THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 9, 1995 TAG: 9507090017
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ROBIN BRINKLEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
Speed opens many doors in sports, and Dre Bly has dashed through most of them.
Coaches are forever looking for the athlete who can get open deep, take the extra base, get out on the fast break.
Bly, who graduated last month from Western Branch, is that guy.
Early speed made him a star in pee wee soccer, a sport he favored until junior high.
He lettered in football, basketball, baseball and track at Western Branch.
Bly signed a football grant with North Carolina in February and then turned down opportunities to play professional baseball in June.
The lure, for UNC and major league baseball, was speed.
Bly ran a 4.29 40-yard dash last summer and was the fastest player at the UNC football camp.
``You've got to feel confident, to think you can always be better than your opponent, to be successful in sports,'' Bly said. ``My speed gives me that confidence.''
That speed will be on display locally one more time Thursday night when Bly suits up for the East in the Virginia High School Coaches Association all-star football game at Darling Stadium in Hampton.
Bly, who will play defense at UNC, could pop up at running back, wide receiver, cornerback and special teams in Hampton.
``I'm going to try and be the MVP,'' he said.
Bly set several records at Western Branch and amassed more than 1,000 yards rushing and receiving in his high school career.
Bly, 5-11 1/2 and 180 pounds, rushed 139 times for 1,196 yards and caught 54 passes for 1,174 yards. He scored 10 touchdowns of 50 yards or longer and averaged 12.3 yards every time he touched the ball on offense.
``Dre started out as just a kid with great speed,'' Western Branch football coach Lew Johnston said. ``But over three years he developed a great grasp for our system and the game in general. I had coaches in the Big 10 tell me he could have been recruited nationally if he had wanted to be.''
Bly belongs to a family of teachers. His father, Donald, mother, Gloria, and sister, Donna, all teach in the Norfolk public schools.
``We tried to instill in him that the day of the dumb athlete is gone forever,'' Donald Bly said. ``You should be as good in the class as you are on the field.''
To prove those weren't just idle words, Bly's parents forbade him to play baseball when he made a failing grade his freshman year.
Johnston, concerned the down time might do more damage than good, told the Blys that Dre had a major college potential and convinced them to let him work out in the weight room.
He returned to baseball that summer, however, and was an All-Tidewater outfielder in 1994. He slumped this spring, but his speed is such that at least five major league teams asked about his availability in the draft, Donald Bly said.
None was willing to meet the family's financial demands, and perhaps it was just as well.
Football is Bly's best sport, and he has played with and against enough great athletes to know how competitive it is at the top.
He played basketball against Georgetown's Allen Iverson as a sophomore and was a baseball teammate of pitcher Jimmy Anderson, a rising star in the Pittsburgh Pirates' minor league organization.
``I like to test myself against the best,'' Bly said. ``That's why I'm looking forward to playing in the all-star game.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Dre Bly graduated last month from Western Branch High School, where
he lettered in football, basketball, baseball and track.
by CNB