Carter brothers are thriving side by side

BY TIM MORRIS
Staff Writer

MIGUEL JUAREZ staff This year’s Thanksgiving Day game has an added importance for brothers Brandon and Bryce Carter, as the two will be playing together for the final time as members of the Freehold Borough football team. When Bryce and Brandon Carter talk about pancakes, they’re not referring to breakfast.

Instead, the Freehold Borough brothers are talking about a football block in which an offensive lineman overpowers a defensive player, planting him on his back. The term was popularized by St. Louis Rams lineman Orlando Pace when he was pancaking players at Ohio State. To no surprise, Pace is Bryce Carter’s favorite football player.

The Carters are a very unusual combination — brothers playing together on the offensive line. Bryce, a senior, plays center, and lining up right beside him to his right is brother Brandon, a sophomore.

Their brotherly competition is not who gains the most yards, or scores the most touchdowns (the only time they carried a football was playing football in their backyard), it’s to see who pancakes the most defensive players this year.

“We push each other,” said Bryce.

Brandon noted that “it’s a friendly competition.”

Everyone’s knows that offensive linemen toil in obscurity in the trenches, and the only time you hear their name or number called is for a penalty.

But they have had as much pride as any player on the field and take their job just as seriously.

Their rewards are opening the holes that free running backs, or holding off defensive linemen and giving their quarterback time to throw the ball. Their physical battles in the trenches determine who wins.

“It’s pride and desire,” said Brandon. “You have to be hard-nosed.”

Bryce, who has been a three-year starter for the Colonials, remarked that offensive lineman have the difficult assignment of combining aggressiveness with patience.

No matter how badly they may want to get even with a player who may have beaten them on a play, they have to remain poised, remember their assignment and not jump off-side.

Bryce also pointed out that an offensive lineman has to get it right every time.

“You have to be perfect with you technique, it has to be just right,” he said.

What does it take to play in the trenches?

“It takes technique, footspeed and good hands,” said Bryce. “You have to get used to the speed of the game and fire off the ball.”

Brandon acknowledged that following in his big brother’s footsteps (Bryce is 6-foot-4, 310 pounds, and Brandon is 6-2, 220), made it easier for him to know the nuances that it takes to be an offensive lineman.

He also admitted he was holding out hope that he might be a tight end and catch some passes, but like his brother, he was destined to be in the trenches.

No one was more destined to be on the line than Bryce. He didn’t get to play Pop Warner football because he was always too big. He was so large at 7 that he would have had to play with the 12-year-olds, and his mother Judi, would have nothing to do with that.

He would have to wait for high school, as would Brandon.

The Carters have actually been counting down the days to being teammates.

“We both knew it would happen and looked forward to it,” said Bryce.

“He lines us right next to me and its great because we both know what we have to do.”

The Brothers Carter weren’t the only ones looking forward to the day the played together. So were their parents, Ron and Judi Carter.

“They love it that we’re playing together,” said Bryce. “They couldn’t wait for it. Sometimes they film our games and we watch it later.”

There was no guarantee that Brandon was going to get to play alongside his brother.

Sophomores are not automatic starters on the offensive or defensive lines.

But the younger Carter left no stone unturned and worked extra hard to make sure he would not only make the Colonial varsity this year, but be a starter with his brother.

“It was a challenge, I knew I had to step up,” he said. “He [Bryce] showed me what I had to do to get better.”

He had a perfect role model in his brother, who is always working out.

Bryce won the Freehold Regional District Lift-Off earlier this year, bench pressing a personal best 365 pounds.

Brandon noted that his brother is a leader by example and he has learned that it is more than “talking the talk, it’s walking the walk.”

“You can’t go soft in practice, you have to work nonstop,” he said.

That’s the approach of his bigger brother Bryce.

The Carter’s favorite brand of football is smash-mouth. They love it best when the Colonials are pounding the ball on the ground, and it’s a physical battle in the trenches.

Their favorite play is called 6-veer. It calls for them to double-team a defensive tackle. Depending on which side of the ball the play is called for, one of the brothers will stand the defender up, and the other will hit the player high and put him on his back, for a shared pancake.

“We don’t give anyone a chance,” said Bryce.

During practice drills, the brothers do get to go up against each other occasionally.

With reluctance, Brandon had to confess that his bigger brother did pancake him. But just once.

How does older brother think little brother is doing in his first year?

“He’s doing great actually,” Bryce said. “He’s getting off the ball fast.”

Tomorrow they will line up for the last time as teammates.

“It’s been a great feeling playing with him,” said Brandon. “This is our last game, and I want to play it for him and the seniors.”

Bryce has seen the Colonials take small steps toward progress and a fourth win in 2005 would represent continued improvement.