KEITH ENRIQUEZ/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Ed Ieremia-Stansbury (left) and Tony White return to their hometown for the Sun Bowl.

By Greg Lewis

Daily Bruin Senior Staff



They’re back in El Paso.

After finishing their high school careers, Tony White and Ed Ieremia-Stansbury made the decision to leave El Paso and head west to play football at UCLA.

Four years later, save a conference championship, White couldn’t have planned a more perfect final game to his career. He will be one of the team captains leading UCLA into the Sun Bowl in El Paso on Dec. 29 against Wisconsin.

“Coming back to El Paso is going to be great,” said White. “Between the two of us, I think we have just about every ticket they gave to the team, I’ve got so many people who want to see me play.

“I don’t know how many people from L.A. will make the trip, but we’ll have a lot of people who support UCLA football back home because Ed and I go home and tell everybody how great it is here.”

Ieremia-Stansbury redshirted a season, so he still has one year of eligibility remaining.

Back in their high school days in El Paso the two knew each other well. “Ever since seventh grade, we’ve competed against each other,” Ieremia-Stansbury said.

“We competed against each other so much, in every sport, that we got to know each other. Besides playing football against each other, we guarded each other in basketball, he beat me in discus (in track), but I got him in the shot put,” said White.

They were the two athletic studs of El Paso. Ieremia-Stansbury, a quarterback at the time, was the Offensive MVP of their league, while White was the Defensive MVP.

It was Ieremia-Stansbury, in fact, who was responsible for White ending up in Westwood.

“Coach (Rocky) Long was down here recruiting me, and I told him there was this other guy around here that they had to have,” said Ieremia-Stansbury.

Only problem – White had already committed to Oklahoma State.

“(OSU) told me that if I took a trip to UCLA, then they would pull my scholarship offer, so I told Toledo that I couldn’t come out for a visit unless I had an offer. After I hung up, the phone rang two minutes later, and Coach said ‘Don’t worry, we’ll take care of you,’” White said.

Back then, Ieremia-Stansbury was the nation’s second-ranked quarterback. He switched to linebacker last year, before settling in at fullback this season where he has started most of the year.

“Big Ed – he breaks it down for me,” running back DeShaun Foster said. “He’s doing a great job.

“Considering how he plays, and the fact that this is his first year at fullback, he’s gonna be one of the best in the nation next year,” Foster added.

Although Ieremia-Stansbury liked the attention of playing quarterback, he says he’s happy playing fullback, and making the occasional trick play (he’s one of seven different Bruins to have completed a pass this year).

Starting quarterback Cory Paus keeps a wary eye on Ieremia-Stansbury.

“He’s not a fullback, he’s the toughest quarterback I’ve ever seen,” he said.

Next season, Matt Stanley returns from injury and with Chris Jackson and Pat Norton also competing with Ieremia-Stansbury, he will have to work the entire offseason to keep the starting job.

White, on the other hand, is finishing a career that has seen the top and the bottom, going from consecutive Pac-10 titles, in 1997 and 1998, to the 5-6 1999 season filled with disappointing losses.

“I think he’d be the first to tell you, that he’s not the fastest, or most gifted athletically,” said defensive coordinator Bob Field, “but he’s our leader on the defense.”

“He was voted as a team captain by his peers, so that should tell you something. He practices hard, he plays hurt, and he’s got great work ethic and great football study habits,” Field added.

“I study a lot of films,” said White. I study our defense, I study their offense, and I study other defenses.

“Basically, whenever I’m on campus and not in class, I’ll grab a smoothie and watch more film. I drive from the Valley every day, so I’m on campus from about eight in the morning ’til seven or eight at night. That’s a lot of film.”

Studying so much film may help White do what he wants to do after he graduates from UCLA.

“I’ve played football for so long, put in so much time. If I don’t make it (professionally), I’d like to be a coach. I might try to be a graduate assistant here next year, we’ll see.”