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Steamboat Springs — There was a time when Lane Shipley, Jay Hanley and Ben DeLine took the field at the same time.

They all played on a Steamboat Springs High School team that advanced to the state quarterfinals in 2006.

While Shipley's high school days ended after that playoff loss, and Hanley and DeLine's came to an end last year, the three still are following the same dream.

Shipley will be a sophomore defensive lineman at Dartmouth University this season, while Hanley will be a fullback at Kansas State University and DeLine will kick for Colorado State University.

With the college football season less than two weeks away, the three former Sailors are working to get ready for the perils and passion of Division I football.

Trying to earn a shot

Things changed pretty quickly for Jay Hanley when he arrived at Kansas State.

After a dominant high school career, Hanley, a 6-foot-2-inch, 250-pound fullback, was no longer the biggest or fastest player on the field.

"The biggest eye-opener is seeing all these athletes," Hanley said. "You're no longer at the top. There's guys on the team that are amazing. You've got guys running with 4.2 (seconds in the 40-yard dash) speed. I've never seen that."

Hanley enrolled at Kansas State in early June to take classes and, hopefully, garner some playing time. He showed well in early 7-on-7 scrimmages, but surgery to clean up some nagging injuries in his shoulder has prematurely setback the big fullback.

Hanley missed the start of two-a-days and will head back to Kansas State later this month. He said the shoulder feels much better, but coaches and doctors wanted Hanley to take a little more time to heal.

"I'm really excited to get back down there and start playing," Hanley said. "Whether I get playing time this year relates to how much they want me to play. It should be fun."

Made for this

Division I football was made for Ben DeLine.

With practices, meetings and school coming up, there's little time in the day when DeLine isn't working.

But that suits the 2008 Steamboat Springs High School graduate just fine. In fact, DeLine wouldn't have it any other way.

"It was like I expected," said DeLine, who has been encompassed in two-a-days and team meetings since early August. "It's very intense, but I love it. Nothing has been a huge surprise, because I've been around CSU my whole life. I've seen games and practices and thought of playing Division I football all my life."

DeLine was almost playing sooner than he thought.

The plan was to redshirt DeLine and give him a year behind senior kicker Jason Smith. But when Smith injured his foot during the track and field season, there was some talk of DeLine handling kickoff duties this year.

While Smith has proved to be fully recovered and DeLine is almost certainly going to redshirt, the former Steamboat Springs player said he'll make the traveling team.

Although DeLine is relishing most of camp, he said with all of the focus on kicking, he misses lining up at linebacker like he did in high school.

"I get jealous when I see the other guys getting to hit," DeLine said. "I still want to go out and do that. But I know now I have to focus on my job."

Wanting an opportunity

It's already been a long road for Lane Shipley. The 2007 Steamboat graduate did not have the most ceremonious start to his college career.

In 2007, Shipley tore his ACL in the all-state game and was out for the entire fall season. Then he had to have surgery to remove his appendix.

But when Shipley heads back to Dartmouth later this month - Ivy League schools start later than most Division I schools - he'll get to put on the helmet and hit someone again, for the first time in two years.

"It'll feel great. It'll feel like a long time coming," Shipley said of finally getting back on the field. "It will be relieving. You can't hit anybody in adult-league softball. I get yelled at for that."

While Shipley was out with his knee injury, he traveled with the team and filmed games. He said his first year wasn't a waste, as he picked up the system and should be further along and compete for playing time this season.

Shipley said he weighs 265 pounds. As a defensive tackle, Shipley said he'd like to add another 10 pounds before the first game of the season.

"It's exciting, more than anything," Shipley said. "It's exciting without the nervousness of playing your first year."

- To reach Luke Graham, call 871-4229 or e-mail lgraham@steamboatpilot.com