The men in the middle

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The ball always ends up in someone else's hands, but in football, everything starts with the center. Dixon's Ben Esgar and Sterling's Damien Virtue begin every offensive play for their teams, snapping the ball to the quarterback before blocking the opponent's noseguard. Tonight, when the Dukes and Golden Warriors face off in Sterling, each center will line up across from one of the Sauk Valley's biggest, meanest players all game long. Virtue, a senior, will line up across from Dixon's Jon Phillips, a 6 foot-2-inch, 250-pound senior who's being recruited by Northern and Southern Illinois. Esgar, a senior who also starts on the Dukes' defensive line, has to deal with Sterling's rotation of 6-foot, 245-pound Zach Gallentine and 6'5, 270-pound Tyler Loos, who will have representatives from Northwestern scouting his every move. "Going up against a guy like that is tough," the 6-foot-1, 215-pound Virtue said. "You just try not to get intimidated and do the best you can." Both players will receive help from their guards - Phillips and David Goad for Dixon, and Gallentine and Sean Gillette for Sterling. Still, Esgar and Virtue will make first contact with the standouts across the line. "Being a center is a tough job," the 6-foot-3, 210-pound Esgar said. "Going against guys like that makes it even tougher." Each center has to find his own rhythm with his quarterback, as well as a technique for getting off the ball, getting his hands up and steering the player across from him away from the hole. That process must be completed in a matter of seconds, or the play will be stopped before it really starts. Not many know how to play center better than Greg King. The Sterling coach played the position for Amboy and Augustana in the 1980s, and he was named the CCIW's offensive player of the year for the Vikings' 1984 Division III national champions. King teaches his players a "step, then snap" move, in which the center takes his first step toward the defender as he starts snapping the ball. "Some people can do it, some can't," King said. "I've coached kids I tried to move from guard to center, and they just couldn't do it. You have to have a certain type of athleticism that not everyone has."