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Cooper, Dave, and Scout look sharp in their tuxes at the Walter Camp dinner.
Football has been a big part of Dave Callahan’s life. He played football as a youngster, was a star player at Branford High and continued his football playing days at SCSU. Later on, he became a coach for his three young sons, Cooper, Ben and Scout all of whom were major players on several Branford youth teams in the Shoreline Youth Football Conference.
Called by their dad “Number one, Number two and Number three” based on the order of their birth, Callahan made sure they wore team jerseys with those three numbers so their teammates and friends knew who was who during the game’s action.
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Tragically, the sequence of those numbers was broken this summer when middle son, Ben,10 (pictured), lost his life on July 7 in a drowning accident in the Branford River, where all three brothers went swimming one Friday afternoon not far from their home.
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The town responded with everything from a candlelight service attended by over 2,000 people to erecting a Memorial Garden with a stone inscribed “Our Warrior #2.”
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Officials from the Walter Camp Foundation paid a visit to the Memorial Garden for Ben. (L‑R):Kevin O’Brien, Walter Camp Foundation; Scout; Michael Madera, Walter Camp president; Cooper, and Dave.
Ben ‘s nickname was Warrior and, of course, he was son #2. And as a tribute to Ben all the players in the league wore a #2 decal on their helmets during the football season.
The family has shown great resolve over the past seven months after the loss of Ben. Their profound faith has given them strength to continue with their daily lives despite the constant feeling of pain that comes with losing a child.
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This past fall Cooper and Scout signed up again to play football for their youth teams, Cooper as a quarterback and Scout as a running back, plus the other positions they were asked to play in each game. Ben’s #2 jersey (R) is included in Cooper’s team picture.
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Cooper, #1, was the quarterback on his team (notice the #2 decal on the helmets.)
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Here is Scout, #3, running with the ball in a game in October.
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And Dad Dave assisted as a coach once again.Here he talks to the team during a timeout.
Entering a Contest
Near the end of 2017 Cooper and Scout were encouraged to enter the New Haven Register’s essay contest, Be a Star at the Walter Camp Weekend, for kids between the age of 8 and 18. They were asked to describe why they would like to take a favorite adult to the Walter Camp All American weekend.
Without hesitation the boys responded, perhaps with a little help from their Dad. They wrote in part, “Our dad is teaching us to shake hands and hold eye contact, and how to change mourning to momentum. We lost our brother, we didn’t lose our family. We lost our teammate, we didn’t lose the love to play.”
The judges selected their essay and they were given the royal treatment over the weekend of Jan. 11 to 13. There were tickets to the ‘Meet the Players Welcome Dinner’ and the private Alumni Brunch with many former All- Americans. There were tickets to the 51st Annual Walter Camp National Awards Dinner at The Lanman Center at Yale University, tuxedos provided by Modern Formals and, of course, a room at the Omni Hotel.
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Here Cooper, Scout and Dave pose with former All Americans: (L‑R) Paul Palmer, Hugh Green, Tony Rice, Chris Zorich, and Eddie George.
“They had a blast,” said their father Dave. “They loved it. They met so many great players past and present like Baker Mayfield,” the Walter Camp Player of the Year and Heisman Trophy winner from the University of Oklahoma.
“It was a first-class weekend,” Callahan told the Eagle. “Ben would have loved it.”
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The Callahan family added and is adding to Branford in so many ways. Their "resolve" continues to be a lesson for all. The tragedy belongs to us. We own it. The "resolve" belongs to them.