</p>
<p>So far, all his hard work has paid off and he appreciates what he has given up as well as what he has gained.</p>
<p>Personally it has really made me grow up a lot faster, Deliz said. Its not a regular college environment. Reality really hits you. Once you graduate from here, you are going to the battlefields to fight the war on terror.</p>