Charley Thompson knows he has big shoes to fill.
As Warren’s featured running back, the largely untested senior will be responsible for delivering the level of production in the ground game that has headlined recent seasons. He succeeds 2021 News-Sun Football Player of the Year Reese Edwards, a freshman at Vanderbilt.
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Those high expectations haven’t eluded Thompson.
“I feel a lot of pressure, mostly because I don’t have any experience on this big stage,” he said. “But because of the way I’ve trained in the offseason, it shouldn’t be anything I can’t handle. It’s a nice pressure.”
Thompson, who was Edwards’ seldom-used backup last season, is a former gymnast who didn’t start playing football until he was a sophomore at Warren.
He quit gymnastics because of his growth ? he’s 5 feet, 10 inches tall and weighs 190 pounds — and injuries, which included a stress fracture in his back and multiple stress fractures in his wrists.
Thompson also saw the positive experience his older brother, Max, had playing for Warren during its run to the Class 8A state championship game in 2019. Max plays baseball at Millikin.
“It’s crazy to say, but my body might hurt less playing football than gymnastics,” Thompson said. “I liked gymnastics and had some success in that sport.”
Helping him transition to football, Thompson has received advice from a prominent figure over the years that he can apply to any sport.
His father, Donald, a personal trainer, got to know Doug Collins years ago. Thompson said the former Chicago Bulls coach occasionally attended his gymnastics meets and has been a valued resource.
“A consistent message he has is to believe in yourself,” Thompson said. “He says to trust that all the hard work you put in will pay off.”
Thompson’s hard work for football began the summer before his sophomore year. He gained 30 pounds of muscle in the weight room.
He played on the junior varsity team during the abbreviated season in spring 2021 and then benefited from watching Edwards, who rushed for 1,629 yards and 22 TDs last season.
“I took note of how he ran, especially how low to the ground he stayed,” Thompson said. “He didn’t try to do anything fancy with a bunch of jukes — just make one cut and get vertical.”
The progress Thompson has made in a short time is impressive, which hasn’t been lost on Edwards.
“He didn’t have that innate feel at first,” Edwards said. “His tempo was either way too fast or too slow. But he was a quick learner and got to a point where he was never messing up in practice. He’ll figure it out.”
Warren coach Bryan McNulty became aware of Thompson not long after he decided to join the program and said Thompson’s inexperience shouldn’t hamper him this fall.
McNulty fondly refers to Thompson as a “freak” who can squat 570 pounds and bench-press 370 pounds.
“You could see early on that this would be a good thing if he stuck with it,” McNulty said. “The cool thing about him is that he just made himself into a football player. We feel pretty good about our running back spot.”
McNulty is not alone.
Despite his small body of work, Thompson is already on recruiters’ radars, partly due to his electronically timed 4.49 in the 40-yard dash at a showcase at the College of DuPage.
He has been offered a spot as a preferred walk-on at Illinois State and said he hopes to attract more attention this season.
“That’s the goal, to have a great season and see what happens,” Thompson said. “For now, though, I like being unknown, having that surprise element.”
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Steve Reaven is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.