Lucas honored for giving Duck starters a hard time
By Dennis Anderson
Advertiser Staff Writer
Enoka Lucas has not been wasting his red-shirt freshman football year at University of Oregon.
Lucas, a first-team all-state offensive lineman for Kamehameha in 2001, has been named Scout Team Offensive Player of the Week five times this fall by Oregon coaches.
LUCAS
Lucas, 6 foot 3 and 285 pounds, imitates the center of Oregon's next opponent for the Ducks' first-team defense during practice.
One of his coaches is Aleki Pascua, a 1993 St. Louis alum who played center and graduated from Linfield College in 1999. Pascua is serving as a graduate assistant while he works for his master's administrators license at Oregon.
"Enoka works hard at giving our regular time guys a good look," Pascua said. "His hustle and tenacity in practice really helps our starters.
"It looks like he could be a good player, but he still has some learning to do about the intricacies of the offense. Right now, it looks like he'll start spring practice as the second-team center."
Lucas said: "I'm enjoying myself. I always miss home and the weather is really bad, but I'm getting used to it."
The Ducks, 7-5 after losing five of their last six, are still hoping for a bowl bid. They were ranked sixth in the nation before their slide.
Lucas was rated one of the top 100 players in the West last season by the Tacoma, Wash., News Tribune.
