Photos by Stephanie Klein-Davis | The Roanoke Times

Stuart Sitterson of Washington and Lee (left) leads the Generals in rushing and also averages 11.3 yards per attempt on punt returns.

LEXINGTON -- When Stuart Sitterson was a high school junior, he was leaning toward attending North Carolina.

He had always assumed he would go there. His parents had been UNC athletes. His great uncle J. Carlyle Sitterson had served as the chancellor of the university; there is a building named after him on campus.

And then there was his brother, Simon, a UNC freshman. The brother he loved and looked up to. The brother who was such an influence on him.

But Sitterson's interest in joining the UNC baseball team changed on the spring day in 2004 when Simon committed suicide on the Chapel Hill campus.

Sitterson was devastated. He soon decided that he couldn't possibly bring himself to attend the school that he now associated with such a tragedy. He couldn't face that every day.

Sitterson, who also excelled in football at The Westminster School in Atlanta, needed a new plan. Playing football for Princeton was one option. But his father, a former UNC pitcher, also had an idea. Why not visit one of the colleges he considered back when he was an athlete: Washington and Lee.

Sitterson fell in love with W&L and decided to make his mark on the football field there.

He is a senior running back and return specialist, and the Generals' biggest offensive threat. He ranks second on the W&L career list in all-purpose yards (5,308) and fifth in rushing yards (2,006).

His interest in football can be traced to his brother, who had been a linebacker in high school.

"He was a mean football player," Sitterson said with a grin. "The only reason why I actually run the way I run is because I had to run that way to avoid him from tackling me when we were younger.

"He knocked out, like, nine of my teeth when we were younger. ... He'd come home from practice and be like, 'Oh, I learned how to tackle,' and he'd try to tackle me. I wanted to learn how to play football so I wouldn't get my [butt] kicked."

Sitterson ranks fifth in Division III in all-purpose yards (203.3 ypg) and third in kickoff return yards (35.6 ypg).

He has rushed for a team-high 723 yards and 10 touchdowns on 165 carries for the Generals (4-3, 1-2 ODAC), and has also returned a kickoff for a score. He is averaging 11.3 yards on his punt returns, and has caught nine passes.

"He's tough," W&L coach Frank Miriello said. "He'll take on the blocks. He'll bounce off tacklers. He just sells out."

Sitterson began his W&L career as a cornerback before moving to offense later in his freshman season. He led Division III in kickoff return yards (34 ypg) that year, when he returned two kickoffs and a punt for TDs and was named an All-American return specialist by d3football.com.

As a sophomore, he helped the Generals reach the Division III playoffs for the first time. Last fall, he earned All-ODAC honors as an all-purpose back.

"After a long punt return or kick return, when I see that huge block out of the corner of my eye, I love getting tackled and then looking at that guy and just kind of pointing, like, 'That was awesome,' " he said.

What makes him so good on returns?

"Just not wanting to get hit," he said with a laugh. "Just running away from people."

The 5-foot-10, 180-pound Sitterson credits his speed to his mother, a former sprinter who was one of the founding members of the UNC women's track and field team.

"We would line up after [youth] football practices -- my brother, myself and my best friend -- and we would do a 40-yard sprint. She would be 10 yards behind us, and we would sprint and she would just kick our butt," Sitterson said.

Sitterson's parents are regulars at W&L games. They saw him get hurt last weekend.

In the first half of a loss to Hampden-Sydney, Sitterson suffered bruised ribs and possibly cracked rib cartilage after he caught a screen pass and was tackled. He did not return to the game, but he plans to play Saturday against Guilford. He intends to don a protective vest, return kicks and line up at receiver, where there would be less contact than at running back.

"It's going to be really, really painful on Saturday," he said. "It hurts to laugh and cough, let alone get hit."

It's a good thing he's tough.

"The reason that Stuart is so tough is 100 percent because of his brother," said their mother, Page Powell. "His brother was a wrestler, and I think he used to try out most of his moves on Stuart."

It took Sitterson a long time to come to terms with his brother's death.

"One of the reasons he's played [football] is for his brother," their mother said. "They were very close.

"I think he still has a hard time with it."

When Sitterson returns a punt or kickoff, he thinks of Simon.

"He used to love watching me do those, so I always have a little extra on those plays," he said. "It's always meant a lot."