Breaking runs and records

"Coming into this year as a senior with all my friends and pulling that off was just a lot of fun," Anding says. "All the hard work I put in in the offseason just paid off.

"This year we were definitely more motivated."

After averaging 157.3 yards per game in three nonleague outings to begin the season, Anding really began to turn it on with the onset of Pacific League play. In the league opener against Pasadena on Sept. 30, Anding exploded for 302 yards and three touchdowns, while also returning a kickoff 93 yards for a touchdown, to lead Burroughs to a shootout win, 49-34.

"It looked like once he ran the kickoff back on us he got confidence and that's when he started running very hard," Pasadena Coach Randy Horton says. "He did a little bit of everything. He ran hard, their line blocked very hard for him, he's a good running back. He did everything he was supposed to do to have a very successful season."

The Pasadena game was the first in a series of four straight league games in which Anding topped the 300-yard mark rushing, including the following week in a 41-29 win over defending league co-champion Arcadia and Oct. 13 at Glendale, when he rushed for a Burroughs-record 393 yards, while also recording six total touchdowns in just three quarters of a 70-34 win.

"It just really surprised me," Anding said of his own performance during the streak.

Against Crescenta Valley on Oct. 20, Anding came up huge again, atoning for a sub-par first half with 249 second-half yards and two touchdowns to finish with 368 yards and lift the Indians to a 35-22 win.

"He's got such great vision. ...One little inkling of a hole and he's so fast that he's gone right through it," Crescenta Valley Coach Paul Schilling says. "I think we gave him a little trouble in the first half and Coach Knoop did a good job and their offensive line is good too, so they made their adjustments at halftime.

"You just try to do your best [to stop him]."

But the CV game also contained a significant setback for Anding, as at some point during the contest, an opponent's facemask dug into his rib cage while he was on the bottom of a pile. Anding finished the game, but experienced significant pain in the ensuing days. When he took an X-ray to see if he had a broken rib, it turned out he had a partially collapsed lung, forcing him to miss the Oct. 28 showdown with Muir.

If Anding hadn't already proven his value to the Indians, it was abundantly clear when the team sputtered to a 28-0 loss without him. Anding would be back the following week, however, to lead Burroughs to a 42-14 win over Hoover, in which he rushed for 220 yards on just six carries.

"It was hard finding out I had a collapsed lung," Anding says. "I pushed as hard as I could to get back out there."

Anding finished the league campaign in style, though topping the 300-yard mark once again in a 34-7 win over Burbank on Nov. 11 and eclipsing the league's all-time season rushing record set in 1997 by Sultan McCullough of Muir.

"We had a really great year," Anding said of the Indians' success. "I'm happy with everything that we accomplished this whole season."