Corvallis High grad joins Beavers earlier than expected

By Kevin Hampton
Gazette-Times reporter

John Roy was sitting at home last week, about to get up and head out to do some weight lifting.

The phone rang.

It was Oregon State offensive line coach Mike Cavanaugh.

“He goes, ‘John, you need to get your butt over here to camp,’ ” Roy said. “I’m trying to figure out who’s messing with me right now. Then I recognized his voice.”

Roy, a former Corvallis High lineman who is a junior college transfer at OSU, wasn’t expecting to get into pads and practice until September.

Plans changed.

The Beavers were looking to fill in the depth on the line because of injuries and Roy got the call. He rushed over.

“It took me longer to get here when he called me because I lost my keys,” he said. “I was running up and down my stairs a good four times.

“So I race over as fast as I can, talk to coach (Gary) Beck, I get issued my gear, come halfway into an offensive line meeting and just started from there.”

Roy is back in Corvallis after two seasons at Arizona Western in Yuma. He was lightly recruited out of CHS and wanted a shot at a Division I program, preferably Oregon State.

“I got the letters, but nothing big,” he said. “The big interest was Southern Oregon, Western Oregon, Division II schools. I got a bunch of letters, but as any athlete will tell you, the letters don’t mean anything unless it’s a scholarship offer.”

He got a good offer from Arizona Western, so he headed south.

Roy had gone to high school with Cavanaugh’s son and had gotten to know the coach through the years. When he went to Arizona Western, Roy kept in touch with Cavanaugh and sent him game film.

Roy played some guard as a freshman, then moved to center last year and was a team captain. The team struggled and Roy missed the final two games with a torn meniscus, but he did get experience against higher level competition, including current OSU defensive tackle Stephen Paea.

“I played against really great athletes down there, so I might have a leg up on the freshmen coming straight out of high school,” Roy said. “But there’s always room for improvement.”

On his first day at OSU, Roy got stuck in an elevator. That’s about as slow as his schedule will ever get now that he’s on the practice field.

There’s plenty of work to do. Roy has less than a full week of practices under his belt. The coaches have him working with the scout team and getting in with the young players at the end of practices.

He’s been hanging close to fellow centers Marcus Henderson and Alex Linnenkohl, asking questions and hitting the playbook hard, trying to make up ground.

“It’s a big change from what I’ve come from and when I was down at my JC in Arizona, it was very simple stuff,” he said. “Now I come here, it’s a little different blocking style, the play calling is very complex, so I’ve just got to get into my playbook and read it all the time and figure everything out.”

At 6-foot-2, 290 pounds, Roy doesn’t need to fill out to play center. He dropped 10 pounds during a bout with the flu last month, but said he’s comfortable playing at about 295.

“I feel real comfortable at 290, 295. If they ask me to go up, I’ll go up. If they ask me to go down, I’ll go down. It’s up to them,” he said. “Obviously, you need to get stronger. That’s the whole point of the game, who’s stronger, who’s faster, more agile.”

Roy has seen a new side of Cavanaugh.

“His wife came up to me and said I’ve only experienced Cav from home. Now I get to experience coach Cav,” Roy said. “I’ve come to realize they’re two different people.

“I know he’s one of the best line coaches in the country and I’m just excited to learn from him.”