Why Los Banos’ quarterback isn’t your normal two-sport athlete.

It was a nervous week for Dustin Caropreso. The Los Banos High football coach wasn’t sure he’d get his starting quarterback back in one piece.

Junior Colby Copp missed a week of practices earlier this month to travel to Tennessee to compete in one of the top amateur motocross races in the world.

Caropreso has had plenty of two-sport athletes play for him, but never has that second sport been motocross.

“At least he’s missing for a good reason,” Caropreso said. “He’s been racing since he was 3 years old. He just also happens to be a football player. We were just hoping he wouldn’t get hurt.”

Copp’s racing trophy collection is in the thousands from all his victories over the past 12 years and he has aspirations of becoming a professional motocross racer after high school.

Copp couldn’t wait to get on a bike when he was a kid. He remembers watching his older brother, Patrick Spadafore, race. Copp started racing on mini bikes when he was 3 years old.

“My first year racing was for the Chowchilla Barnburners and I think I won all my races,” Copp said. “I had a 6-foot tall trophy and I was 3 years old. It was a family thing. My older brother raced. I couldn’t wait until I was old enough. I got my first bike when I was 5. I remember always looking up to my brother.”

Earlier this year, Copp traveled to qualifying races in Tulare and Rancho Cordova to earn his way to the 37th Annual Rocky Mountain ATV/MC AMA Amateur National Motocross Championship, which were held at the Loretta Lynn Ranch in Hurricane Mills, Tenn. in late July. It’s the second time Copp has competed at the biggest amateur motocross event.

Copp didn’t finish with the result he hoped for in Tennessee. A crash, which he walked away from unharmed, kept him from finishing higher in the standings.

With the big race behind him, Copp’s attention is focused on football. He came into the season having to compete with two other players for the starting quarterback job.

He won the job in camp and led the Tigers to a 26-20 overtime win over arch rival Dos Palos in the Westside War last week. Copp completed 16 of 28 passes for 234 yards and a touchdown.

“The second half was the best part of the game,” Copp said. “The game slowed down for me. I was able to keep it going.”

Copp doesn’t have much experience playing quarterback. As a freshman, he was moved up to the junior varsity team to play defense. He started at quarterback on the JV team last year, but missed the last two games with an illness.

Friday night against Hilmar (1-0) will be just his 10th start at quarterback in high school.

It’s the first time Hilmar and Los Banos have played against each other since 1962. As legend has it, Los Banos was leading 47-7 at the half when the lights at the stadium mysteriously went out. Most people will tell you it was a Hilmar administrator who turned out the lights.

After 56 years, the two teams will play again.

Caropreso is gambling that all Copp’s racing under the big lights on the big stage will transfer over to playing under the Friday night lights.

“I think his experience competing at a high level in racing helps him in football,” Caropreso said. “I think that might set him apart from some of our other guys. He’s so competitive. He wants to win so bad. Especially with him playing quarterback, we have to teach him how to handle the highs and lows.”

Copp says football helps him stay in shape for racing and more importantly it toughens him up. That toughness helps when he does crash on the race track. Copps did suffer a broken leg when he was 9 and he has sustained a few concussions.

Copp feels he’ll continue to improve with each snap.

“I feel pretty comfortable now that I’ve played my first varsity game,” he said. “Now I’m just worried about making mistakes more than anything else.”

This story was originally published August 23, 2018 at 5:16 PM with the headline "Why Los Banos’ quarterback isn’t your normal two-sport athlete.."