New London - His dad, Dan Dunaway, was an offensive lineman for Navy, Class of 1992.

After that, the family had a box at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium and were visitors to the field in Annapolis, Md., for nearly every home game, making the trip from their home in Virginia Beach. They attended bowl games and, following the unwritten rule for former Midshipmen, missed the annual Army-Navy game only for "death or deployment."

J.D. Dunaway, Coast Guard Academy sophomore offensive lineman, wanted to be like his dad.

"I wanted to play football at Navy," he said. "And it pretty much made me want to be a military officer."

Navy had other plans, though.

When Dunaway underwent surgery on his knee as a senior at Ocean Lakes High School, the Navy wouldn't defer his physical test, he said, and disqualified him on the basis of his injury.

He was accepted, however, at Coast Guard, where he started all 10 games for the football team at right guard his freshman season.

This year, with the exception of filling in at center due to an injury to senior Kevin Postiglione, Dunaway is back at right guard for the Bears, who are 3-3 overall, 2-1 in the New England Football Conference headed into Saturday's scheduled noon start at Maine Maritime (1-3, 0-2).

Coast Guard, returning four of its five offensive linemen from last year, are tied for third in the conference with just five sacks allowed. The Bears have the third best pass offense in the league with 1,272 yards (an average of 212 per game) and 10 touchdowns, 1,189 yards and nine touchdowns for sophomore quarterback Derek Victory.

Maine Maritime, as it turns out, allows a league-high 517.8 yards per game, 338.8 passing yards per game, meaning the opportunities should be plentiful this week for Dunaway and line-mates Kevin Painten (right tackle), Postiglione, Tom Condon (left guard) and Jordan Hart (left tackle) to protect Victory.

"I don't know that playing offensive line as a freshman at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy is a good thing," Coast Guard coach Bill George, also the team's offensive line coach, said. "This year is a little bit easier. It's a more experienced group, a more knowledgeable group, a more jelled group."

There's a reason George says the academy may not be an ideal place for a freshman offensive lineman.

Dunaway, who played at 6-foot-1, 290 pounds in high school, helping to lift Ocean Lakes to Beach District and Eastern Regional titles in Virginia, going 14-1 as a senior, was down to 260 pounds when he reported in for Coast Guard's Swab Summer training program. At the end of Swab Summer, he was down to 229.

"(My mom) was surprised how small I was," said Dunaway, now back up to between 250 and 255 pounds. "Me and my brother (Hudson, now a 6-2, 270-pound senior at Ocean Lakes and also a Coast Guard recruit) switched clothes.

"Last year was definitely a struggle. Playing at 290, that was easy. I was much smaller. It was a change of scenery. There's nothing that can account for being heavier than the dude you're pushing around. But if I had to do it, I had to do it. I just changed the way I worked out."

The family has now switched venues for some of its trips. Most weeks, Dan Dunaway watches Hudson play for Ocean Lakes on Friday nights, then hops in the car and drives all night to get to J.D.'s games on Saturday afternoons.

As he could in high school, despite the thousands of fans in attendance, J.D. can pick his mom, Missy's, voice out of the crowd.

His parents have just one rule for his Coast Guard career: no flying helicopters.

"My mom tells me, 'You could have gone to Navy, but you wouldn't have gotten to start 10 games as a freshman,'" Dunaway said. "My dad says that football is what got him through the Naval Academy and I 100 percent believe him. It's a good de-stressor. And the friendships last forever."

v.fulkerson@theday.com

Twitter: @vickieattheday