Navy inside linebacker Ross Pospisil began to show his strength of character and compassion as a high school sophomore in Temple, Texas, when he went out of his way to befriend a group of Hispanics who seemed isolated in the school's lunchroom.
"Ross just didn't like seeing that group of young people separated from everyone else," said Scott Pospisil, Ross' father. "He took his lunch tray and started to sit with them, just to get to know them. They didn't like it at first, but then they saw his heart. One day, those kids called him up and asked him to join them at a pool hall where they hung out.
"Ross has always tried to build bridges between people."
Today, Navy football fans will see whether Pospisil's character will help make him what the Navy coaches hope will be a strong leader on the football field.
Pospisil, a 6-foot, 223-pound sophomore whose name is pronounced POS-pi-sill, will make his first start for Navy's young defense today against Ball State. He's claiming the position formerly manned by junior Clint Sovie, the team's defensive signal caller, who suffered a season-ending ankle injury at Rutgers last week that required surgery.
"I never expected this opportunity to come so fast and I'm very sorry about Clint," Pospisil said. "He's a great player and he's been helping me get more comfortable on the field with my reads.
"Playing at this level is so much different. I wasn't much of a thinker on the field in high school. I just played. But here you've got to think so much. In my position it's about making the calls on defense, then making the read on the play and then getting the job done.
"I've seen it where a player thinks too much and plays slow. Or where I'm all fired up, but running around like a chicken with my head cut off. I've got to get to the point where I'm going full-out and thinking at the same time."
Defensive coordinator Buddy Green said the speed will come with experience.
"Ross' effort Friday [when he came in off the bench when Sovie was injured] was good," Green said. "He tried hard to get the job done. We weren't satisfied with anyone. He made mistakes. But he ran hard to the ball."
Pospisil, 19, has always seemed willing to try hard. In high school, he joined a teen involvement program in which he went into inner-city elementary schools to work with young children.
