Patterson Gets Tougher in Gentler Surroundings

As a child, Mike Patterson was nicknamed “Bamm-Bamm” after the brawny baby on the Flintstones. He was the strong and keep-to-himself type, and that was a good thing, considering the kids in his Sacramento neighborhood were always looking to pick a fight.

Still, the Patterson family wasn’t immune to trouble. Mike got in an occasional scuffle and his older brother, Tyrone, was threatened by gang members. The family sometimes arose to find tire marks on the lawn and empty beer bottles strewn on the front porch.

“I was scared,” Mike Patterson said of his childhood. “I would constantly watch my back.”

Now, more than three years after Patterson left his rough neighborhood and moved in with an aunt in Los Alamitos, the Griffin defensive tackle has undergone a reversal of fortune: He’s the one putting people on alert--especially opposing quarterbacks.

“He’s always harassing the quarterback, always beating up the guys on the line,” Los Alamitos Coach John Barnes said. “He’s always in a position where you have to block him with two guys.

“I know from the college scouts that there’s not a better down lineman in Orange County.”

And there’s probably not a kid happier just to be in the county, either. “I really love it here,” Patterson said. “I have no problems.”

The 6-foot-1, 280-pound Patterson is the most important component of a Los Alamitos defense that will face its toughest test when the second-ranked Griffins (5-0) play No. 10 Marina (5-0) in a Sunset League opener at 7 tonight in Long Beach Veterans Stadium.

The senior has made 16 tackles--including eight for losses--two sacks, three hurries and two pass break-ups in four games this season. He missed the opener with a calf injury.

“He gets everyone’s blood pumping,” Los Alamitos offensive lineman Ian Reynoso said. “Even the offensive players. When we’re watching him we still go crazy. He’s made some of the greatest plays I’ve ever seen.”

Patterson’s ferociousness has earned him a new nickname: “Baby Sapp,” after Tampa Bay Buccaneer defensive tackle Warren Sapp. Like his hero, Patterson wears No. 99 on his jersey and has even coaxed a friend’s mom to style his hair like the NFL star’s.

Patterson’s transformation from shy kid to monster lineman was unlikely. Growing up, Patterson wasn’t athletic or outgoing, and he didn’t care much for football. He was chided for watching cartoons in the afternoons while other children were out playing sports or running around.

“He was a kid who stayed at home most of the time,” said Patterson’s father, Tyrone, in a phone interview from his home in Sacramento.

But no one could deny his toughness. When he was little, Patterson fell out a second-story window and dislocated his shoulder. He bounced up from the fall, not a tear in his eye, as if he had just landed on a bed of down pillows.

The summer before his freshman year in high school, Patterson traveled to Los Alamitos to visit his cousin Jorrel Knight, who had been his best friend before leaving Sacramento for Southern California a few years earlier.

Knight invited Patterson to join him at Los Alamitos’ summer football camp, where Patterson caught the coaches’ attention. Patterson ended up having such a good time that he and his aunt, L’tanay Knight, convinced Patterson’s parents to let him live with her and start high school at Los Alamitos.

“It was a difficult decision,” said Marie Patterson, Mike’s mother. “He was my last child, my baby. But that was the best thing I did for him.”

Said Patterson’s father: “He went down there and got focused.”

Patterson originally was used as an offensive lineman, but he didn’t blossom until he was moved to the defensive line before his junior season.

“The minute we put him on defense,” Barnes said, “his skills jumped out. He got off the ball like crazy, he could change directions like crazy, he was such a load he was unblockable.”

Patterson’s parents were shocked to see the play of their once-docile son last season when they attended Los Alamitos’ playoff game against Long Beach Poly.

“I didn’t think he had that kind of energy,” Tyrone Patterson said. “Every down, he was playing hard.”

College coaches have required less convincing. Arizona State and Montana have already tendered scholarship offers, and a host of other Pac-10 schools, including USC and UCLA, are showing interest. Patterson said USC and Oregon are his favorites at this point.

No matter what college he attends, Patterson said, he realizes he has already attained a more important goal. “When I came down here,” he said, “it was to turn my whole life around. Now I know that I have.”