There was no other option for Valparaiso’s Cayleb Sharp.
He was going to play football.
“I had four older brothers who all played football,” Sharp said. “It’s just been our thing. Sharps play football.”
Matt Hofer was influenced by an older brother too.
“I saw everything my brother did, and I wanted to do that — and a little bit more,” Hofer said.
Sharp, a 6-foot-3, 265-pound junior right tackle, and Hofer, a 6-6, 295-pound senior left tackle, have been doing more for the Vikings for multiple seasons. The towering brackets at opposite ends of the offensive line have competitive streaks that are common among youngest siblings and anchor an offense that’s averaging 34.4 points per game as Valparaiso (8-2) prepares to play Duneland Athletic Conference rival Michigan City (6-4) at home in a sectional final at 7 p.m. Friday.
Sharp is in his second season as a starter, having been a guard for the Class 5A state championship team last season. Hofer, a Toledo commit, is in his third season as a starter.
“They’re both great competitors,” Valparaiso coach Bill Marshall said. “Being the youngest but also growing up in a household with other competitors, I think that’s helped both of them.”
Sharp and Hofer were multisport athletes as kids, although football wasn’t part of the routine until middle school.
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“I was always too big to play in Pop Warner,” Sharp said with a laugh. Hofer laughed and nodded in agreement.
But given his size, Sharp realized he had a chance to become a varsity starter in his sophomore season.
“All I needed was the skill,” he said. “And I knew that if I worked hard enough, the position would come, and I wasn’t going to let anyone else have it.”
Not surprising, Sharp had no issues going up against older players.
“I’d be working with upperclassmen and be thinking that it doesn’t matter if he’s older than me,” Sharp said. “It’s just an age.”
Marshall, who coached two of Sharp’s older brothers, said there’s a common trait among them.
“They all have a competitive streak to them,” Marshall said. “The thing I’ve liked about Cayleb is that he plays offensive line with a defensive lineman’s mentality. He has a motor to him that just goes and goes. We’re the ones who have to tell him to come out during practice.”
Hofer is the younger of two boys in his family. His brother, John, graduated from Valparaiso in 2021 and starts at Western Michigan. Matt Hofer said John has always been around for advice.
“I give all the credit to my brother,” Matt Hofer said. “Whenever I’ve had a problem, I’ve called him.
“My first time pulling, I had no idea what to do. So I called him that night, and he blew up a trash can in his dorm while showing me how to pull on FaceTime. He’s helped me through it all.”
Marshall would agree. As Matt Hofer gets closer to joining his brother in the Mid-American Conference, Marshall said John Hofer pointed the way.
“He saw the groundwork that his brother set before him,” Marshall said. “And Matt would be the first to tell you that he learned it all from his brother, including how important the weight room is, and he’s really taken that torch and run with it to prepare himself, not only for this season but for the next level.”
Sharp and Hofer have a similar never-say-die attitude that they hope will help guide Valparaiso on another deep postseason run.
“It’s just the thought that, no matter what happens, you have to go on to the next play and fight your hardest, no matter what,” Sharp said. “It doesn’t matter if there was a sack or a pick or whatever. You just have to put your head down and go.”
Hofer said all of Valparaiso’s offensive linemen approach the game like that.
“We all have that mentality that we’re going to be more physical than you,” he said. “We’re going to play smarter and stronger and harder than you for every play, and that comes from our practices because we go that way from our first period to our last one.”
Dave Melton is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.