Since move to Belleville East, Lancers running back is drawing college interest
Being a teenager in this cellular era, Josh Ware’s phone no doubt got plenty of use last year as a junior at Cahokia High School. Absent from any callers or texters, however, were college football recruiters.
Now, as a senior running back at Belleville East, the calls are starting to come in on Ware’s cell, along with that of Lancers coach Michael Harrison.
“Who’s this new kid you got? What’s his story, what’s his status?” is how Harrison termed what the calls have been like from colleges suddenly interested in recruiting the 6-foot-1, 185-pound Lancers’ leading rusher.
“Just in the last two weeks, the calls have started rolling in. With college teams now about midway through their season, and some on their bye weeks, they’ve been coming through the school to get an eyeball on him,” Harrison said. “His film pops, so obviously they’re interested in him. He’s got good size, good speed and he’s a strong student, so he’s got a lot of good things working for him.”
Most of the schools, Harrison said, are from Division I-FCS or Football Championship Subdivision, but he said the University of Illinois has become curious as well. Question is, is it too late to have a realistic shot at any of the bigger, Power 4 schools? Regardless, the fact that Ware suddenly has football options beyond high school isn’t something that would have seemed realistic last year at Cahokia.
He was used sparingly by the Comanches, and over the summer, he and his mother decided to move to Belleville. He was essentially a walk-on for Harrison, who didn’t know much about him and told Ware that the team already had a starting running back.
“But they allowed me to join the team, and now they treat me like family,” Ware said. “But I’d known many of the guys already, from being in the area and playing football since I was 4. My senior year, I was going to start there (at Cahokia), but I was like, ‘Now I’m going to go ahead and be a Lancer.’ Coach (Harrison) has definitely been like a father figure to me, keeping it real with me. He definitely wasn’t biased toward me when I came in, but he definitely gave me a chance to come in and prove myself and let me perform on the big stage.”
Entering Friday’s game against crosstown rival Belleville West, the 5-2 Lancers (2-2 in the Southwestern Conference) are led by Ware’s 648 yards on 90 carries (7.7 per carry) and seven touchdowns. He and fellow senior Jaedon Beamon (367 yards on 62 carries) have given the Lancers a strong backfield. Their jobs have been made easier by a fine offensive line, led by senior Jonathan Rulo, who is committed to play at Cincinnati next fall.
“When he contacted me and said, ‘Coach, I’m transferring from Cahokia’, I really didn’t know anything about him,” Harrison said. “Through (youth sports), some of our our kids on our team knew him, and I kind of got the inside scoop from some of those guys. I just told him, ‘Hey, get registered for school and come out to practice.’ And it’s been amazing having him around. He’s fit in to our team and our culture seamlessly.
“He’s one of the guys now, and the guys love him. He’s a late bloomer. A lot of things kind of worked in his favor, I think, being in a new situation. He’s got a chance, now, for somebody else to pay for his school. That’s always a good deal.”
Ware said he’d like to go into a field where he gets to use his hands and his size to his advantage, something like construction or being an electrician. That’s if he doesn’t play football beyond college, of course. With late bloomers such as Ware, you never know.
As far as getting to the college level, Ware says, “I want it bad.”
“I came a long way. I’m just grateful for my team, my coaches, my O-Line, for putting me up there,” Ware said. “I didn’t do it by myself. My team made me look good. And, also my coaches at Cahokia, too. They encouraged me to keep playing football when I was going to hang it up.”
