Jan. 27, 2006
by Jared Gelfond, Illinois Sports Information
Just a few weeks ago, he was living 2,000 miles away in a culture and climate much different from the one in which he grew up. Today a lot has changed. He now resides in Champaign, Ill., and is getting ready to suit up for the Fighting Illini football team.
For Antonio Steele, a member of the 2006 recruiting class, it's great to be "back home" in the Midwest.
"It's an honor to be a part of this recruiting class," said Steele just days after arriving in Champaign. "It's always been a goal and a dream of mine to play big time college football."
While the original Man of Steel was more powerful than a locomotive and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, the Illini's new man of Steele is able to chase running backs all over the field.
"I am a sideline-to-sideline backer," said Steele, who is originally from Cleveland, Ohio. "I can run with wide receivers, running backs, and when I get there, I am a very good wrap-up tackler. A lot of people look at me and think I am small, but don't let my size fool you, because I can hit the hole real good."
But that speed on the football field almost went to waste. Going into his sophomore year at St. Peter Chanel High School, Antonio was ready to give up the game of football and concentrate on something else.
"I thought I was going to be an NBA player," recalled Steele after a recent training table dinner at the UI Varsity Room. "You don't get hit as much in basketball and people are able to see your face. There are only five guys on the court and it was every kid's dream to play in the NBA, so I had decided not to play football anymore until someone got to me."
That someone was his older brother, Markus.
"His whole thing at that time with football was that he wasn't big enough and he always used to complain about his size," remembered Markus Steele who played two years for Southern Cal and three years in the NFL with the Broncos and Cowboys. "I had played football and basketball in high school and I think he got more of a chance to see me play basketball, so that was the sport that he fell in love with."
When Markus heard that Antonio had chosen not to play football anymore, he decided to have a talk with his younger brother.
"I told him, `Hey you only have 15 people on a basketball team and there are certainly a lot more guys on a football squad," recollected Markus Steele from his home in Texas. "Most importantly, I told him that you can do things in football that others can't do. In football you can hit somebody and get away with it. It's a game of attitude and I thought that fit Antonio well."
It should be no surprise that Antonio heeded the advice of his brother. Linda Steele's two sons grew up seven years apart, but competition and sports were always a big part of their lives.
"Our father was a football player and I was a football player," said Markus Steele. "Growing up we played a lot of basketball together. They say competition is good, but most of the time I had to go out there and show him who the top dog was. The one thing about Antonio, though, is that he is very competitive and he hates to lose. I think all of the competing we did contributed to his future."
Back on the football field at St. Peter Chanel, Steele's impact was felt immediately.
"I knew Antonio was going to be special from the first time I met him," said Steele's former defensive coordinator and now head coach of St. Peter Chanel--Dave Stupka. "He had a great enthusiasm for the game. I have been involved in coaching for probably close to 20 years now and he is one of those rare players that not only loves playing football but also loves to practice."
"When I first saw him play, all I could think of was 'this kid is a stud,'" remembered then-head coach, Bill Powers. "On the field, he is just a pure athlete. His senior year we did him a disservice by moving him around so much--he could have started on 11 positions on offense and all 11 positions on defense. He played wherever we needed him and I think what tells the story about Antonio is that he was a superstar. Many times a superstar like him will complain when you change his position. He never did."
After an extremely productive high school career at Chanel that included 26 tackles in a game against Akron Hoban and current Northwestern running back Tyrell Sutton, many expected Steele to have his pick of schools but surprisingly, the offers didn't roll in.
"High school taught me a lot, but at the end of my senior season my coach quit and recruiting really didn't go like it was supposed to," said Steele who was academically qualified coming out of high school. "I felt like I wasn't getting treated right and I knew I was better than half the guys that were getting scholarship offers."
With no big time offers on the table, Steele decided to follow his brother Markus's footsteps as he headed out to California to attend Long Beach City College.
In the beginning it was a very tough adjustment.
"Going from Ohio to California wasn't easy," remembered Steele, who will follow in the footsteps of former Illinois linebackers from the California Junior College system like Moe Bias, Archie Carter and Vince Osby. "I didn't know anybody, I was thousands of miles away from home and I had to do things I had never done before like buy my own groceries."
While adjusting to his new climate, the one place he always felt at home was on the football field. In his first season at Long Beach, he was second on the team in tackles with 73 on his way to earning first-team All-Mission Conference honors.
"He is a very mobile guy and he has excellent speed. He is a guy who runs like a safety but he plays physical like a linebacker," said Jerry Jaso who coached Antonio at Long Beach. "He played the outside linebacker spot as well as anybody we have ever had around here and is he is an excellent leader. He keeps the guys laughing, keeps everyone loose, but at the same time, he challenges people during the game to play at a higher level. As a coach you have to love that."
After leading the Long Beach Vikings in tackling in his second season and once again earning first-team All-Mission Conference honors, the big-time offers he didn't receive in high school were there and it was time to pick a school.
Steele needed only two visits to decide where he wanted to play.
"Playing for Coach Zook was just too good to pass up," said Steele, reflecting on his recruitment. "I knew about him when he coaching at Florida and he made me feel like I was part of the family. When I went to my next visit it seemed like more of a business and it was much less personal."
"When Antonio told me he wanted to go to Illinois, I decided to fly back when the coaches were scheduled to come in for a home visit," said Markus Steele. "Usually when a coach does a visit you will see one or two coaches, but they brought the head coach, the recruiting coordinator, the defensive coordinator and the linebackers coach. I was like, `Whoa!'
Coach Zook said some things that really got to me and when I asked all the questions I had they never hesitated and they told me everything I wanted to hear. Ron Zook sold it so well that I asked him if he had room for one more player."
As he finished one of his first dinners in the Varsity Room and got ready for his first weight session with Coach Lou Hernandez, Steele couldn't wait for the day when he finally runs out onto that field in the Orange and Blue.
"Akim (Millington), Justin (Sanders), and I were just having dinner talking about how ready we are," said Steele with a smile. "We are all ready to put on the cleats, strap on our helmets and go out there and hit somebody."
