One middle-aged onlooker, slouched into a folding chair along the sideline of Duquesne High School's football stadium last week, motioned quietly to Dukes coach Pat Monroe, standing nearby.

Monroe leaned in.

Pam Panchak, Post-Gazette Duquesne High School running back Shane Brooks blasts through pads in practice last week. Click photo for larger image.

"Watching that big boy of yours come around the end ... ," the observer said, before tailing off. "Well, it's a beautiful sight."

Nobody watching Duquesne can resist noticing the big back. Not the fans who love watching him. Not the teammates who love blocking for him. Not the college recruiters who would love to have him.

The big back, Shane Brooks, is a big deal. Entering his senior year as Duquesne's powerful tailback, Brooks is a Division I talent at a Class A school.

Last year he had 17 touchdowns and ran for 1,589 yards on 181 carries, an average of 8.8 yards per attempt. His physical qualities -- he runs a 4.5 40, squats 600 pounds and weighs 218 pounds -- seem almost contradictory, the best attributes picked from a bruiser and a sprinter.

For all, except those lining up against him, it's a beautiful sight.

"He can take on anybody and make them go backward," Monroe said. "But he can also break away and nobody will catch him. That's what makes him special."

But Brooks, who also plays defensive line, prefers to paint himself as a power back.

When he imagines himself four years from now -- the product of a college lifting program -- he guesses he could weigh roughly 245 pounds. "I'll probably be a machine," he said, laughing.

Last season, Duquesne finished with an 8-3 record, losing in the WPIAL quarterfinals. Most of the starters from that team return, including backfield mates Courtney and Layton Dunn.

Brooks believes his team can contend for a PIAA championship. And, yes, Brooks & Dunn, like the country music tandem bearing the same name, can lead the way.

Brooks said he'll probably wait until after the football season to decide on a college, but he has a long list of suitors -- and a shoebox filled with recruiting letters as visual evidence. Fourteen schools thus far have offered Brooks scholarships; among them, Maryland, Pittsburgh, Connecticut, Virginia and Missouri. So far, Virginia is his favorite.

"But there's a lot that can still happen," he said.

Brooks is looking forward more to his senior season than his future. He trained in the summer with a grueling fitness program that sent him running, and sweating, around the neighborhood. He sprinted -- running forward and backward -- up and down hilly Center Street, in West Mifflin and Duquesne. He would then head over the McKeesport Bridge, stopping after roughly 90 minutes.

"I was out so much, people would honk their horns when they saw me running," Brooks said. "I was a part of the normal routine."

"And the thing is, he always works that hard, whether he's in defensive line drills or whether he's running for a touchdown," Monroe said. "He's in the best shape of anybody on the team."

Brooks also is a member of Duquesne's basketball and track and field teams, but football remains his first priority. That's where his future lies. It's also the sport that gives him the most gratification.

"When I see a defender just standing there, I have something inside of me that makes me just want to run over him," Brooks said. "Doing something like that, there's nothing like it."