This is Terrance Huston: He also does "The Sprinkler" when he dances

Here's my column from Friday's paper... T and the boys are down in Vancouver right now for Anj's bachelor party. Deebo and his silver tongue will be taking the crew on a guided tour of the best joints East Hastings has to offer... But, of course, yours truly had to work. It's aight, though. I'll enjoy watching Supernova instead... :I


HUSTON STILL HAS HOPES OF NFL CAREER

This is Terrance Huston: A legend, a myth, a tale of impossible feats of athleticism wrapped in a cocoon of hyperbole.
"Terrance was amazing. He was was electrifying every time he touched the ball," said Scott Tallman, a former teammate and current Okanagan Sun coach.
"Every time Terrance got the ball, you held your breath. Offence or defence, you knew he was going to make things happen. Even when he played with us, you knew he was going to the NFL. He was better than anyone else — hands down."
This is Terrance Huston: A seemingly untouchable junior football record of 44 career touchdowns, on the verge of being broken almost a decade later by Vancouver Island Raiders running back Jaiden Smith. But that's just fine.
"It doesn't bother me at all. It should have been snapped a long time ago," said Huston. "I can't believe I still have the record."
This is Terrance Huston: A tragedy. Someone to be pitied. His NFL dreams paralyzed after he broke his neck during training camp with the Oakland Raiders in 2001.
The millions he stood to make were now just tantalizingly out of reach.
And, yes, this is Terrance Huston: A sheet-metal worker. A man, a father of two, now just two weeks shy of his 30th birthday, cramping up during his first play in last month's Sun alumni game.
"But it was the most electrifying play of the game, though," he laughed.
Huston hasn't lost his sense of humour, nor has he lost his dreams of playing professional football. This weekend will likely see his all-time BCFC record snapped by Smith, who has 43 touchdowns heading into a game against the Victoria Rebels.
The Bakersfield, Calif., native's career with the Sun began in 1995, when he moved to Canada to join his half-brother, NFLer Jermaine Haley.
The coaching staff, unable to recognize the talent they had, stuck him at safety. He bounced around from the secondary, to punt returner, to receiver, occasionally getting some reps at running back.
His breakout game came in the 1996 Western Final, where the Sun fell 28-21 at the hands of the Saskatoon Hilltops. The-then six-foot-four, 225-pounder picked off three passes, caught a touchdown as a wideout and racked up 265 all-purpose yards.
"It was like a man playing with boys; they always said that, even in Saskatoon," said Tallman, echoing the Hilltops defensive co-ordinator's post-game comments to the media. "He was a man among boys out there."
It took that performance to knock the Sun coaches out of the stupor they were in, enamoured by the running of Ken Vermette and Ron Arnold. Both earned the BCFC outstanding offensive player awards the year before Huston (1998), but neither went on to the same pedigree, failing to stick in the pro ranks.
After starring with the Butte Roadrunners in U.S. junior college, Huston earned — and impressed — in a private workout with the Miami Dolphins. Now a 6-4, 260-pound tight end with a wideout's speed, he was invited to camp, where he was reunited with his brother. Deemed too raw to play right away, he spent a year
developing with the Orlando Rage of the XFL, then returned to the NFL, where he ended up in Oakland. Weeks later, he injured his neck, and hasn't played since.
"If he would have kept playing, he would have been one of the best in the NFL. There's no doubt," said Tallman. "Even when he was playing with the Dolphins, a lot of the veterans, guys like Thurman Thomas, were saying he was going to be the next Shannon Sharpe."
That chapter in his life was exciting, yet melancholy at the same time. But the end hasn't been written yet, he says.
"I'd say the book is 90 per cent closed," he said. "I've got some things in the works, but I'm not getting my hopes up. My neck still isn't totally healed. It's probably over, but there are still teams out there who could use me."
Huston is a gym rat, constantly pushing himself in workouts should a team come calling. He knows the chances of an NFL or CFL team wanting to sign a 30-year-old with a red-flagged injury history are slim.
"But if you have that passion, you just can't retire," he said. "It's always the 'what-if,' or the 'maybe' . . . that's all I'm surviving on right now. If a team wants to take a chance on me, cool. But what team wants to take that risk?
"I'm sure there's a team that might be desperate enough out there for what I've got. It's a rare thing to see a guy this size maneuver like this. Even in the NFL."
Few athletes who have come through the CJFL have left behind a legacy like Huston's. James Green and Jeff Halvorson, two former Sun players, are the most mentioned in this regard, along with Regina-Ram-turned-B.C.-Lion Jason Claremont.
Huston figured Halvorson, who died in the middle of the 2004 season, would have smashed his record and set his own benchmarks.
And he's happy that it will be Smith, a close friend of Halvorson's, who will do it instead.
While his record will fall, it doesn't matter. That's a page from the past. Huston's eyes are still focussed on the future, and his dreams.
n J.J. Adams is a sports reporter with The Daily Courier. His column appears here Fridays. To contact him, e-mail jj.adams@ok.bc.ca.