UH sports
Nevada rusher leading WAC
By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer
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| KRETSCHMER: Ran for 208 yards in 2 games |
Even the slightest diversion could result in missing Tonopah, a pinhole on a Nevada map.
Every NCAA Division I-A and I-AA school overlooked the small town known for its natural minerals, ranches and, this football season, the best running back in the Western Athletic Conference.
"I wasn't recruited," said Nevada running back Chance Kretschmer, whose team plays host to Hawai'i on Saturday.
Kretschmer, a redshirt freshman, admittedly came "from the middle of nowhere," or, to be precise, the halfway point between Reno and Las Vegas.
Tonopah has one McDonald's and no stoplights. The nearest mall is 200 miles away.
The main building of Tonopah High could fit on a football field.
When Kretschmer was a senior, there were 225 students in his high school, 55 in his graduating class and 14 on the football team.
He was used as a running back, quarterback, safety, middle linebacker, place-kicker and kick-returner.
"The first couple of games, you can get pretty tired," he recalled. "But then you get used to it."
But Kretschmer, who once rushed for 316 yards and five touchdowns in a game, appeared to be running in place.
He received several academic scholarships. But, he said, "I wanted to play football."
Kretschmer, who worked weekends on his family's 120-acre ranch, received permission to join the Wolf Pack as a non-scholarship player.
He had not lifted weights in the previous three years after suffering a fractured wrist in high school. At Nevada, strength coach John Archer said, "we couldn't keep him out of the weight room."
The 6-foot-2, 220-pound Kretschmer can hang clean 340 pounds (a technique in which the weights are lifted from knees to the chest) and squat lift 475 pounds.
"I guess my legs and arms are strong from lifting bales," he said.
In the first two games this season, he has carried the Wolf Pack's offense, rushing for a WAC-high 104 yards per game. Last year, Nevada averaged 62 rushing yards per game.
After replacing Adrian Dugas in the second half against Brigham Young, Kretschmer rushed for 94 yards. He was expected to split time with Dugas against Colorado State. But Dugas suffered a sprained ankle on the third play of the game, and Kretschmer finished with 114 yards.
During a team meeting last week, Nevada coach Chris Tormey awarded a football scholarship to Kretschmer.
Tormey then recalled a letter he received a year earlier from Kretschmer's grandmother, Nadia Murphy, who complained that the school did not offer scholarships to players from Nevada's small schools.
"It was a scathing letter," Tormey said. "To be honest, I had no idea where Tonopah was."
"Oh, that's just newsprint," Murphy said, laughing, when asked about the letter. "I got a call from one of my daughters. She was laughing. She knows I would never write a 'scathing' letter. Everybody but Chance's mother got a good laugh out of it.
"All I can say is Chance is a fine person. He's not stuck up. I thought, 'Why not write a letter and boost him up?' But it wasn't a scathing letter. I've written scathing letters before. That wasn't one of them."
