AJ Fowler wants to leave a legacy.
The cycle of having a winning season every once in a while at Calumet needs to end.
Fowler, a senior running back, isn’t afraid to say it.
“We’ve got to get out of, ‘This is Calumet and we are going to be 3-7,’” he said. “We need the younger classes to step up and change that culture. We are trying to change it right now.”
Calumet (1-0) got off to a good start Friday. The Warriors beat Gavit 22-20, the first victory over the Gladiators since 2014. That also was the last time Calumet had a winning record, finishing 9-3.
Since then, the Warriors have had three straight 3-7 seasons.
Calumet is trying to buck the trend of schools struggling to survive because of dwindling numbers, according to coach Rick Good.
Bishop Noll had to drop varsity football for two years. For the first time in a while, Andrean doesn’t have a freshman team, although coach Chris Skinner said numbers were similar to last year. He just didn’t have enough defensive linemen for a freshman team so he decided to field just a junior varsity along with a varsity.
Good is optimistic.
The Warriors are in the third season of playing in a new facility with a turf field, a giant video board and a new press box.
The school just bought the team new black jerseys. The stadium experience is at a high level.
Good saw a slight uptick in the numbers this year.
He has 52 players out for three teams. Calumet plays a full varsity schedule, seven JV games and three freshman games. He said the program finished 2017 with numbers in the low 40s.
The trick is to fend off in-season attrition.
Good said players, particularly the freshmen and sophomores, sometimes quit if they don’t feel like they are contributing.
“That’s been our Achilles’ heel,” he said. “If they don’t start, they end up packing their stuff up and leaving. We are trying to teach them that their time will come.
“We need good senior leadership to help with this instant gratification stuff.”
Fowler and Paris Hernandez, a 5-foot-7 senior, are trying to set the examples.
Hernandez is one of the most exciting, anonymous wide receivers in the Region. Last season, he had 58 catches for 1,086 yards and 11 touchdowns.
Against Gavit, he caught three passes for 51 yards. He also played in the secondary and finished with seven tackles and a sack.
Hernandez also is the point guard for the basketball team. He’s excited about the future.
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Hernandez and Fowler live in the Black Oak neighborhood in Gary and have played together since their Pop Warner days.
Hernandez said Good, who was an assistant at Chicago’s Mount Carmel before taking over, has been instrumental in changing the outlook.
“He has a positive personality,” Hernandez said of Good. “We got a new field. Everybody is going crazy. These kids who quit once came out again. They want to stay because we are on the upswing.”
Good is hopeful he can keep the momentum going.
The last time Calumet had consecutive records over .500 was in 2008 and 2009.
There are 14 seniors on this team. That’s a solid number.
“We have to get consistent numbers with the freshmen,” Good said. “You want to keep the young guys moving through the program. That’s what’s been missing. You don’t want to keep contracting.”
For the moment, Fowler is happiest about one, old-school facet of their game.
Calumet has to run the ball.
Mark Flores, a sophomore, started at quarterback. Good wants to keep it simple for him, at least for now.
Fowler carried 19 times for 120 yards and two TDs in the season opener against the Gladiators.
He’ll take that.
“I love taking the ball, getting hit and hitting people,” he said. “I just love contact.”
He’s hoping the younger players do, too.