Sprinting from the tunnel before the EagleBank Bowl, Deliz will be carrying the American flag and fighting hard to contain his emotions, as he leads his team onto the field for the final time.

“Almost every game I get choked up because [the flag] represents so much,” the 22-year-old senior said. “It not only represents the team, but it represents everybody overseas and everybody who is in the brotherhood or has been in the brotherhood. What it means to me words can’t describe.”

So his father tried — and did a little better.

“It doesn’t matter how many times we have seen it, it’s a heavy emotion and the tears flow,” Jim Deliz said. “It doesn’t matter who is with us — coaches, family, friends — everyone feels the same way: They are excited, proud and crying.”

Deliz, unlike most of his classmates, will graduate after 4 1/2 years with an economics degree. Deliz’s delayed tossing of the hat — a rarity at a service academy — stemmed from a broken right foot he suffered against Rutgers on Sept. 7 of last year. The injury was so severe it forced him to withdraw from the academy and return home to Clinton Township, Mich., because he couldn’t walk without incredible pain.

But the play that ended his season last year may have launched his career as a pilot.

Deliz initially failed to score high enough to get into flight school and instead was set to pursue designation as a naval flight officer — a specialty that includes the navigator seated behind the pilot. But the injury allowed Deliz a chance to retake the test, because his graduation was pushed back.

When members of the class of 2009 received their commissions in November, he heard what he’d longed to hear. Deliz, who had spent the past four years as a safety trying to shut down opposing aerial attacks, will defend the skies upon completing flight school in Pensacola, Fla.

“It has become more and more real that Jeff will be in harm’s way,” his father said. “We all understand, but defending his country is something he has always wanted to do.”

For Deliz, it’s another step toward reaching a dream forged when he put on the flight helmet of his uncle and idol, Dan McCoy, a Citadel graduate who flew F-4 Phantoms in Vietnam.

“I would get my old flight suits out, and Jeff would wear [my flight jacket] around the house or on Halloween,” said McCoy, 62. “If it’s ever wartime, I’d want him in my formation because he makes great decisions and thinks of others and not just himself. That’s what you look for in a leader.”

Deliz is prepared for the challenge.

“It is scary because I haven’t actually stepped into a cockpit and flown a plane,” he said. “When you grow up driving you can simulate in a go-cart, but you can’t do that in a plane. It’s a whole new ball game, but people have gone through it before, and if they can do it, I can do it.”

‘I couldn’t imagine it any other way’

George White stuffed the Naval Academy’s recruiting letters to his son in a special place: the trash can. “The war in Iraq had just broken out, and I was throwing them away for a while,” he said. “But Shun eventually got the letters, and he got after me. He wanted to go up there and visit.”

And one trip from his home in Memphis, Tenn., to Annapolis led his son to shun bigger schools like Mississippi State and Arkansas and become a midshipman — even if it meant serving his country for five years during wartime.

“Only my uncle had been in the service, and my parents were hesitant at first,” said the 23-year-old senior. “But once we came to the academy and got a better understanding, they had no problem.”

On the football field, his 2,240 career rushing yards rank the sixth-most in the school’s history, and his 1,021 yards this season make him the first Navy slotback to surpass 1,000 yards.

White runs the 40-yard dash in 4.36 seconds, which makes him an elite athlete on the track, where he is the defending Patriot League champion in the 200-meter dash (21.72 seconds). His time of 6.87 seconds in the 60-meter dash is the fastest by a midshipman.

“I saw him wearing his letterman’s jacket the other day, and I thought it was a picture of the flag with so many stars on it [for beating Army],” said Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo. “The guy’s done a lot for this school.”

After making a name for himself on land, White will be an ensign on a ship when he graduates with an English degree this spring.

“I am not a big fan of being in the Marines, so I figured, ‘What the heck, I could be on a ship,'” he said. “At first I didn’t want to do the military, but I wasn’t going to pass up an education like this. Now, I couldn’t imagine it any other way.”

And now, four years after trying to trash his son’s military career, his father embraces it.

“I used to worry about him, but I got over that,” his father said. “Whatever happens, happens … but that’s beyond my control.”

‘Freedom isn’t free’

Gina Von Bargen remembers exactly what she told her son the day he left for the Naval Academy.

“Promise you won’t go on a submarine,'” she said. “So I was quite shocked at his choice. We are a little scared, but we’re trying to think of it as him going to work, experiencing life and seeing the world.”

Mike Von Bargen, 22, says his mom should rest easy at home in Reading, Ohio.

“If [she is] afraid of me being shot, a sub is the best place to be,” the senior said. “It is 100 percent awesome. It’s so quiet you cannot find it — nobody can.”

>Von Bargen, an offensive tackle, is expected to graduate with a degree in mechanical engineering in May. Then, it’s off to submarine training in Ballston Spa, N.Y.

“There are benefits to being on a sub,” Von Bargen said. “You don’t get exposure to them much because they are usually top-secret, and all you know is that you are under the water, and that scares a lot of people.”

“Every Friday night was pizza night, and everybody loves pizza night,” he said. “We also had homemade soups — very good stuff you wouldn’t think about having on a sub — and steak and noodles. We had four meals a day.”

He’s also looking forward to fattening his wallet, as his military pay will be slightly higher because of his specialized training. And in five years, if Von Bargen doesn’t resign his commission, he’ll have a degree that can lead to a lucrative career in the private sector.

His father, Robert Von Bargen, is at peace with his son’s decision.

“It makes us proud that he would be willing sacrifice for our country because freedom isn’t free, and for over 200 years people have been living and dying to preserve that for all of us,” he said. “We pray nothing will happen and he will be safe and smart and the training is good. [Bad] things do happen, but it’s something I try not to worry about.”

‘It’s something that needs to be done’

Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada didn’t need a 5,100-mile trip from Hawaii to Rhode Island to realize his life was no longer a day at the beach.

“It really hit me when I first walked into the building,” he said of his first day at the Naval Academy Preparatory School in Newport. “People were flying around, and I had a chief yelling at me. I was like, ‘Wow, this is real.’ ”

And if it wasn’t real enough then, it certainly was several hours later when he traded his 5-inch-long locks for the Navy-mandated buzz cut.

“When I got here, I realized my hair was a lot longer than I thought,” he said with a laugh.

It was a steep learning curve for the 22-year-old, who is known for his angelic smile.

“It seems like almost every day you wake up and think, ‘What am I doing here?'” he said. “But at the end of the day, you [realize] it’s more than just me and what I want. You are here for a reason — to serve your country and become a leader and an officer. There is a light at the end of the tunnel and guys around you who will push you through it.”

For Kaheaku-Enhada, that means playing through a partially torn left hamstring, which at times this season has been so painful it’s forced him to the bench.

“I don’t think this is the senior year he expected,” Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo said. “He tried to come back, and even when he did, he wasn’t where he wanted to be. But I am most proud he played his best game against Army.”

Kaheaku-Enhada, who started his Navy career at receiver, will end it as one of the most successful quarterbacks in school history. He was vital in the midshipmen extending their school-record winning streak over Army to seven games and for keeping the Commander-In-Chief’s Trophy at Navy for the sixth straight year. (The Commander-In-Chief’s Trophy is given annually to the winner of the round-robin football competition among Navy, Army and Air Force.)

But after he graduates in May with a degree in general science, he’ll trade his helmet and shoulder pads for a flak jacket and gun, as he’ll be commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Marines.

He wants to be at the point of attack, on the front line, taking the fight to the opposition — just as he does on the football field. He’s unfazed that he could join the more than 4,200 Americans who have died in Iraq.

“I look forward to doing something that not many people get a chance to do,” he said. “It’s something that needs to be done, and someone needs to do it — I think that I can do it.”>

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