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Photos courtesy of James Nicholas.
Calvin Cullen has been dubbed the “director of football operations” at Clay-Chalkville High School.
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Calvin Cullen has been dubbed the “director of football operations” at Clay-Chalkville High School.
“I came in here my freshman year, and I talked with coach [Jerry] Hood and asked to help out this team in some way,” the 17-year-old CCHS senior said.
Cullen remembers being slightly intimidated when talking to Hood, Clay-Chalkville’s head coach, for the first time.
“I was a little nervous, but he was a nice guy,” Cullen said.
Hood has a different account of that interaction.
“Calvin walked in here and announced to me, ‘I think I’m going to need a desk in the field house.’ I said, ‘You do? Well, what will you do, Calvin?’ He explained his new job, and we signed him on,” Hood said.
That job began with Cullen simply filming games and practices, as well as ensuring that affairs were in order in the football offices. Throughout his time at Clay-Chalkville, his role has expanded.
“On game day, I used to just be there on the sideline,” Cullen said. “Now, I’m actually kind of a part of the whole experience.”
That means he is responsible for all the technology on the sidelines, such as the coaches’ communication headsets and the television monitors the Cougars use on the sidelines for in-game instruction.
But if something goes awry now, Cullen cannot pass the blame.
“Anything that goes wrong technically, Calvin is the one that is yelled at. Headsets go wrong every single Friday, so Calvin’s getting yelled at a lot. But I love it because I get to really be a part of it,” Cullen said.
His off-the-field responsibilities also have increased.
“He’s gotten to where he breaks down a little film for us, does a little scouting for us and watches some tape,” Hood said.
Cullen was born with scoliosis of the spine and tricuspid atresia, a heart condition. Both of those limit his abilities to participate athletically, but that has never stopped him from being part of a team.
His mindset upon arriving at Clay-Chalkville was, “Whatever I can do, whether it be a water boy, which I’d be fine with, or film.”
He has flourished in the past three years, and does the little things to help his team.
“He’s very mature beyond his years,” Hood said. “He is so good at being in tune with the feeling of the kids, because every now and then, when it’s something he thinks I need to know, he’ll tell me.”
But Cullen has one skill that makes him stand out about above the rest: his ability to network.
Any time a college coach pokes his head into the Cougar football offices — a common occurrence in Hood’s tenure — Cullen always sticks his face into the room.
“I always meet everybody,” he said. “I try to meet every coach I can. When it’s a school that plays Alabama, I always try to meet them. I try to make sure that I get an idea of what they’re doing.”
Despite meeting coaches and recruiters for his own sake, he does not seem to take these interactions lightly, because the student-athletes being recruited are Cullen’s classmates and teammates.
“I just want to make sure that our players have the best opportunities after they leave, so wherever they go, they can play and enjoy it,” he said.
Cullen plans to go to the University of Alabama upon graduating, and he already has a key member of the athletics department in his contact book: head football coach Nick Saban.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt he’ll work at Alabama,” Hood said. “Coach Saban likes him, and those guys that he works with enjoy having him there because he’s very conscientious and does some work.”
“Knowing him, by the time it’s over, he’ll have a degree and either have a job with Alabama or with some other school that he’s networked with,” Hood said.
Cullen might be enjoying his connections at Alabama a little too much, he said.
“Until this year, he was here every day that the coaches were here and doing whatever we were doing. Now, when summer camp came around, he was down there helping in Tuscaloosa, and kind of blowing us off,” Hood joked. “I guess whenever coach Saban says he can come down here, we’ll just use him.”
Cullen still has one year left at Clay-Chalkville, and did not mind giving his own opinion about the 2016 version of the Cougars.
“This is a team that has the potential to do some great things,” he said. “It’s going to be a mindset thing. It’s going to be an encouraging-each-other and playing-for-each-other deal this year in order for us to be successful.”
But after his time with the Cougars and the Crimson Tide comes to an end, there is a dream job that sticks out above the rest.
“General manager of the Indianapolis Colts,” he quipped.
To anyone who knows him, it’s probably not as far-fetched a goal as it seems.
