O-R Athlete of the Week: Caleb Simons, McGuffey
Name: Caleb Simons
Grade: Junior
School: McGuffey
Sport: Football
Simons’ week: In football, such as many things in life, you have to take advantage of your opportunities. Simons certainly did that Friday night.
On four carries, Simons rushed for 184 yards and two touchdowns in McGuffey’s 48-0 win against West Greene. That’s an astounding, 46 yards per carry.
“I didn’t think I had that many (yards) until the coaches came down from the box and told me,” Simons said. “Our line is doing pretty good this year. They’re blocking really well, so that helped.”
The two touchdown runs were 86 yards in the first quarter and a 43-yarder in the second.
“I just tried to run downhill really hard,” Simons said. “There were pretty wide-open holes to run through, so the line and the other running backs did a good job blocking for me.”
Near the top: Simons’ good night against West Greene was the latest of several strong performances this season. He has 475 rushing yards, which ranks eighth in the WPIAL. He’s averaging 14.39 yards per carry. Only Fort Cherry’s Eli Salvini has more rushing yards for a Washington County player. Salvini is sixth in the WPIAL with 489 yards.
“It’s cool, but I just got to stay humble and finish this season by playing hard,” Simons said.
McGuffey’s turnaround: McGuffey’s 2-1 start is welcomed after two winless seasons. The opening week win against Bentworth was pretty sweet for Simons and his teammates considering the trials and tribulations it took to get there.
“It was awesome,” Simons said. “The best feeling ever.”
Simons said the atmosphere around the team is much more positive this year and contributed that to the team’s success.
“Everything is coming together this year,” Simons said. “Everyone has us down and not winning many games, but I think we can compete. The last couple of years when we didn’t win any games I felt like our seniors didn’t care. Now, everybody here wants to play and cares.”
Hurdler: Simons runs track for McGuffey and he typically enters the hurdle events and a couple relays.
Simons said doing the hurdle events gave him the best chance to qualify for WPIALs in track and field. It took some time to get used to running hurdles, but eventually he got comfortable.
“It was rough at the beginning,” Simons said. “My form was pretty bad, but after a month or two I started getting it down and really just got into a flow. It’s nerve-racking going over the first hurdle. You don’t want to fall on them and ruin your race.”
Simons credited track with helping him become a better football player.
“It’s made me a lot quicker than I was before,” Simons said.
Deep-sea fishing: In his spare time, Simons enjoys archery and rifle hunting deer and fishing.
He enjoys going to the local ponds, lakes and rivers for fishing, but his fishing adventures aren’t limited to that. Simons and his family have gone fishing at the Outer Banks in North Carolina and even done some deep-sea fishing in the Atlantic Ocean.
“We have gone on charters out to sea,” Simons said. “We went to the Outer Banks this summer and I caught a big red drum on the shore. A few years back we went deep-sea fishing and caught some ribbonfish. They’re long, skinny fish with pretty crazy teeth.”
Compiled by Jerin Steele