MIDDLETOWN — Beginning with his three seasons at Middletown High School (2000-2002), linebacker Chris Hunsaker has performed satisfactorily enough to advance to the next level. From Middletown to Butte Junior College in Chico, thence to Northern Arizona State University, and now to the Arena Football League”s Columbus Destroyers.
But Hunsaker is a “rolling stone” who “can”t get no satisfaction” from his self-assessment.
Even after leading the NCAA Division I-AA ranks in tackles for losses (21) and sacks (12-1/2) in 2006, his senior year at NAU. Even after being named to the I-AA All-America team and defensive player of the year in the Big Sky Conference. And even after securing a contract with Columbus, he remains his own most severe critic.
“You can never be satisfied with what you”ve done. You can always find something that you could get better at,” Hunsaker said. “I mean you go out and make 10 tackles in a game, a couple of them for losses, and you think ?I”m King Kong. I”m the best that ever was.” But then you go back and analyze the film and you think, well, maybe I could have had 15 tackles if I”d have gotten off this or that block.”
Some would say it”s drive, others would say introspection that has spurred Hunsaker to a plateau of football that few players from these parts have reached. As an impressively honed 6-foot tall, 245-pound athlete, he appears well suited to join the Columbus team for preseason training as he will do on Feb. 5.
One source of this constant striving for excellence has to be Middletown coach Bill Foltmer, whose Mustangs earned the playoffs in each of the three seasons Hunsaker played linebacker and fullback, including the 2001 club that went undefeated and claimed the NCS title during his junior year.
“He knew how to keep guys humble,” Hunsaker said of his high school coach. “You”d go out and have the good game and when you”d come in on Monday he”d say, ?Hey, you didn”t do this or that right.”
“When I went to Butte, I was only 18 and we had guys up to 26 years old on the roster,” Hunsaker added. “But the mentality I got from Middletown gave me the edge. I remembered what coach Foltmer taught me when we”d get into these intense drills and I was a crazy man.”
Hunsaker”s father, a pretty good baseball player who caught John Wetteland, the 1996 World Series MVP for the Yankees, at Cardinal Newman High School in Santa Rosa, and his mother, he said, encouraged him to work hard.
But, all things considered, Hunsaker has gotten to where he is on his own initiative and powerful work ethic. “I don”t like to settle for mediocre,” he said.
Like many outstanding Lake County high school players before him, Hunsaker slipped under the radar of the college recruiters. Preferring to scour the Bay Area, Los Angeles and Southern California, Division I-A college recruiters, he noted, seldom come this far north. So, to acquire the exposure necessary to even get into a Division I-AA program, he needed to go to junior college.
Pretty much the same principle held true when it came to the NFL and pro scouts combing the college ranks. Hunsaker played virtually every defensive down at NAU. Against perennial I-AA playoff contender Montana, he notched three sacks and four tackles that resulted in losses. He was named one of ESPN”s 10 best players one weekend for a game in which he dropped a Division IA-ranked Arizona State University running back for a loss on fourth down in a Lumberjack goal-line stand that began with a Sun Devil first down at the 1.
But he went unnoticed until a workout attended by NFL and Arena league scouts at UC Davis.
“There were eight or nine NFL scouts and a scout from the (Arena League champion) San Jose SaberCats there,” Hunsaker said. “You go in, do your vertical jump, your broad jump, your bench press, run a 40(-meter dash) and other stuff and they write down notes about you. I was approached by the SaberCat scout and in May and I did a workout in San Jose. They said they really liked what I could do and would bring me in for a second workout.”
At that point, Hunsaker said, his agent concluded “arena football was very possible and started sending my film out to different teams.”
That”s when Columbus coach Doug Kay contacted him and offered a contract.
“He said, ?We want players who fly to the ball, play 100 percent and hit people in the mouth.” I said, ?That”s what I like to do,”” and he said, ?Then, let”s get going.””
Hunsaker acknowledges it will be strange for him to begin a season in early spring (the Destroyers open on March 2) as part of an eight-man unit instead of 11.
“The indoor game is a lot different, because there are not too many big guys on the field,” he said. But at NAU he played in a domed stadium, so going indoors will be a seamless transition.
Hunsaker will be joining the runner-up team to champion San Jose in the Arena League, which essentially cleaned house under Kay, a 15-year league veteran, in his first year at Columbus. What the Destroyers will be getting is a linebacker who loves his position and is noted for his quickness and speed to the ball.
“For me it”s controlled chaos,” said Hunsaker. “Off the field, I”m easy going, quiet. On the field, I”m kind of up-in-your-face, punch it at you hard as I can. And if you watch the films you”ll see me talking to opponents.
“I like linebacker because my (position) coach always said we”re not the biggest and not the strongest or fastest on the field, so we better be the meanest and most aggressive. That”s what I like.”
Hunsaker is delighted to be “moving on to the next level,” but the Arena league is not his penultimate objective.
“We”ll see what happens in the next couple of years,” he said, “but the ultimate goal is making it to the NFL.”
Perhaps then, at last, he will be satisfied. But don”t count on it.
