Bishop Noll seniors Samuel Rosas and Jeremiah Alford and their families share history.
Rosas, a 5-foot-11, 165-pound wide receiver/safety, and Alford, a 6-1, 170-pound wide receiver/cornerback, have known each other since fifth grade. Their older brothers Daniel Rosas and Johnny Alford were close friends and teammates in basketball and football before both graduated from Bishop Noll in 2023.
Now the younger brothers are trying to make history.
The Warriors have a rich tradition, including a Class 3A state championship in 1989, but success has been limited in recent years. They haven’t posted a .500 record since 2013, and their last winning season was in 2006.
“I hope we go .500 at least,” Jeremiah Alford said. “Of course, I want to win conference. Of course, I want to win sectionals. But definitely .500.”
Samuel Rosas took a big-picture perspective.
“We’re just trying to get better as the games go on,” he said. “So any failures we have from prior weeks, we just have to be able to correct them throughout practice so we can be better the next week.”
Second-year coach Rick Good, whose four seasons at Calumet included the team’s first and only sectional title in 2020 and who then spent three seasons at Lake Central, credited Alford and Rosas for laying the foundation for the Warriors.
“We’ve gotten a definite change in culture because of those two guys,” Good said.
In addition to being two-way starters for two seasons, Alford and Rosas are captains along with junior quarterback Brogan Goetz; they’re multisport standouts, Alford in basketball and Rosas in baseball; and they have plans to study engineering in college.
Alford cracked Bishop Noll’s starting lineup as a freshman cornerback and then focused more on receiver as a sophomore. He had 27 catches for 370 yards and four touchdowns last season as well as 180 yards rushing on 17 carries. He also made 28 tackles.
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Alford’s aiming for 800 receiving yards and 1,500 all-purpose yards this season.
“I feel like I got a lot quicker and faster, especially working with (strength and conditioning coach Julian Smith),” Alford said. “I feel like my feet, my footwork, got a lot better. I feel like I’m just moving quicker. I got better catching too.”
Rosas doesn’t doubt that Alford can accomplish his goals.
“He’s an amazing player,” Rosas said. “He always brings energy, no matter what. He’s one of our best athletes. He is our best athlete. Let me rephrase that — he is our best athlete. All he’s going to do is make everyone else around him better.
“He’s a competitor. He wants to win like I do.”
Alford has also started for the basketball team for most of the past two seasons. He typically has the task of guarding the opponent’s top player.
“Jeremiah’s one of the best playmakers in the whole area,” Good said. “If we need a big play, we call his number. We throw him the ball, we try to get him the ball in space. As a corner, his assignment is to go get the other guy’s best receiver.
“He’s been in some big basketball games, so he’s used to the spotlight. He takes to his leadership very naturally. Jeremiah’s just awesome.”
Rosas also continues to make a significant impact. After joining the team shortly before the start of his freshman season, he earned a starting spot at receiver in the early stages. He had 13 catches for 120 yards and two TDs last season in addition to 163 yards rushing on 30 carries. He added 13 tackles.
“This year, I’m looking to be one of the better players on the team,” Rosas said. “I always have to have a positive mindset about everything.
“If other people aren’t doing their jobs, I have to make sure that I’m encouraging them to continue doing it. If you make a mistake, remind them what they did wrong and try correcting it, and just letting them know it’s all right, we got the next play and let’s just focus on that.”
Alford has seen Rosas put that approach into action.
“He’s a great leader,” Alford said. “He doesn’t yell too much, but he’s able to break down and explain to a certain person what they need to do and how they need to do it without yelling at them. I feel like we need that on the team. He’s just a great leader.”
After getting some time in the outfield on the baseball team as a freshman, Rosas said he made a “big jump” as a sophomore. He has been the team’s ace in each of the past two seasons and should continue in that role after recording a 3.82 ERA with 40 strikeouts in 36 2/3 innings as a junior.
“Sammy’s pitched in big games, hit in big games,” Good said. “He has that sectional championship game experience. So to have that kind of championship experience, the kids really look to him for guidance on these unknowns because none of them have been under the lights before like he has. A lot of them are brand-new competitors, brand-new athletes, and Sammy’s the guy they all kind of look to for an example of how to handle ourselves during games.
“He’s everything for us. He played some quarterback last year when we needed him to. He still works with the quarterbacks just in case. He punts for us. So he’s doing everything.”
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Alford said he would “love to get a scholarship” to play football in college, and Rosas could envision attempting to walk on as a pitcher.
Either way, Alford intends to major in civil or agricultural engineering, and Rosas is eyeing mechanical or electrical engineering. Johnny Alford is studying sports marketing and management at Indiana, and Daniel Rosas is studying accounting at Purdue Northwest.
“Sammy and Jeremiah are all-conference-type kids, they both star in other sports here, they’re both honor roll kids, they’re both college-bound kids,” Good said. “They’re pretty much the epitome of what I’m looking for in leaders for a football team.
“They’re up there with some of these guys that we’ve coached. We’ve won championships and played in the Duneland, and they’re right up there with all of these guys that I’ve coached in this area as far as leaders go.”