Brotherly love, and success on different fields

The District 1 football playoffs will begin this weekend, and they will be both an opportunity gained and an opportunity lost for Shahaid Smith and Kali Smith.

Each will play in the first round. Neither will get to see the other play.

The Smiths, two of the most electric running backs in the area, are brothers, sons of former Penn Wood player Karl Smith, and they attend different schools - Ridley for Shahaid, Penn Wood for Kali - because they live with their mothers.

The seniors are as tight as they are close in age. Kali was born in June 1993, 21/2 months before Shahaid. They make it a point to attend each other's games, which was fairly easy during the regular season because, mostly, Shahaid's Green Raiders played on Friday nights and Kali's Patriots played on Saturdays.

This week, however, both teams will play Friday night in the district's Class AAAA playoffs. Ridley, the top seed, will host No. 16 West Chester Henderson at 7, and 14th-seeded Penn Wood will go to No. 3 seed North Penn for a 7:30 game.

For just the third time this season, they can't watch each other play.

"It's kind of hard, because of the close relationship we got, living in separate homes," Kali Smith said. "But we manage to hang out off the field. He comes to every one of my games. I come to every one of his games. I call him before games. So we got a tight relationship."

"I miss him a lot," said Shahaid Smith, sitting in the stands during halftime of Penn Wood's game Saturday at Chester. "I wish we played for the same team."

The brothers started high school together at West Catholic and then transferred after the ninth grade.

Shahaid Smith, 5-foot-6 and 160 pounds, has rushed for 1,299 yards and 19 touchdowns in his third season with Ridley (10-0), and also starts at cornerback. He has scored TDs in every game except the season opener, including four against Marple Newtown and three each against Lower Merion, Radnor, and Garnet Valley.

A well-produced, six-minute video of his 2009 highlights is on YouTube. The video was made by former Penn Wood player Kamar Jorden, now a wide receiver for Bowling Green, and was set to Lil Jon's "I Do."

"He's got good instincts, and good vision," Ridley coach Dennis Decker said of Shahaid. "He's probably like a 4.5, 4.55 [in the 40-yard dash]. He's able to stop on a dime, and he cuts really well. He sets up his blockers well, too."

Kali Smith, 5-11 and 180 pounds, took a different path after freshman year. He played basketball, not football, at Penn Wood before putting on the pads again this fall.

An elusive back with sharp field vision, Kali made a smooth transition back to the gridiron.

Playing slotback, he leads the Patriots (9-1) in rushing yards with 852, even though he has only the third-most carries on the team, 74. He averages 11.5 yards a carry.

"The game actually dictates how many touches he gets," Penn Wood coach Sam Mormando said. "If the teams are stacking the line of scrimmage, Kali will get the ball a lot. If they're really trying to defend our outside run, which is him, then we'll give the ball inside."

Kali Smith also is the Patriots' leader in receptions with 13. He has scored 13 touchdowns, all but three on the ground. On defense, he starts at linebacker.

Unlike his brother, he does it all rather quietly.

"This is the loud one right here. He talks like me," Karl Smith, a running back and linebacker at Penn Wood in the late 1980s, said of Shahaid, who responded to the trash-talking allegation with a guilty-as-charged grin. "Kali is more calm, more humble. He doesn't say too much."

"I'm just calmer on the field," Kali Smith said. "He's gonna tell you what he's gonna do and he's gonna do it. I wouldn't say anything. I just do it."

The two Smiths are being recruited by Division I colleges. Mormando said that Connecticut and Temple have come to see Kali.

Shahaid Smith said some Division I-AA schools, such as Villanova, have shown interest. He added that if a school wants him badly, he would make a special request.

"I'll ask them if they'll take my brother," he said.