Lazarus effect: Bartlesville's Caleb Perry resurrects football career for college ball
“For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: ’It might have been!’” — John Greenleaf Whittier
One of the saddest stories in Bartlesville High School football history might have a happy ending after all.
This saga is rooted in that ubiquitous intangible known as the human heart; that essence that makes a winning difference against the odds of failure.
Caleb Perry understands those odds.
Three years ago, after playing only one half of one game his senior year, it appeared a concussion had ended Perry's football pursuits. It was a devastating, life-altering blow to a young man blessed with a deep shopping list of athletic skills and the determination to go along with them.
“When he lost athletics — not just football because he was also a basketball player — he lost his soul,” Bartlesville High football offensive coordinator Jason Munoz said. “It really took an effect on him. … I think at first he said, ‘Okay, I have a different path.’”
But Perry couldn’t shake football out of his heart. His desire to suit up again dogged him like the thirst of a desert traveler. He tasted his first action in nearly three years in May's Bruin alumni flag football game.
Perry’s unquenchable passion triumphed, and he's revving up to suit up this fall for the Mid-America Nazarene University football team in Olathe, Kansas.
Bartlesville High, college football Bartlesville Bruin turns challenges into character
“That will probably be the most nervous feeling I’ll ever have in my life,” Perry prognosticated about his emotions before he runs on the field. “I haven’t played football in three years. … I don’t want to let anybody down.”
“That kid has worked so hard this summer,” Munoz said. “For the last three months he has worked incredibly hard to get where he’s ready to go.”
Munoz got to know Perry well from Perry's friendship with his son Max when they were Bruin teammates and Perry visited the Munoz home.
“I love Caleb like a son," Munoz said.
Devastating loss
Perry’s absence in the second half of the 2020 opener — and for the next 10 games — dismantled the Bruins’ offensive game plan for the duration.
“It was a huge loss. … It was devastating to me,” said Munoz, who also served as offensive coordinator in 2020. “He was a big part of our game plan. … It was a huge loss when we found out he couldn’t come back.”
What made the loss especially painful was how Perry had wrecked the Claremore High 'D' in the first half.
According to game stats on MaxPreps, Perry hammered out 137 yards on five carries, an average of 27.4 yards per carry, including a long touchdown burst, thrilling the home fans at Custer Stadium.
Going into halftime, the senior dynamo appeared headed for one of the program's historic rushing performances.
But, due to the concussion protocol, Perry never went back in the game after halftime. Follow-up examinations concluded that he shouldn’t play football or other contact sports for the remainder of that year and for an indeterminate time after.
It appeared as if Perry’s memories of the first half of the Claremore contest would write the final chapter of his grid career.
“I remember every play I played in (vs. Claremore),” Perry said. “It was exciting. I remember when I broke for a long touchdown and heard the crown behind me. I ran right up the middle, broke one tackle, and ran to the end zone.”
The injury sequence began when Perry previously had absorbed a hard blow in a recreational activity.
“I got hit in that game (vs. Claremore) and it kind of triggered everything,” he said.
“That took an incredible offensive weapon from us,” Munoz said. “Not only could he play running back but he could play receiver.”
Even though he didn’t get on the field the next 10 games, Perry remained an emotional force and sideline cheerleader for his teammates on their way to a 3-8 record — a mark that undoubtedly would have been better with Perry.
Reservation at Heartbreak Hotel
Even though he remained close to the action, the hollow ache still throbbed.
“Honestly, I missed most just being with the guys I had worked out all summer with and not being able to play with them,” he said. “That’s what really stuck the most.”
Fortunately for the Bruins, Dylan McCoy a 5-foot-8, 135-pound warrior — who previously had been only a kicker — was there to help ease the pain of the loss of Perry. McCoy stormed through opposing offenses like a lightning flash and racked up well more than 1,000 yards.
McCoy, also a high-voltage soccer player, had no greater fan than Perry.
“I’m not going to take anything away from Dylan McCoy,” Perry said. “In some games he did way better than I would have. … (He) was the best running back in my class.”
Bruin fans will always wonder how the 2020 storyline might have been different, had both Perry and McCoy lined up together in the backfield all season. They might have been the Bruins’ best-ever one-two punch at the running back position.
“It would have been incredible,” Munoz said. “We turned to Dylan. I had seen him the previous year running on the scout team.”
Expectations had been high for Perry since his sophomore campaign (2018) as he excelled at kick returns and on defense. He played a bigger role in 2019.
Perry was to be featured prominently for the 2020 season as the feature tailback.
Fate proved unkind, but Perry still is grateful for his decision to transfer from Dewey to Bartlesville.
Mentors and mental fortitude
Football remained close to Perry’s heart. He was convinced he hadn’t played his final down.
"I decided to let my brain heal," he said.
But, the medical judgment remained elusive.
“(The desire to play football) never left me,” Perry said. “I just kept going back to my doctor and he kept telling me ’No.’ He felt my brain wasn’t healed enough.”
Then, a few months ago, “he cleared me finally,” Perry said. He then began an ardent search for a place to play football.
“I contacted every coach I could and finally Mid-America Nazarene gave me a chance,” he said, adding the school is looking at him as a receiver.
How will Perry feel when he suits up for that first game and runs out on the field? He already whetted his competitive appetite by playing in last May’s Bruin alumni game.
“I had been working hard and that was the first time I actually played against somebody,” he said. “I felt nice to be back on the field.”
Perry still has former Bartlesville athletic director Spence Rigdon, who died in 2019 at 46 as a result of cancer, in his thoughts and wants to honor what he stood for. Perry also singled out Bruin football staff members Brandon Webb and Bobby Holmes as important mentors
In addition, “I’m talking to God a lot. … I’m going to try and do the best I can with everything I can and just live my life very day.”
Perry willed himself to this second chance. There’s no guarantee he’ll be a star or superstar, or any guarantee he won’t excel, on the college gridiron. But, at least he’ll get a shot to find out for himself; he won’t have to live his life wondering, “What if?”
“He’s going to be successful at whatever he does,” Munoz said.
This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: Bartlesville grad Caleb Perry takes aim on college football chance
