POLAND — The number next to Tony Whalen’s name in the Poland Regional High School football program reads 145.

As a documentation of his weight, it’s probably generous. If it were intended to reflect the miles per hour at which the 5-foot-10 Whalen plays the game, it might be closer to the truth.

“I try to get that extra three or four yards, lower my shoulder, and it always ends up turning out bad for me,” Whalen said. “You don’t think about the next play. You’re thinking let’s get these five yards now.”

At Poland, where football has been a novelty and where wins or any other signature moments have been few and far between, Whalen’s self-sacrificing leadership is a fantastic fit.

Whether he’s making a last-second, pinpoint pitch, throwing a spiral for a huge gain, running for his life on an option play or directing traffic in the secondary, Whalen is all-out, all the time.

Spectators, schoolmates and opposing coaches are starting to catch on.

Poland (3-4) enters tonight’s Western Class C regular-season finale at home against Winslow with a mathematical shot at the playoffs. Big stuff for a program that never finished .500 and has endured entire seasons without a win.

There’s plenty of credit to go around, but Whalen is a good place to start. He has rallied from two season-threatening injuries to guide the Knights past Telstar and Winthrop in the past three weeks.

“Being 145 pounds or whatever he is, facing the pressure especially as an option quarterback, the decisions he has to make and the speed with which he has to make them, he’s certainly carried us in a lot of ways,” Poland coach Ted Tibbetts said.

As the engineer of Poland’s triple option, Whalen typically runs 20 times a game, pitches it 20 more, and throws it another 20.

Unlike traditional pocket passers who are virtually protected by a plastic bubble in the modern era, Whalen endures a full-speed collision with a defensive end or linebacker within seconds after almost every snap.

“A lot of people don’t understand that when you run the triple option, the defensive coordinators for the other teams will say, ‘Drill the quarterback. Hit him every play. He’s able to be hit every play because he’s pitching.’ Even if I’m pitching, I slow myself down and get drilled from behind,” Whalen said.

With mobility such a huge part of his game, Whalen makes few provisions for the flesh. He wears extra padding underneath his jersey around the lower back.

That wasn’t enough to help him at Oak Hill, when a face-to-face encounter at the end of a bootleg left him with a strained neck. Or at Old Orchard Beach, when an attempt to fire up his stagnant team after intercepting a pass left him with bruised ribs.

“I saw one kid and lowered my shoulder thinking I could get an extra three or four yards,” Whalen said. “Then a kid from the side took a helmet right to my ribs. I honestly I have never been able to not breathe for that amount of time ever.”

Whalen has delivered his fair share of hits, too, mostly on the scoreboard. He engineered one of the few game-winning, fourth-quarter drives in Poland’s brief football history, completing a touchdown pass to Tyler Sturtevant with 14 seconds left to secure a 38-32 win over Telstar.

Six days ago, still sore from the OOB knockout, Whalen topped 100 yards both rushing and passing in a 27-8 rout of Winthrop.

“He understands the game,” Tibbetts said. “It’s a lot of decision making. You’ve got to look at what’s going on and make the right decisions and take care of the ball.”

Poland dropped from Class B to Class C this season, not before Whalen was thrown into the fire against the likes of Cape Elizabeth, Mountain Valley and Wells in his first month as a sophomore starter.

“He’ll admit himself he was terrible sophomore year. He was nervous and things were slow and he didn’t understand things,” Tibbetts said. “I think the work we did in the summer really paid off. We did a lot of classroom stuff. I gave him quizzes and graded them.”

Whalen is 5-5 in his last 10 starts, coinciding with Poland’s best stretch since starting the program in 2003.

Beating Telstar after letting a big lead slip away was symbolic of that shift in the Knights’ fortunes.

“We had never made that kind of comeback at the end of a game before,” Whalen said. “I’m sure people thought, ‘Oh, it‘s Poland. They’re going to play mind games with themselves. It’s over.”

Instead of mind games, Poland is playing a meaningful game in Week 8 for the first time ever.

Poland’s playoff hopes are a longshot. The Knights must win in combination with Winthrop losing to Lisbon and winless Telstar pulling off an upset against Dirigo.

With only 10 seniors on a roster of 37, Poland’s best days may lie ahead.

“I’m really looking forward to next year. I have a great core of athletes around me,” Whalen said. “Poland has been known for people quitting in the middle of the season. We have juniors on this team who have been starting since sophomore and freshman year.”

In other words, when Whalen throws his body into a pile with utter disregard for his safety, two or three extra yards won’t be his motivation in 2012. Two or three extra games in November are more like it.

koakes@sunjournal.com

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