Trip to Sun Bowl means trip home for two Bruins

  KEITH ENRIQUEZ/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Ed
Ieremia-Stansbury (left) and Tony White
return to their hometown for the Sun Bowl.

By Greg Lewis
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

They’re back in El Paso.

After finishing their high school careers, Tony White and Ed
Ieremia-Stansbury made the decision to leave El Paso and head west
to play football at UCLA.

Four years later, save a conference championship, White
couldn’t have planned a more perfect final game to his
career. He will be one of the team captains leading UCLA into the
Sun Bowl in El Paso on Dec. 29 against Wisconsin.

“Coming back to El Paso is going to be great,” said
White. “Between the two of us, I think we have just about
every ticket they gave to the team, I’ve got so many people
who want to see me play.

“I don’t know how many people from L.A. will make
the trip, but we’ll have a lot of people who support UCLA
football back home because Ed and I go home and tell everybody how
great it is here.”

Ieremia-Stansbury redshirted a season, so he still has one year
of eligibility remaining.

Back in their high school days in El Paso the two knew each
other well. “Ever since seventh grade, we’ve competed
against each other,” Ieremia-Stansbury said.

“We competed against each other so much, in every sport,
that we got to know each other. Besides playing football against
each other, we guarded each other in basketball, he beat me in
discus (in track), but I got him in the shot put,” said
White.

They were the two athletic studs of El Paso. Ieremia-Stansbury,
a quarterback at the time, was the Offensive MVP of their league,
while White was the Defensive MVP.

It was Ieremia-Stansbury, in fact, who was responsible for White
ending up in Westwood.

“Coach (Rocky) Long was down here recruiting me, and I
told him there was this other guy around here that they had to
have,” said Ieremia-Stansbury.

Only problem ““ White had already committed to Oklahoma
State.

“(OSU) told me that if I took a trip to UCLA, then they
would pull my scholarship offer, so I told Toledo that I
couldn’t come out for a visit unless I had an offer. After I
hung up, the phone rang two minutes later, and Coach said
“˜Don’t worry, we’ll take care of
you,'” White said.

Back then, Ieremia-Stansbury was the nation’s
second-ranked quarterback. He switched to linebacker last year,
before settling in at fullback this season where he has started
most of the year.

“Big Ed ““ he breaks it down for me,” running
back DeShaun Foster said. “He’s doing a great job.

“Considering how he plays, and the fact that this is his
first year at fullback, he’s gonna be one of the best in the
nation next year,” Foster added.

Although Ieremia-Stansbury liked the attention of playing
quarterback, he says he’s happy playing fullback, and making
the occasional trick play (he’s one of seven different Bruins
to have completed a pass this year).

Starting quarterback Cory Paus keeps a wary eye on
Ieremia-Stansbury.

“He’s not a fullback, he’s the toughest
quarterback I’ve ever seen,” he said.

Next season, Matt Stanley returns from injury and with Chris
Jackson and Pat Norton also competing with Ieremia-Stansbury, he
will have to work the entire offseason to keep the starting
job.

White, on the other hand, is finishing a career that has seen
the top and the bottom, going from consecutive Pac-10 titles, in
1997 and 1998, to the 5-6 1999 season filled with disappointing
losses.

“I think he’d be the first to tell you, that
he’s not the fastest, or most gifted athletically,”
said defensive coordinator Bob Field, “but he’s our
leader on the defense.”

“He was voted as a team captain by his peers, so that
should tell you something. He practices hard, he plays hurt, and
he’s got great work ethic and great football study
habits,” Field added.

“I study a lot of films,” said White. I study our
defense, I study their offense, and I study other defenses.

“Basically, whenever I’m on campus and not in class,
I’ll grab a smoothie and watch more film. I drive from the
Valley every day, so I’m on campus from about eight in the
morning ’til seven or eight at night. That’s a lot of
film.”

Studying so much film may help White do what he wants to do
after he graduates from UCLA.

“I’ve played football for so long, put in so much
time. If I don’t make it (professionally), I’d like to
be a coach. I might try to be a graduate assistant here next year,
we’ll see.”