St. Bonaventure’s Shaun Wick keeps intensity level high

It’s 5:29 a.m., and there’s one football player clapping in the darkened Ventura St. Bonaventure gym.

Music from Eminem’s “Go to Sleep” was supposed to wake up the players sleeping in the gym on the first day of fall practice, but running back Shaun Wick decided to be a human alarm clock.

“I was so pumped,” Wick said. “The first day of hitting . . . that’s like Christmas.”

Forgive Coach Todd Therrien if he smiles when telling the story, but coaches dream about having players like Wick.

“When he wakes up in the morning, he’s thinking about football. When he goes to sleep at night, he’s thinking about football,” Therrien said.

So imagine what Wick’s intensity level might be like on Friday night when the Seraphs open their season against powerful Corona Centennial on the road in a game matching the No. 4- and No. 6-ranked teams in the Southland.

“It’s going to be a big game,” Wick said. “There’s going to be a lot of people there. Guys are going to be nervous, but you can’t be nervous. You can’t be too amped up where you’re out of control. You have to be in control.”

Wick, a well-built 5-foot-11, 190-pound senior, won’t be leaving the field too often this season. He rushed for 1,095 yards and scored 15 touchdowns at tailback as a junior and will also start at safety after making 60 tackles, including five for losses.

“The thing I love most is giving a lick on defenders,” he said. “You’re going to get hit, but you have to be the guy with the mind-set that you’re going to hurt someone else, too.”

From the day Wick showed up as a freshman, Therrien has been enthralled with his commitment to succeed.

“Shaun Wick is relentless in whatever he’s doing,” Therrien said. “If he’s carrying the ball, he has a relentless attempt to get to the end zone on every snap. He really believes he should score on every snap. On defense, he’s relentlessly chasing the football, and it doesn’t matter if the guy is on the other side of the field.”

It’s that desire to fulfill his assignment that makes Wick so valuable for the Seraphs. Yes, he’ll get stopped, but he’ll keep trying, and the odds are good he’ll eventually make it to where he’s trying to get.

“I just want to get to the end zone,” he said. “I just don’t want anybody to take me down. I don’t want to be the guy who’s taken down easy.”

So that’s one of the challenges for opponents facing St. Bonaventure this season, dealing with Wick and his relentless attempt to pick up yards and score touchdowns.

This month, when St. Bonaventure held its early morning practices while neighbors slept in nearby houses, Wick had to use self control.

“I wanted to scream so bad because it was so exciting, but the coaches were like, ‘Hey, got to keep it down a little bit,’” he said.

Wick has been given the OK to scream after games, so beware.

eric.sondheimer@latimes.com

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