Caleb Offord | Well-Rounded Student-Athlete
Caleb Offord is more than a football player.
He’s also a member of the National Honor Society with a grade-point average above 4.0.
“He’s more than just football,” Offord’s mother, Amelia tells Irish Sports Daily. “He’s an all-around student-athlete.”
An avid hunter, golfer and swimmer, Caleb isn’t your typical student-athlete either.
“We’ve always tried to stress that we wanted him to be a well-rounded kid,” Mrs. Offord says. “He’s a quiet boy, so a lot of people wouldn’t know, but he hunts a lot with his dad during hunting season.
Originally from the Alabama, the Mississippi native hunts deer, rabbit and even wild boar with his father and if he’s not at practice in the summer, he’s in the pool or fishing.
“We want him to be all-around good,” Mrs. Offord continues. “We don’t want him to be solely about academics and football. Of course, that’s at the forefront of his life, but he’s a well-balanced kid when it comes to everything.
“You have to have fun in life just as much as you have to take care of business. There are times when you need to relax and have fun. There are times when he’s out of football and he’s not thinking about working out at all. We want him to just get out and have fun. He’s a great basketball player as well as football. He used to play AAU basketball in the summers.
“We want him to know that it’s important to relax and have fun and not put so much pressure on yourself.”
But football and academics have put him in the position he’s in now. As a highly-touted cornerback in the Class of 2020, Offord has scholarship offers from schools like Notre Dame, Vanderbilt, Duke, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisville and Kansas among others.
With a sister who is four years older than him, twin siblings (boy and girl) who are about two years older than him and a godbrother who is a year younger than him, Caleb grew up in a house full of kids.
“With that many kids running around the house, we made the decision early that Mom did not need to work,” Mrs. Offord laughs. “To pay for daycare for four children all at the same age was not even worth it. We made that sacrifice a long time ago to live on one income.
“They’re each other’s best friends. Any decision that’s made, trust me, is going to be a family decision. He relies heavily on his siblings’ input.”
Mrs. Offord placed a premium on academics from the start by making sure they participated in programs and reading contests at the library throughout the year.
“I always made academics a priority,” she says. “I want that to be the forefront of their life to help them later on.”
Caleb has always excelled in school with Math as his best subject.
“He can do it with his eyes closed, him and his brother,” Mrs. Offord says. “We never had a problem with the academics. He likes the challenge, especially in the classroom. He’s always wanted to be at the top in the classroom.”
Caleb’s oldest sister is at Ole Miss and his twin siblings are at Mississippi State.
From the time she saw Caleb take his first hit in organized football at the age of four, Mrs. Offord always assumed he would be the one who would go farthest away for college.
“I can remember it like it was yesterday,” she says. “He jumped right back up for more. We looked like, ‘That didn’t hurt you?’ He was so excited to be out there. I laugh at it now. The first time he ever put on shoulder pads and his little jersey, he was just grinning because he was so happy to finally be getting out there.”
Caleb will take his first official visit to Notre Dame this weekend.
“It’s so surreal,” she says. “It’s so surreal right now. It gives me chill bumps just talking about it. We actually cannot believe it. We knew. We’ve always known. We’ve been preparing ourselves because we knew there was something different about him. To see it coming to fruition right now, it is blowing our minds.”
He used to play AAU basketball and his mother believes being involved in so many different activities will be a great benefit to him as he enters college.
“He’s going to cross a lot of people from different walks of life,” she says. “He’s been all over the country when he did play basketball. He’s met a lot of NBA players. He’s played against a lot of their AAU teams. I think it helps him knowing how to handle himself. He’s very mature for his age.
“He’s very much a quiet leader. To be around him and get to know him, he’s such a fun kid. He’s a quiet fun kid. I think it’s important that he met a lot of people and knows how to handle himself very well.”
But she doesn’t want him to grow up too fast.
“He carries himself very well, but he’s still a kid. That’s why it’s important for him to have fun because at the end of the day, you’re still a kid. We don’t want you to miss your kid years. You’ve got your whole life to be an adult.
“You’re only a kid once.”