Tap ’er Light: ’Diggers unveil secret weapon

By Bill Foley - 04/01/2008

Bill Foley

Montana Tech football coach Bob Green usually has a smile on his face.

But it’s never been like this.

Green has been as giddy as a schoolgirl since he signed his secret weapon late last week.

That weapon, Green says, will be the difference maker for the Oredigger football team that has just missed the NAIA playoffs the last three seasons.

The secret weapon is Maximiliano de Jesus, a foreign exchange student who brings as many question marks to the Mining City as he does promise and excitement.

Green will officially introduce this weapon in a special ceremony at noon Tuesday just below the ‘M’ on Big Butte.

De Jesus, 22, is a kicker with a big leg.

“How big?” you might ask.

“They are still looking for some of the balls he’s kicked in South America,” Green said. “I’ve coached football since the Dead Sea was only sick, and I’ve never seen anybody with a leg like Maximiliano’s.

“He can kick a 100-yard field goal — into a tornado.” In all seriousness, Green said de Jesus’ leg is strong enough for an 85-yard field goal, meaning the Orediggers would need only to get to their own 32-yard line to be in range.

“Obviously, we would only do that at the end of a half,” Green said. “But a 60- to 70-yarder would be a chip shot for Max.” There is one major catch, however.

De Jesus is blind. That’s right, he’s blind.

“I cannot see at all,” de Jesus said through a translator last week in a phone interview from his hometown of Rancagua, Chile. “I’m as blind as a bat.” De Jesus was a youth soccer star in Rancagua as a boy.

“I was going to help bring the World Cup to Chile,” he said.

But when de Jesus was 13, he started having vision problems. Three years later, he couldn’t see at all.

“My mom warned me it would happen if I peeked at those dirty magazines,” de Jesus said. “I should have listened.” De Jesus’ mother, Camila Rodriguez, said her son lost his sight from retinitis pigmentosa.

“I want him to be a God-fearing boy,” Rodriguez, a See TAP, Page B4 Tap ...

single mother, said through a translator. “So I never told him the truth.” But de Jesus could still kick, and he still had the desire to compete.

Playing soccer without vision is impossible.

“In football,” De Jesus says, “the ball is just sitting there for you to kick. You don’t have to be able to see to kick it. It seems so easy.” Because of his desire to compete, De Jesus started leg wrestling competitively when he was 15. There’s nobody he can’t beat in leg wrestling, De Jesus says, and leg wrestling strengthened his right leg to ridiculous proportions.

“Since I started wrestling with my legs the distance on my kicks has more than doubled,” De Jesus said. “At least that’s what they tell me.” De Jesus has never played in an actual football game, but he’s been working at kicking field goals for the past six months.

His cousin, Raul Rodriguez, is a Montana Tech student who told Green about de Jesus.

“Raul told me not to go to college at Carroll,” de Jesus said. “He said I would be better off going to Iraq. I already dislike those Saints.” De Jesus said he will study civil engineering.

“I want to be an architect,” he said. “I can’t see buildings, but I can dream big.” Rodriguez studies metallurgical engineering on the hill. His interest in Montana Tech comes from copper mining. The largest underground copper mine in the world is just outside Rancagua, which is 54 miles south of Santiago.

“My dad worked in the mine in Rancagua. I came here because of the mines, then I fell in love with American football,” Rodriguez said. “I am a (HPER) Hooligan.” “I went to a game last year, and the kicker missed a kick that was only 45 yards,” Rodriguez said. “He missed it short. I laughed and said to myself right there that Maximiliano could have made that from his knees.” The biggest problem for the Orediggers, obviously, will be getting de Jesus lined up for field goals.

“If he’s lined up straight, he will make it every time,” Green said. “If he’s not lined up, someone is going to get hurt.” That’s where the Montana Tech Touchdown Club comes in.

TD Club member Mark Jensen hopes to have a few guys waiting in each end zone at every game — home and away.

When the Orediggers line up to kick, the guys from the TD Club will start hooting, hollering and whistling from behind the goalposts.

“I would like to have guys actually banging the posts with pipes to make some noise,” Jensen said. “But I’m told that isn’t legal. We can’t use artificial noisemakers of any kind. So we’re going to need some guys who can really whistle.” Green said having somebody holding for de Jesus is another concern.

“If he misses, he could take the holder’s hand right off,” the coach said. “So you can’t have your backup quarterback holding. It’s hard to throw a spiral with no hand.” Green said he has a few backup defensive linemen with decent hands who might be able to serve as the holder.

“If those guys have to have a cast on their hands,” Green said, “it just gives them another weapon.” Having de Jesus, who is a “pudgy” 5-foot-9, 260 pounds, kick off is another question.

If everything goes as planned on a kickoff, de Jesus would kick the ball way out of the end zone, and the Oredigger opponent would get the ball at the 20-yard line.

On the rare times he doesn’t kick it far enough, however, the Orediggers would quite literally be flying blind.

“It would not be in the best interest of the Orediggers to have a tackler who can’t see,” Green said.

Green was also flying blind when he flew to Chile two weeks ago to see de Jesus kick.

“I thought that’s where they invented chili dogs,” Green said.

Green flew into Santiago and watched De Jesus work out at El Teniente Stadium in Rancagua. That stadium, incidentally, is one of the four venues that hosted the 1962 World Cup.

“We didn’t have any goalposts, but he sure kicked the ball over the soccer goal,” Green said. “He kicks the ball high, accurately and out of sight.” The coach offered De Jesus a scholarship on the spot.

“If a game comes down to a field goal in the next few seasons,” Green said, “the Orediggers from Butte will be victorious.

“Unfortunately,” Green added, “Max won’t be able to see the ‘Big M’ flashing ‘V’ for victory.” Once again, Montana Tech’s secret weapon will have to rely on the hooting and hollering.