WOODS STOCK REVISITED

By DAVE DESMOND

Oct. 21, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

LITTLEROCK — Rodney Woods stood on the Littlerock High sidelines, grasping a water bottle and listening to coaches and teammates compare him to Adam Sandler’s lead character in the movie “The Water Boy.”

Woods smiled and went along with the gag, but it was killing him inside.

His place wasn’t holding a jug of liquid, it was showing off the fluid running style that had made him the best tailback in a league that thrives on the ground game.

But this was just a nonleague football game, and his coaches weren’t about to risk worsening Woods’ slightly separated shoulder.

“It was frustrating,” he said of the Sept. 24 loss to Barstow. “I had never sat out of a game in my life. I wanted to suit up at halftime.”

There’s no mistaking Woods’ importance to Littlerock (5-1, 1-0 in league play). In regular-season games, the Lobos are 15-0 with him as their starting tailback, 0-1 without him.

“I’ll tell you this,” Coach Jim Bauer said. “I’m a lot better coach with him on the field and not quite as smart without him out there.”

Despite sitting out against Barstow, Woods ranks fifth among Southern Section rushers in the region with 918 yards. He has run for 11 touchdowns and is averaging 8.7 yards per carry.

Woods, 5 feet 10 and 177 pounds, figures to go over the 1,000-yard mark on Friday night, when the Lobos play at Highland in a key Golden League game.

It would mark the fourth consecutive season a member of the Woods family has rushed for that many yards.

Rodney’s older brother, Michael, surpassed the mark for Littlerock in 1996 and ’97. Rodney ran for 1,152 yards and 13 touchdowns last season.

“I was looking at films and it occurred to me that it seems like I’ve been watching a Woods on game films for about eight years,” said Coach Lin Parker of Highland. “Thank goodness there won’t be any more.”

At least not in football.

Sister Valerie, the youngest of the Woods children, is a freshman at Littlerock and is expected to be a three-sport standout.

In the Woods family, athleticism runs deep. Rodney’s parents, Mike and Delorse, met at Palmdale High, where both were track standouts.

Mike ran the hurdles and was a member of the relay team. Delorse was the Golden League 400-meter champion.

Both had siblings on the Palmdale track team, as well as athletically accomplished parents.

Herb Wyre, Rodney’s maternal grandfather, is a legendary track and youth football coach in the Antelope Valley and has a track meet named after him in the High Desert.

Ruthia Woods, Rodney’s paternal grandmother, was a track and basketball star in Alabama.

Rodney is the top returning triple jumper in the state after winning in the Southern Section Masters Meet and finishing fifth in the state championships as a junior.

Rodney and Michael are close but extremely competitive with each other.

As a sophomore, Rodney served as an understudy to his older brother, rushing for 223 yards while earning all-league honors as a defensive back.

Last season, when Rodney took over much of the tailback duties, he vowed to become better than Michael, who rushed for 2,178 yards in two seasons before moving on to Antelope Valley College, where he is a sophomore defensive back.

Rodney fulfilled that promise, leading the Lobos to a 10-0 regular season and their first league championship.

Keith Williams shared time in Littlerock’s power-pitch offense, gaining 934 yards. He transferred to Long Beach Poly, leaving Woods to flourish as the featured back.

Earlier this season, Woods broke Lafayette Bailey’s school record by rushing for 293 yards against Silverado.

Last week, he gained 141 yards against Quartz Hill, his fifth 100-yard game of the season and 10th in his career.

It also gave him 2,293 career yards rushing, surpassing Michael’s total.

“That definitely was one of the goals,” said Rodney, who will be featured next month in a television segment by Fox Sports West 2.

Another goal is playing in college, which seemed unattainable when Rodney struggled through remedial classes.

He has since advanced to more difficult core-curriculum classes and is carrying a B average.

“In our family, education has always come first and football has been secondary,” Delorse said. “We’re very proud of his improvement. Rodney has always been one to go after things 100% if you give him a challenge.”

While Woods is trying to achieve a qualifying score on the SAT, more than one college is already betting on him.

In recent weeks, Woods said, he has been offered scholarships by Oregon State, Washington State and San Jose State, and contacted by several other schools, including Nebraska, USC and Arizona State.

And he’s being pursued as a running back, not as a water boy.

“We don’t let him carry the water bottles anymore,” linebacker Marcus Raines said. “We need him far too much on the field.”