After watching junior running back Austin Embody carry the ball – a potent blend of sinuous grace, pure speed and teeth-rattling power – you’d be surprised to find that this is a kid who first balked at the idea of putting on a football helmet.

“I was seven years old when I started with AJF (Auburn Junior Football),” Embody said. “I was an offensive and defensive lineman until middle school. When I first started, I was a little crybaby about things. I didn’t want to get hit.”

Now, as part of the No.3 ranked Auburn football team’s triumvirate of running backs – along with senior Chris Young and fellow junior Alphonse Wade – Embody has learned not only to accept contact, but to embrace it. He credits his father for making him stick with football.

“We would be out there practicing from 6 to 8, and it was cold in October,” Embody said. “But my dad was the one who pushed me through. He’d always say ‘yeah, they’re all bigger than you now, but wait until you’re older and you’ll be the same size as everybody else.’ And now I’m bigger than most of them.”

Even now when Embody straps on his helmet, his first thoughts are of his dad, Matt Embody.

“He’s my inspiration when I play,” Embody, who dons black eye patches with ‘DAD’ written on them before every game, said. “He was in and out of the family when I was growing up. Now he’s in prison for four years. He’s missing all of my high school career which kind of sucks. But he’s been a big part of my football career. He’s the inspiration. I always play for my dad.

“We write letters back and forth to each other and I read them before the games,” he added. “He was my biggest fan. The reason I’m so good is that he put me in football so young and told me to stick with it. I think I’m where I’m at today because of him.”

And where he’s at today is at the heart of an Auburn team that has run the table in the South Puget Sound League North 4A division, on its way to a playoff spot and a chance to contend for the Washington State 4A football title.

In addition to the Trojan’s abundance of talent this year, Embody credits the team’s closeness as the key to its success this season.

“We have a really good group who have been playing together since AJF,” Embody said. “Some of us went our own way in middle school, but me E.J. Strickland, Dylan Rutledge, Alphonse Wade, Danny Shelton, Clayton Brown, Zak Suave, Richie Sanchez and Max Pratt, a good bulk of the team, all went to Cascade. And I was there in AJF with Chris (Young) and Nick Conlan, a bunch of us, so we’re all pretty familiar with each other.”

Initially, Embody said he saw himself as just one of the average players on the AJF team.

“But then it hit me in seventh grade,” he said. “We played six games and I scored 26 touchdowns. It was only eight-man football, but I don’t think it had been done before at Cascade. It just clicked that I wanted the ball in my hands and I was a running back at Cascade. I knew right then I was going to be a Trojan.”

As a freshman, Embody earned time on the field as a running back and special teams player, on a team that went to the playoffs before losing to O’Dea.

Last season, Embody, along with Young and Jeff Gouveia, were part of the Trojan three-headed monster that went undefeated in the SPSL and won two playoff games before running into eventual 4A champs Skyline, 38-2.

“Not only do we talk about (the loss) all the time, but everybody talks about it to us,” he said. “You read the forum on Seattle Times and everybody is saying that ‘Auburn is not that good, they lost to Skyline 38-2.’ When you hear that your stomach drops. But we didn’t have as good of a senior leadership last year, and we’re much closer this year. I think it’d be a different game if we met them. I’m not saying we’d beat them, they’re an amazing team with great coaches. But it’d be a different game.

“I really think we have a better team,” Embody added. “I think that everybody who left last year got replaced. We had eight or nine sophomore starters last year, and we’re all older and stronger as juniors. And I think next year we’ll be much better than we are this year.”

Given a team packed with so much talent, especially a trio of bona fide superstars in the backfield, you would think egos might get in the way. Not so, said Embody.

“It’s kind of a good thing playing with Chris, and I think Alphonse would say the same thing,” he said. “He’s such a threat that he takes the pressure off us come game time. Most teams key on No. 1, but what they don’t know is No. 2 and 3 are right behind him, coming at you too.

“We have a good agreement with who handles the ball,” Embody added. “If one of us is having a good game, like if Alphonse is getting around the edge better than I am, then we give the ball to Alphonse. Or if Chris isn’t really working out well on offense, than whoever is working the best gets it. We don’t really have a game plan going into the game, like ‘Oh, we’re going to give Chris the ball the most.’ They just give it to whoever is producing the most. It’s pretty even most games, unless something isn’t working.”

In addition to the three-headed rushing attack, Embody also credits Auburn’s monstrous offensive line for clearing the running lanes for the backs.

“It’s so nice,” he said. “I see guys who have horrible lines and they’re always getting hit in the backfield. But running with these guys – Danny, Keila and Nick and Cory English, who is just a sophomore and is 6-feet 2-inches tall and 270 pounds – is just huge. We’ve got all these guys who are just great. I think that’s where the heart of our team is the line on both sides. It’s just ridiculous how good these guys are.”

For now Embody says he is concentrating on finishing up the regular season and moving on to the playoffs, but he hopes his future lies in the purple and gold of the University Washington.

“I’m mainly focused on UW,” Embody said, adding that most of the players on the Trojans are hoping to catch a ride with the Huskies. “I want to go to UW because of Chris. I look up to him. And it gives us hope that he got a full ride, because if he can do it, we can do it.”

The Trojans will close out their regular season against Auburn Riverside at 7 p.m. this Friday at Auburn Memorial Stadium.