Senior Season Not Pleasant in 2002

NORMAN, Okla. -- Don't try telling Ian Pleasant that football is not a matter of life and death.

The Oklahoma fullback saw one game of his senior season in high school canceled when the D.C. Sniper episode locked in panic the District of Columbia and Northern Virginia areas during the fall of 2002. Needless to say, much of the rest of the season lost its normalcy too.

The tragedy occurred within 10-15 minutes of his Alexandria, Va., home. And on at least one occasion, it was even closer.

“One day I was at a gas station,” he said. “About an hour later a woman was shot at that same station.”

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It was no time for macho bravado. Pleasant, like so many others, was scared.

“I was real nervous,” he confessed. “I used to weave while I was walking all the way to and from my car. I figured, If he's going to shoot me, he's going to have to hit a moving target.'

“Our school was on lockdown so you always noticed things were different. Each morning you would say a little prayer, not just for yourself, but also for your family members.”

Pleasant's high school coach, Billy Pugh, still the head man at Hayfield Secondary, said the stress was nothing new to people in that area.

“You have to remember, this was only one year after 9/11,” he said. “There was a lot to deal with mentally for the people in the D.C., metro area. It drove the students crazy. Heck, it drove me crazy.”

Once the shootings began, the team moved its practices indoors.

“We practiced in the gym, moving around a little, but it was nothing serious in the way of practice,” Pleasant said. “Finally, one day coach came in and said that we wouldn't be playing for a while because we were an easy target.”

One of the games was moved to a high school north of Richmond, about 80 miles from Alexandria.

“We didn't tell very many people where we were going,” Pugh said. “The players could only tell their parents. It was very restricted. We just went down there, played the game, got back on the bus and came right back.”

Even that game and that day were ironically intermingled with the sniper.

The opponent, Lake Braddock High School, stopped at a Ponderosa restaurant for a pre-game meal. Later that day, a woman was shot outside that very same restaurant in Ashland, Va.

Eventually arrests were made and the shootings stopped.

“I think I heard about (the arrests) on my way home from school,” Pleasant said. “We were really happy.”

It pulled Pleasant out of the doldrums. His school work had suffered and he admitted the situation affected him greatly. The restrictions took away his “outlet.”

Pleasant, whose father, Mike, was a football and track start at OU, persevered, but sensed interest among would-be recruiters was fading with the atypical circumstances. Ultimately, a friend who had played professional football with his father, recommended West Hills Junior College in Coalinga, Calif.

Pleasant made the cross country trek to spend one and one-half years on the west coast.

“It was good to get away,” he said. “At first it was hard, but I adapted pretty well. It was like a long vacation.”

The road eventually led to Norman, Okla. Pleasant joined the Sooner team as a linebacker, but last spring moved to fullback. He played in each of the first three games, then got two receptions in the game at Oregon and earned the spotlight that seems to follow the ball.

Pugh is not surprised that his former pupil has found success on a big-time level.

“He was a tremendous player for us,” he said. “We went to the playoffs twice while he was here. We haven't been since he left.

“When he sets his mind to something, he gets it accomplished.”

And now, by following a sometimes dangerous and circuitous route, he is accomplishing it on one of college football's biggest stages.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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