When Steven Tapia walks into a room, he may invoke memories of “Chief” from the movie starring Jack Nicholson, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”.  On the other hand, a much younger generation may recall Tapia standing over them after a “pancake” block during a Montwood High School (El Paso, TX) football game.  The 6’4″ 260lbs, offensive tackle is more than just a sled of a blocker but is also a solid student who is garnering interest from academic giants, Stanford and Princeton and others, such as UTEP and Texas Tech.  Among other potential suitors are the Syracuse Orangemen who Tapia’s parents were amazed to learn that upstate New York would not scare off Steven from achieving his goal of playing at the next level, “Would you really go there?”, asked Steven’s mother when they first got the letter of interest, “Mom, I’m going to go where ever anyone is interested in me,” answered the young prospect.

In Steven’s first three games of his senior season, he has already experienced an extreme high and a low.  After opening the season upsetting then #14 ranked Odessa (TX) High, Tapia and the Montwood Rams fell to New Mexico power, Las Cruces Mayfield High.  When asked what role he played in getting his teammates to rebound quickly after a disappointing loss, Tapia commented, “The focus was to forget about Mayfield and we have a saying around here, play every game as if it’s your last…like it’s the Super Bowl.”  A leadership role was one that Tapia relished and took a more active approach by not only letting his play do the talking, but also be a more vocal leader.  Montwood coach, Chuck Veliz, also echoed that the players were “more upset than the coaches” after the loss to Mayfield and he felt confident that senior leadership, including those like Tapia, would get the team ready for the next game.  ”We had a great practice this week and we came out ready to play Eastwood (Week 3).”

Everyone knows that it takes more than leadership skills to flourish at the collegiate level and Tapia has the potential to be another El Paso success story.  Coming from an elite program like Montwood, gives Tapia an edge over some other prospects.  ”Our practices are very intense and very high tempo.  It helps the kids prepare for stressful situations,” explained Veliz when asked what Montwood did to prepare their athletes for the next level.  Just as a Montwood Advanced Placement (AP) class prepares a student for college academic rigors, Veliz and his staff offer an “AP” football program to prepare his players for the likes of a Mike Price or a Jim Harbaugh.

It won’t be much longer before Tapia scores his first offer.  Whether he’ll be “pancaking” defenders under the hometown sun or in the blizzards of upstate New York, you can expect this Ram to power his way onto a college playing field next fall.