Senior Andy Conrad admits he's not really the type to get up and speak in front of the team. Warsaw's standout running back, rather, lets his play do the talking.
And his play this season, as he helped lead the Tigers to their second sectional championship game appearance in three years, spoke volumes about the 6-foot-1, 200-pound workhorse back.For his efforts, he has been name the 2009 Times-Union Offensive Player of the Year.
"I'm not a big talker," said Conrad, who also starts for Doug Ogle's undefeated varsity basketball team. "That's just not my thing, but tell me what to do, and I'll go out there and do it."
Conrad, who made his first start in Warsaw's backfield during a sectional semifinal game his freshman year, carried the ball 251 times this season and rushed for 1,428 yards and 12 touchdowns.
He averaged 119 yards per game and nearly six yards per carry for the Tigers, who started the season 1-4 before winning six games in a row.
"There's different types of leadership," said Warsaw coach Phil Jensen. "Andy's style of leadership is what he does with the football in his hands. He's not the type to get up and talk in front of the other kids, but he takes care of business when it's time to play the game."
To say that Conrad was a big part of Warsaw's offense would be a huge understatement.
Of Warsaw's 3,269 yards of offense this season, Conrad accounted for 44 percent of it.
Over the course of the season, carrying the ball an average of 21 times per game, took a toll on him. At times this season, Conrad had to sit out plays, and the majority of the season he played with an injured shoulder.
Yet, it was Conrad who continually hurt the other team with his play-making ability.
"When you have a running back run for that many yards, he's going to take a beating," said Jensen.
Jensen said Conrad's strengths is his ability to find a hole and make a cut, which generally allowed him to make big plays.
"He's got a great first cut," Jensen said of Conrad. "He's really good at getting into the hole quickly and finding the next level, and that let to a lot of big runs."
One run in particular where Conrad used his shiftiness was his longest run of the season, an 81-yard gain in the second game of the season at Homestead.
With the Tigers on their own 18-yard line, Conrad took a pitch to the right, shifted directions, and raced down the left sideline before being tackled at the 1-yard line.
"Andy made a lot of big plays for us," said Jensen. "He's a very good high school running back. He thrived on getting the ball. When we needed a play, there's no doubt he wanted the ball. It goes back to his style of leadership, he wanted the ball in his hands. He was always ready to make a play."
Conrad grew up with two older brothers, Kyle and Daniel.
It's his mother, Cathy (Welch) Conrad, that area sports fans may remember for being a standout athlete.
As a basketball player at Tippecanoe Valley, she was an Indiana All-Star in 1978. She averaged 19 points per game over her career and 14 rebounds per game as a senior.
In 1979, she was named UNLV's Most Improved Player.
In 2006, she was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.
Conrad's dad, Tim Conrad, was also an athlete in high school.
Andy Conrad comes from an athletic family, and when he was playing for Edgewood Middle School, there was excitement in the community about a group that included Conrad and other players like Justin Clemens.
When Conrad was in third, fourth and fifth grade, Brad Seiss was the standout running back for the Tigers.
Seiss rewrote the rushing records at Warsaw, and then Conrad came along.
"I heard about him when I was little," Conrad said of Seiss. "When I was a freshman, Coach (Troy) Akers gave me a brochure that had all Brad Seiss' accomplishments in it."
Akers was the head coach when Conrad was a freshman and sophomore, and giving him the info on Seiss may have been his way of telling Conrad his goals for him.
Conrad said there were some stats lost on the computer from his sophomore season, and his exact career totals are still up in the air.
It is believed he finished his career about 50 yards short of Seiss' career mark of 3,652 yards.
Conrad said he would like to play football in college and study sports management.
He said that the University of Indianapolis was in contact with him this week, and that other schools have expressed interest as well.
"Andy Conrad is going to be hard to replace," said Jensen. "I have very high expectations of my players, and Andy really grew up a lot and worked hard to meet those expectations. His efforts got better and better every day. It's going to be hard to replace a kid like Andy Conrad."
Conrad is joined on the All-Area Team by offensive teammates Clemens (quarterback), Zac Erba (center) and Zack Linky (receiver).
All-Area Team
OFFENSE
Linemen - Sam Kimmel (Valley), Aric Howard (Manchester), Brett Houlihan (Triton), Taylor Sahlhoff (Triton), Zac Erba (Warsaw)
Tight End - Josh Pinkowski (Valley)
Quarterback - Justin Clemens (Warsaw)
Receivers - Zack Linky (Warsaw), Derek Snep (Whitko)
Running backs - Andy Conrad (Warsaw), Adam Creighbaum (Triton)
DEFENSE
Linemen - Ryan Byers (Manchester), Drake Brainard (Whitko), Brandon Head (Warsaw), Josh Dingledein (Wawasee)
Linebackers - Seth Brubaker (Manchester), Nick Simpson (Warsaw), Jarred Lewis (Whitko), Taran Kennedy (Triton)
Seconday - Brendan Barber (Warsaw), Matt Abbitt (Warsaw), Ryan Henderson (Manchester)
