He’s a force, a 6-foot-4, 400-pound man-child.
But you won’t see Tony Picard battling in the trenches. The Washington prep star, known by friends as “Big Tone,” is a converted fullback, and he’s thriving at his new position.
The White Swan High School senior began his career as a lineman. He still plays nose tackle, but the agile and surprisingly quick for his size big man has become a factor out of the backfield, running for more than 500 yards and eight touchdowns this season, according to BustedCoverage.com.
“I just love carrying [the ball] and hitting people,” he told The Post in a phone interview Saturday night. “I’ve enjoyed it. I love playing on a line, I enjoy running the ball. I do what coach asks.”
Early in Picard’s sophomore year, White Swan coach Andrew Bush told him he was going to start running the ball, which caught Picard off guard.
“I was kind of shocked,” said Picard, who is also the center on the White Swan basketball team. “I just did what I was told. I had no problem as long as I’m still playing.”
“When I was younger, I always looked at running backs as fast, skill guys. I looked at [myself] being big and blocking for them.”
Picard led his team to a 9-1 record during the regular season. White Swan, however, lost in the opening round of the state tournament, 22-14, to Colfax High School. Picard is Native American, part Umatilla-Nez Perce Indian and part Sioux.
Bush told Indian Country Today Media Network at a football camp a few years ago he noticed the big man from Yakima, Wash., playing pickup basketball, holding his own against his smaller teammates, and the idea came to mind.
“He was so agile and making shots from way out there,” Bush recalled. “I said, ‘I’ve got to use this somehow.’
“It’s so much fun to have him go out [on the field] as a captain and see him shaking hands before the game. They’re just kind of staring, like ‘Oh my gosh, you’ve got to be kidding me!’ ”
Picard said he has heard comparisons to former Chicago Bears defensive tackle William “The Refrigerator” Perry, who ran the ball on occasions, a parallel he enjoys.
“It puts me out there,” he said.
Picard became nationally known on Friday when ESPN’s Brock Huard tweeted a photo of him in the open field about to run over a defensive back. Soon, video of him went viral. Clips spread of the mammoth running back trampling over and through defenders, almost all of whom tiny by comparison, even knocking over his own offensive linemen on occasion. Picard said the notoriety hasn’t all been positive, and he doesn’t necessarily like his newfound celebrity.
“I don’t really care much about the attention,” he said. “There is a lot of people that kind of dislike it, disagree, agree [with his running the ball]. I’m just playing because I love the sport. I could care less what people think.”
Picard started playing football in middle school, primarily as an offensive and defensive lineman. He began running the ball as a sophomore and scored a touchdown in the third game of his junior year before breaking his foot during a game and fracturing his arm in a car accident that ended his season.
Picard, a fan favorite according to his coach, told the Washington paper he gets his size from his mother’s side. She is 5-foot-11 and her brother was 6-foot-5 and 275 pounds in high school. He is uncommitted for next year, and Picard thinks he probably will end up playing on the line in college, though the coach said: “There’s always the chance that he’ll get his chance to carry the ball on those short touchdown runs. It’s tough to stop 400 pounds!”
Picard said he has talked to coaches from Idaho, Eastern Oregon and Central Washington, but he is still without a scholarship offer. He doesn’t have a preference what position he plays at the next level.
“I honestly don’t,” he said. “As long as I’m on the field playing, that’s all that matters.”