By Janise Packnet, Jessica Hawkins and Kaelyn Collins Staff Writers
This school year has been a roller coaster of media attention and emotions for the Cass Tech football team.
With senior quarterback Jayru Campbell out for the season due to off-field issues, senior defensive captain Michael Oliver would often remind his teammates what Campbell said to him: “He said fight for me if you can’t fight for anyone else.”
The team quite commonly refers to themselves as “bros” — short for brothers. Many of them admit that they share a rare, reliable and remarkable bond that cannot be broken.
Seniors Campbell, Oliver, Joshua Alabi and Mike Weber are a few bros who have been together since the summer leading up to their first year of high school and that connection grew stronger when they started school.
“We wouldn’t have met if it wasn’t for football,” said Weber, who along with Alabi, will play football for Ohio State in the fall.
“During the season I felt that there was a lot of pressure on Mikey during the games, so I told him to run behind me ... I got you,” Alabi said. “And that’s how it will be in Ohio. I got him, like he has me.”
“It is hard to find a true friend,” Campbell said. “One who laughs with you, cries with you, motivates you, has the same goals as you and wants you to be just as successful as they are.
“It’s exciting, to know we all had the same dream ever since we got to the first day of summer training and clicked. I am very happy for the decisions and paths my teammates made this year.”
Upon graduation they young men will have to part ways to catch their dreams on the collegiate level.
While Weber and Alabi will play both going to Columbus, Ohio, to play for the Buckeyes, Oliver will play for Central Michigan. Campbell is trying to get back into football after missing his senior season.
The “bros” might eat, sleep, and breathe football, but they do take time to hang out, have fun and just be the regular high school seniors. They enjoy going to the movies, supporting Cass Tech basketball team, or even going up to the local Joe Dumars gym, where they trade in their cleats for basketball shoes.
As their senior year and high school football careers come to a close — high school careers that saw them become the first PSL team to win back-to-back Division 1 State titles — their friendships will continue to push each other beyond their potential now matter where they are after graduation.
“Our lives may be headed in different directions,” Campbell says, “but I know everything will work out for the best.”
