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Orne in the running
Marc Morehouse
Apr. 1, 2010 9:54 pm
One of the University of Iowa's possible offensive lineman next fall began his sports career as a basketball player at Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment.
The school engages in the Maharishi Transcendental Meditation technique, a simple, natural, effortless procedure that allows an individual to experience quieter levels of the thinking process and the source of thought - Transcendental Consciousness - the full creative potential of the mind.
So, Woody Orne has that going for him.
But the 6-foot-5, 295-pounder transferred to Fairfield High School, where close friend Dirk Kool coaxed him into going out for football. His first year was as a junior with the Trojans. He finished his career with 15 touchdown receptions.
“With his size, he could hang in there pretty well,” Fairfield Coach Mike Schenck said. “He was very athletic. Had great feet. He came out with the idea of wanting to be a tight end. Worked on it quite a bit the summer before, as far as pass routes and catching the football.
“He started both ways, playing tight end and defensive end for us. His senior year, he was an all-district first-team player.”
Orne wasn't a kick returner but did pop a return for a touchdown - an onside kick against Centerville.
“We had ‘hands team' in and we had him on the front line,” Schenck said. “They kicked an onside, it bounced twice and he picked it up and ran through everybody.”
Orne had his eyes on college basketball, but South Dakota State started calling about football. Actually, Kool, who's now a linebacker at SDSU in Brookings, S.D., also helped coax Orne to South Dakota.
“He thought basketball was going to be his meal ticket,” Schenck said. “We kept telling him, your future is in football. Of course, when that comes from the football coach, it sounds a little biased.”
After redshirting in 2007, Orne was SDSU's lone representative on the 2008 Missouri Valley Conference all-newcomer team. He played in nine games with seven starts, playing right tackle the last five games of the season.
He set strength and conditioning records at SDSU with a 32-inch vertical jump and a 9-1 broad jump.
Schenck said homesickness and the belief he could make it at Iowa precipitated the transfer to Iowa.
Orne showed up in Iowa City last season and sat out per NCAA rules. Schenck believes he'll go on scholarship next fall. Orne will be a junior with two years of eligibility.
Just as his career has evolved quickly, so has Orne's weight room dedication, Schenck said.
“At the start of his high school career, he would lift, but now he's almost fanatical about his lifting,” Schenck said. “When he graduated and played for us, he was about 235 or 240, but he was 6-5 or 6-6. You knew he had the frame to fill out and be bigger.”
Schenck has heard that Orne has at least threatened one of former Iowa All-American Robert Gallery's hang-clean lift (barbells from floor to shoulders) records.
Orne was listed on the spring two-deeps. He could fit in at the right tackle or guard spot.
When Orne's name came up last week, Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz mentioned the “Marshal Yanda story,” but he then pumped the brakes.
“I don't want to say it's a Marshal Yanda story, but it's one of those deals where he probably grew and developed more after he got out of high school,” Ferentz said. “He reached out to us and probably wanted to play in a BCS conference and program. I think that was his goal. We were fine with it. He did a nice job in the fall and we are (eager) to see him.”
Iowa's offensive line has three job openings. Orne is in play, perhaps, for two of those. Center is a battle between Josh Koeppel and James Ferentz.
“Yeah, potentially,” Ferentz said. “He has some things to learn, but again, he's an older guy. He played in his true freshman year. I think he's definitely a candidate.”