When the CalHiSports.com caravan saw Rickey Galvin run against Pittsburg in an 18-16 home victory on September 24, we agreed with the Oakland Tribune's Jimmy Durkin, who nominated Galvin for Athlete of the Week on the spot.

All the powerfully built 5-8, 170-pound mighty mite did was rush for 233 yards on 33 carries with all three of his team's touchdowns against one of the top Division I teams in the Bay Area.

Galvin's 55-yard second quarter TD run was a thing of beauty. He took the handoff and bounced off tacklers before getting around left end and flying past everyone to paydirt. 

The winning touchdown was just as impressive. After catching an 18-yard pass from Logan Murdock in which he ran over two tacklers, Galvin took it in from 34 yards out on another explosive run.

 

Galvin didn't get the nod that week since Danville Monte Vista WR Bryce McGovern came up with a record performance, but Ricky was in the hopper.

Five games later, Galvin and his Yellowjacket teammates are 9-0, Rickey has had three more 200-yard performances and a near one, plus he missed a game to rest an ankle.

Last week in a 62-6 shellacking of Hercules, Galvin ran for 234 yards on 14 carries with four scores in less than three quarters of action. 

It was his seventh 200-yard performance of the year and too hard to overlook again, making Rickey this week's ESPN RISE CalHiSports.com Boys State Athlete of the Week.

Although he rarely sees much of the third quarter and almost none of the fourth, Galvin has rushed for 1,773 yards on 165 carries this season with 23 touchdowns. Last season he totaled 1,150 yards with 15 TDs after taking over as the starter in week five and still making all league.

"It's pretty clear Rickey's the best back in the East Bay,” Durkin told CalHiSports.com. "Some of the teams aren't that good but his best game was against Pittsburg.”

Washington State sure thinks he can run the ball. The Cougars made him an offer he coincidentally accepted at almost the moment his coach was called on Tuesday evening informing him of this award.

"I'm glad he's getting this. Rickey plays his butt off,” said affable and colorful Berkeley Coach Alonzo Carter, in his third year at Berkeley after a very successful stint at Oakland McClymonds where he sent over 25 players to D1 colleges. Galvin will be Carter's seventh Yellowjacket to go the same route. 

"Rickey is special,” said Carter, whose wife had a baby girl on Wednesday. 

"I knew about Rickey because he was a product of the Berkeley youth programs and played for the Berkeley Cougars,” continued Carter. 

"One of the coaches wanted me to watch some film on him running the ball and being interviewed and I told the guy, 'Man, I don't want to see no junior high Pop Warner kid on film.' The guy insisted and Rickey was impressive running but what I really liked was the way he crushed guys a lot bigger as a linebacker. I thought to myself 'this little dude is pretty good.” 

Galvin, who was from Berkeley, has moved around a lot. He currently lives with his aunt, Wanda Franklin, but when he originally moved back to Berkeley as a sophomore with his mother, Tanya Galvin, the CIF North Coast Section would only give him JV clearance. In his freshman year he lived with hid dad, Rickey Galvin Sr., in Oakland and went to McClymonds.

"I had to tell him, 'son, just be patient,'” said Carter on how he consoled Galvin about not being able to play varsity right away. 

"He was like a man amongst boys at the JV level,” remarked Carter with pride.

After his junior season, Carter knew that to go to the next level, a guy 5-8, 170 needed more time in the weight room.

"Even at his size we knew he could take the load. We got him to buy into the off-season program this past summer,” Carter told CalHiSports on the way to practice after leaving the hospital on Thursday.

The result of all that work in the weight room is that Rickey can now bench press 335 pounds and according to Carter, he can do 20 squats of 405 pounds.

"Nobody believed me so I had this scout come in and Rickey squatted 405 pounds 20 times in a row with his butt touching the bench. The scout said, 'Wow, this dude is cut up.' He couldn't believe how thick he was. Pound for pound he's the strongest guy on the whole team.”

Carter didn't have to convince CalHiSports.com. We had already knew of his prowess from the Pittsburg game and his performance at the Stanford Nike Camp, plus we saw it ourselves in a Wednesday afternoon interview prior to practice with Galvin out of pads. He is chiseled and has a handshake like a vise grip.

Plus, he's well-spoken, carries a 3.33 GPA in the classroom, takes extra tutoring before practice, and is already looking towards the future at Washington State where he plans on majoring in business with a minor in communications. His eye is on a possible career in real estate.

Like most past award winners, the first thing Galvin wanted to talk about was the team, but not before he was asked about playing other sports.

While Galvin doesn't play any other sports, he does have other interests. Rickey is a rapper, and he's pretty good.

He and Nico Thomas, another Berkeley senior, are part of an East Bay rap group called Hard Knock.

They traveled to New York and appeared on BET's (Black Entertainment Television) "Wild Out Wednesday” where they performed their rap piece, "Lean, get your swagger right.”

"We went to New York to audition at our own expense,” Galvin said. "We won in the finals and earned another chance to go back to New York and compete in BET's "Blaze the Stage.”

"The number one goal is to go further than last year's finish and make it to the finals of the NCS championship game,” Galvin said about team goals.

He calls senior DB/WR Delency Parham and last year's Alameda Contra Costa League Defensive Player of the Year, senior LB/RB Keenan Coogler, his best friends on the team.

"They're my best buddies. They go to the shows and like rap but they don't perform.”

Neither of Galvin's parents were athletes nor are his two younger brothers, Jabari, age 12, and 6-year-old Nicholas. "Jabari's into music,” said big brother with a grin.

Galvin is the fifth football student-athlete from the East Bay to commit to Washington State. Two of them, Robert Jiles and Tracy Clark are from Pittsburg. 

"I talk to the guys from Pittsburg each week and after every game,” said Galvin. 

"It's helpful to have friends from the East Bay but that wasn't my reason for deciding on Washington State. It was the connection with the coaches and the players. Plus, I'm used to the city and it's something different.”

His own goal this season of 2,000 yards rushing is almost a cinch and the 20 touchdown goal has already been achieved.

The other personal goal is also a team goal of sorts.

"We played De La Salle when I was a sophomore and I didn't get to play. I've always wanted to play De La Salle but never got the chance.”

Nobody from the Bay Area has beaten the Spartans since the Pittsburg team Berkeley beat accomplished the feat in 1991.

The way the Yellowjackets are going and the way Galvin is running the ball, that matchup is a distinct possibility. 

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