Helton embraces number 13

It's Friday the 13th, and while others might avoid walking under a ladder or black cats in their path, this is just another day for Baylor linebacker David Helton.

He's found mostly good fortune the past two seasons wearing jersey No. 13.

"It was partly because several members of my family have worn it," he said. "Then again, no one wears it. It's like a number all my own."

The 6-foot-4, 215-pound middle linebacker was atop the Red Raiders' tackle charts last year as a sophomore, and he's there again this season.

He made 15 tackles in the Red Raiders' regular-season finale but played sparingly a week ago as the team overwhelmed St. Benedict in their playoff opener. Still, he has 87 tackles going into tonight's Division II-AA quarterfinal at Memphis University School, giving him more than 160 stops for his two seasons as a starter.

"He has literally grown into the position," Baylor coach Phil Massey said. "He has been our leading tackler the past two seasons. Last year he was thrown into the fire and he was having to learn, and the game was awfully fast. I think the game has slowed down some for him.

"He has gotten better with experience. Last year he got by on instinct and his nose for the football. This year he has more knowledge and experience."

Helton has become more of a football player than a football athlete, something that caught the eye of scouts for the U.S. Army All-American junior combine held in conjunction with the U.S. Army All-American game for high school seniors that is played in early January in San Antonio.

"David will take film home over the weekends and study. He is learning to be a student of the game, and you have to be proud of what he has been able to accomplish," Massey said.

Helton's two loves outside of his family, with whom he enjoys hiking, are football and psychology, which might explain in some fashion his selection of jersey number.

"I love the thought process and how people think in different situations," he said.

One love actually overlaps the other, although Helton struggled to explain his love of football.

"There is a feeling that I get when I'm playing," he said. "That sounds vague, but it's a combination of the crowd and how that translates into the game. There's a feeling when I make a good play that I am helping out with a larger scheme."

Most linebackers can relate to the euphoric sensation that accompanies the solid smackdown at or behind the line of scrimmage, but Helton feels elation in degrees. If he makes a tackle downfield, OK, he made a tackle, but it doesn't carry the same sense of accomplishment as that of a hit that brings the opponent closer to a fourth-down punt.

"The greatest feeling is after you have won the game and you're with friends," he said.

But the inner psychologist reminded him that winning has an opposite number.

"There is always the counterpart to winning, and I absolutely hate losing," he said. "I'll risk that losing feeling in order to have that winning feeling. You probably learn more from losing than winning, but winning isn't why I play and I accept that losing is part of the process. It's winning physically but also mentally, because you knew what play was coming and you were in the right place."

It actually isn't winning or losing but the challenge that keeps him coming back.

"I try not to reflect on past games. I will look at it once to see what I did wrong and do what I can to fix it. Then I look to the next game."

He also is looking to the future.

"David wants to play college football," Massey said. "Limits? That depends on how hard he wants to continue to work. He has the dedication and the desire, so the sky's the limit. There are always people that will say you can be bigger or stronger or faster. David has room to grow, room to get stronger and room to get faster.

"He has a great upside, and as he continues to work he'll get better at those things. He's talented, but we tell the kids all the time that hard work, desire and determination will always beat talent when talent doesn't work. David has the desire and the determination."