Chesterton senior Owen Edlen is still chasing his dream.
He doesn’t see any reason why he should consider anything else.
“Everyone dreams big when they’re young,” Edlen said. “I’ve been playing football since I was young and fell in love with it when I was young. My first career goal was wanting to be in the NFL. Why would I let go of that now?”
It’s a long way from Friday nights to Sunday afternoons, but Edlen’s lofty aspirations are indicative of his bottomless passion for the sport that he proudly proclaimed to be playing for the 13th season.
A 14th season looks likely for the 6-foot-3, 225-pound defensive lineman, who said he has offers from Air Force, Army, Western Illinois, Western Michigan and Yale, and preferred walk-on offers from Indiana and Notre Dame.
Edlen’s pursuit of a professional football career is embodied by his constant pursuit of opposing ball carriers. He had 24 tackles this season before playing Valparaiso in a Duneland Athletic Conference game last week, and Chesterton coach Mark Peterson joked that his initial hunch suggested Edlen made 25 more during that 22-21 overtime loss.
“It’s motor, motor, motor,” Peterson said. “He’s always in on something, whether he’s coming from the strong side or the weak side. On Friday night, he was putting pressure on the QB in passing situations but was also hunting things down from the backside in run support.”
Edlen’s motor has been an essential part of his game since he became a varsity starter for the Trojans (3-2, 1-2) during his sophomore season, when he recorded 47 tackles and two sacks. He followed that up with 53 tackles and four sacks last season.
But Edlen, who placed eighth in the state in the shot put in the spring, preferred to talk about camaraderie, not numbers.
“It’s just been so fun playing, and even when we’re not playing, just being out there with these guys or seeing them at school or in the locker room,” he said. “They say that football is the ultimate team sport, and it’s so true. There’s no experience that captures playing a team sport like football does.”
As his teammates lined up for sprints following practice on Monday, Edlen requested to pause an interview so he could run alongside them.
“One of the neat things about Owen is his capacity to understand people and his ability to get people to come along with him,” Peterson said. “He’s always pushed our team forward. We selected the captains on a weekly basis last year, and he was selected for almost every game. This year, he was a unanimous choice as a captain.”
Chesterton senior safety Cole Richards, who has been playing football with Edlen since Pop Warner, said Edlen has always been that way.
“He’s fully into football,” Richards said. “He’s made every part of his life about the game. In the classroom, he’s always making sure he’s on top of his schoolwork so that he can play at the highest level of football.”
The next level of football is within Edlen’s grasp. He spent the past several summers attending football camps wherever he could to ensure he’d get the attention of college coaches.
“I’m a man of faith, and I always believed it was going to happen, so I wasn’t surprised,” Edlen said. “But I definitely felt a wave of gratefulness once they started coming in.”
Playing on Saturdays seems inevitable for Edlen, who is ready for football no matter what day the calendar shows.
“It is hard work,” he said. “There are days that are more fun than others, but I never dread coming here. I’m just grateful for the opportunity to be here. To be able to do this is such a blessing, and to be able to do it with all of these guys has been incredible.”
Dave Melton is a freelance reporter.
