Ask Dirk Wedd to name the leading tackler on Lawrence High’s 10-1 football team, and Wedd, the Lions’ head coach, won’t tell you, because he can’t tell you.

“I don’t know,” Wedd said. “We don’t keep statistics.”

Wedd does know, however, that the Lions’ leading tackler is either Scott Penny or Nick DeBiasse.

“It all revolves around our two linebackers,” Wedd continued. “They make a lot of tackles because of our scheme up front.”

In the Lions’ 5-2 defensive alignment, it’s the job of the smaller defensive linemen to disrupt opposing offensive linemen and funnel ball-carriers toward linebackers Penny and DeBiasse.

Penny, who stands 6-foot-1 and weighs 215 pounds, is a senior who started at linebacker last season and at defensive end as a sophomore.

“Scott is just tenacious,” Wedd said. “He’s got a great nose for the ball. He’ll fight you for 48 minutes.”

DeBiasse also is listed at 6-1, but is 10 or so pounds heavier than Penny. He’s also one of only a few juniors who start on this senior-dominated team.

Lawrence High linebackers Nick DeBiasse, left, and Scott Penny pose inside the LHS locker room. One of the two leads the team in tackles, but nobody knows which - and neither seems to care.

“He’s more of a student of the game,” Wedd says of DeBiasse. “He’s more analytical. He wants to know everything about an opponent.”

The Golden Child

DeBiasse also operates, Wedd said, under a perpetual silver lining.

“We call him the Golden Child because all good things happen to him,” the Lions coach said. “Even if he’s in the wrong place, the play seems to come to him.”

With no defensive stats available, no internal rivalry exists between the pair, and that’s just fine with both Penny and DeBiasse.

“It’s kind of funny,” Penny said. “You’ll see us blocking so the other can make the tackle. (DeBiasse) is the type of player, it doesn’t matter who gets the tackle. It’s not who gets the tackle, but about making the tackle.”

DeBiasse teamed with Penny on a few occasions during the 2004 season, but Ian Handshy, now a Kansas University walk-on, was the other regular backer.

Despite his on-the-job training last fall, DeBiasse says it took awhile for him to become comfortable playing alongside Penny.

“I think we were a little shaky at the start of the season,” he said, “but we really know how each other plays now. We can feel what the other is doing without looking.”

Fits Right In

Although he’s a junior among the many seniors who make up the roster, DeBiasse is no stranger in a strange land.

“Nick could be in our class,” Penny said. “He can get along with anyone. We hang out on weekends. We call him DeBo. That’s the nickname he’s always had.”

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DeBiasse, meanwhile, marvels at Penny’s football skills – “He’s a really good player” – and the multi-talented senior’s ability to put the shot. Penny is the defending Class 6A state champion in the shot put.

Although about 10 pounds heavier than Penny, DeBiasse vows he has no affinity for his linebacking partner’s spring specialty.

“I tried it once in the seventh grade,” DeBiasse said, smiling, “and the shot is not my forte. It’s amazing to me how Scott throws it so well for someone his size.”

DeBiasse can throw a baseball, however. He’s a first baseman-designated hitter on the Lions’ baseball team.

Today, Penny and DeBiasse and their teammates are deeper into the football season than any Lawrence High player has been in a decade.

Olathe East Friday

The Lions will meet unbeaten Olathe East at 7:30 p.m. Friday in a Class 6A state semifinal at Haskell Stadium. The winner will qualify for the state title game Nov. 26 in Topeka.

“It’s great to be playing this late in the season,” Penny said. “We’ll have to bring our best game. Our goal is the state championship, and Olathe East is a barrier to our goal.”