All Hanover Central junior Caiden Verrett was asked to do was succeed running back Kyle Haessly, the program’s record holder for rushing yards and touchdowns in a season and a career.
All the 6-0, 190-pound Verrett has done is put together a wildly productive season, his first as a full-time starter.
“He’s just a special, special player,” sixth-year Hanover Central coach Brian Parker said. “He is as dynamic of a football player as we’ve ever had since I’ve been here.”
Verrett has rushed for 991 yards and 19 touchdowns for the Wildcats (7-0, 5-0), who will try to close out an undefeated debut season in the Northwest Crossroads Conference when they play Andrean (3-4, 3-1) on Friday.
Verrett has gained at least 120 yards and scored at least two TDs in six of seven games. He has added 11 catches for 177 yards and two TDs for Hanover Central, which is ranked No. 3 in the Class 3A state coaches poll and No. 2 in the poll by The Associated Press.
“He’s tremendous with the ball in his hands,” Parker said. “He can hit it from anywhere on the field. He’s a special kid.”
Verrett was confident he would be successful this season. He prepared for his return to running back, the position he grew up playing. He had 25 catches for 425 yards and seven touchdowns as a receiver while running for 112 yards and a TD last season.
“Coach told me the workload I was going to get with Kyle leaving,” Verrett said. “We had a lot of threats leave. He told me exactly what was going to happen and what I needed to do, and I took it as a challenge.
“I just try to keep a clear mind and just be myself. I like to get locked in, but I like to just be myself, be energetic, funny. Doing that every single week, every single game, helps me perform on Fridays.”
That personality also helped him earn a spot as the Wildcats’ lone junior captain, joining seniors Matt Koontz, Mitchell Oostman and Jacob Strominski.
“He’s a captain for us on a very experienced, senior-laden football team,” Parker said. “He’s just one of those guys people gravitate toward. He’s humble. He has an infectious personality. He’s always smiling. He’s kind of our energy guy. He’s a phenomenal practice player. Phenomenal.”
Senior lineman Collin Foy has seen Verrett’s impact on game days and during practices.
“He’s a very, very elusive guy,” Foy said. “You can tell on film. One minute he’ll be right in front of a bunch of defenders, and the next minute he’s shifting around them.
“He has an insane energy. During practice, me and him match energy when it comes to hyping up the offense. He’s grown up, just for how young he is and not starting last year and us having Kyle Haessly last year. Overall, he’s definitely rose up to the challenge.”
Parker isn’t surprised. Before the season, he said Verrett would be “one of the premier running backs in the area and definitely in the class of 2025 in the state.”
Parker recognized Verrett’s vast potential even earlier, really from the first time they met. Verrett’s family moved from Griffith before his freshman year.
“So that summer, it’s the first week of August, we’re practicing out there,” Parker said. “Me and Tony Bartolomeo look over, and there was this kid leaning on the fence just watching us practice. I go over there and introduce myself, and he said, ‘My name’s Caiden. My mom’s enrolling me here. We just moved into town, and I’m thinking about playing football.’
“We got him a physical, he showed up the next day, and the first time he touched the ball, we were just like, ‘All right, we have something here.’ It was one of those things.”
Verrett had been on the fence about playing football. He didn’t play in eighth grade — “that was the quarantine year,” he said — and wasn’t sure about getting back into it at his new school.
“It was weird,” he said. “I wasn’t going to play football coming into high school. My dad didn’t really want me getting hurt. But I came to the school, came to a practice one of the mornings with one of my friends and watched, and coach Parker came up to me and asked if I played. He really got my love back for the game.
“I talked it over with my parents, asked them if they were OK with it. We talked about it, we thought about it a lot and just decided from there.”
Now Verrett doesn’t like coming off the field.
“The last two years before this one, he was on our kickoff team, and obviously the role that he plays now on offense, we scaled him back a little,” Parker said. “He doesn’t play on special teams. Coach Bartolomeo, who runs our kickoff team, had to tell him that he wasn’t going to be on kickoffs, and he was pretty upset. He just loves playing.”
Verrett is also a standout baseball player. After starting at third base as a freshman, he shifted to catcher last season, hitting .526 with 29 RBIs and 27 stolen bases.
“It was always football for me, but when I didn’t play, it became baseball,” he said. “But now, the more I play football, the more I love everything about it. I love the atmosphere, the people, just the way it makes me feel. It makes me feel great.
“Running down the sideline on a breakaway play. Hearing people screaming after a score. Everyone’s getting hyped. The practices and the memories, they’ll last forever.”
