Evan Royster spent afternoons during his senior year of high school playing football and lacrosse -- and changing oil, car tires and working the counter at an automotive service center in a Virginia town 20 miles outside Washington, D.C.
Penn State's redshirt freshman running back was famous in that town of Fairfax, Va. -- the patrons at the service center used to stop him while he was on the clock to ask for an autograph. His success on the field made headlines in The Washington Post.
Even though his reputation has followed him to Penn State, Royster has still had to battle for playing time this season, carrying the ball in the shadows of seniors Austin Scott and Rodney Kinlaw.
Overall, Royster is happy with how he's progressing this season, saying he is focused on his development. But he has also had to accept that every member of the team needs to fight for his job -- even an athlete who was heavily recruited by scores of universities to play football and lacrosse.
"You deal with it," Royster said. "It's college. Everybody's fighting for time."
The redshirt freshman led the team in rushing yards in the season opener against Florida International, when he got the ball eight times, rushing for 70 yards and scoring one touchdown.
That game raised Evan's expectations for the 2007 season, said his older brother, Brandon Royster, who played football for Stanford from 2000 through 2003. Evan expected to get some carries against Notre Dame and Buffalo, Brandon said.
But Scott and Kinlaw got the vast majority of the carries in those games. Royster got none.
"He wants to be out there," Brandon said. "He wants the ball. You need that to be a great player. I think it was difficult for him, especially the Buffalo game."
Brandon likes to take credit for making Evan tougher as the boys were growing up. Evan was the youngest of four boys in his family, which meant he had to compete for everything -- from the family's television to toys that he and his brothers shared.
That may help Evan as he competes for playing time. Brandon is confident in his younger brother, saying that Evan still has three more years to be a standout at Penn State.
Maybe it will start this week, Brandon said, or maybe toward the end of this season, or even next year.
And Brandon wasn't the only one who could tell, early on, that Evan would be something special.
His lacrosse coach at Westfield High School, Gary Malm, called Royster "the best to come out of this region, ever."
As Royster's high school career at Westfield neared its end, Malm said, everyone was wondering if he would go to college to play lacrosse or football.
"I know for a fact that if he decided he wasn't gonna play football, he was on everybody's radar for lacrosse," Malm said. "Every Div. I team in the U.S. would have been after him."
Royster played on Westfield's attack during his junior year, Malm said. In his senior year, he shifted to midfielder position, and faced off. No matter where he was on the field, Malm said, Royster struck fear into every opposing team.
"He's willing to do anything," Malm said. "And he'd do it fast, too."
When Royster first arrived at Penn State, lacrosse wasn't on his mind -- he had to get adjusted to the campus, his classes and his responsibilities to the football team. By now, however, he's been through all that -- and he's seen that he can manage his time well.
Royster said there is "a possibility" that he would consider playing lacrosse for Penn State. He knows several members of the current team, and they keep trying to talk him into joining, he said.
"I do want to get back on the lacrosse field," Royster said. "I don't know if I'm going to.
There's a very slim chance right now. It would be tough, because I still gotta do the winter workouts for football."
Evan's father, Ted Royster, isn't sure how many lacrosse sticks Evan has at his school residence. But there are about a dozen of his old lacrosse sticks at their Fairfax home, the elder Royster said.
Ted describes his son as "an all-around athlete." Evan has learned a lot this season, Ted said, being able to study his teammates and study the opposition.
