Week 4: RHAM (3-0) at Bulkeley/HTMCA/Weaver (0-3), Noon
HEBRON – He is the tallest and biggest player almost every time he steps on the field.
Standing at 6-foot-5, weighing 230 pounds, Cal Redman probably should be playing almost every other position on the football field.
Yet, the RHAM senior runs downhill like a running back, he’s tall enough to be a wide receiver and he’s big enough to be playing tight end.
Despite having the size and ability to be a tight end in college — and many FCS schools are already knocking on his door — you can find Redman playing under center for RHAM.
“Oh jeez, it’s been a roller coaster if I am going to be honest,” said Redman, who moved to quarterback his freshman year. “I hated it. It wasn’t a lot of fun. I wasn’t doing too well. It was difficult. I didn’t know what to expect or how to play.”
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Playing Redman at quarterback has raised questions from college coaches looking at Redman, wondering why he isn’t playing tight end.
“I go: Would you play him at tight end?” RHAM coach Robert Rubin said. “And they all go, ‘No.’ I go, ‘Exactly.’”
“He’s the biggest kid, the best athlete on the field,” Rubin said. “Why target him 10 times-a-game and hope he catches it five out-of-10 times? Instead I am going to give him the ball every down and he’s going to make so many more plays.”
Redman hasn’t had a problem backing up his coach’s theory.
As a junior, Redman rushed for 1,441 yards, 19 touchdowns and threw for 446 yards and two touchdowns, leading the Sachems to a 5-5 record.
Despite having some pretty good games early on last season, it wasn’t until the Sachems’ sixth game of the season when Redman truly felt comfortable at quarterback.
“Around the Plainville game,” he said. “I really learned that I could run over kids and I really started throwing the ball.
“I do enjoy it a lot.”
That game, Redman threw and rushed for over 100 yards for the first time that season. RHAM lost that game, but Redman was just getting started. He led the Sachems to a 2-2 record down the stretch and rushed for 615 yards and nine touchdowns in that span.
This season, Redman has picked up where he left off and the Sachems are 3-0 for the first time in school history.
The Sachems have a chance to continue to make school history when they for for 4-0 vs. winless Bulkeley/HMTCA/Weaver on Saturday.
Redman has already thrown for 346 yards and five touchdowns this year. On the ground, he has rushed for 186 yards and two touchdowns.
“Throwing is not his forte,” Rubin said with a laugh. “He yells at me. He doesn’t like the fact that he has more throwing touchdowns then he does running.”
Redman’s improvement through the air is credited to hard work and practice, but Rubin also credits his football mind.
“You guys see 6-foot-5, 230. That’s great,” Rubin said. “But it has been his maturity level and his brain that has increased tremendously from last year to this year.”
In fairness to the senior, he hasn’t been asked to do a lot yet. The Sachems have outscored its opponents 91-7 this season and Redman has spent most of RHAM’s second halves on the bench.
He also plays basketball for the Sachems and, last winter, he found time to partake in football workouts.
“He puts in a whole lot of work,” RHAM senior Seamus Queen said. “He’s there in the winter lifting after his basketball practices.”
With his future lining up at tight end in college, Redman has been working at it during his free time.
“Through the summer I spend my time training to be a tight end and I come back to high school and play quarterback,” he said. “It’s a lot of fun. As a quarterback it helps me understand what the QB wants to see from the tight end.
“It’s been enjoyable. I always wanted to be a tight end. I got the size and I am pretty fast for it.”
Until then, Redman remains the leader of the Sachems. And he’ll do just about anything for team.
“It’s his heart,” Rubin said. “He loves the sport, he loves his teammates… How many kids do you know would be a Division I recruit as a tight end and sacrifice his potential — really, what he is doing – and go ‘I am going to put my team first and I am sure I’ll get taken care of later for it.’?
“That’s the type of kid he is. How many kids would do that at the high school level?”
