One more time: Franklin Towne Charter senior Steve Callahan (right) does it all for his team. Can he deliver an elusive championship in 2015? TIMES FILE PHOTO
Most kids Steve Callahan’s age are obsessed with the normal vices of teenage boys, things like video games, iPads and social media. Steve Callahan is not most kids.
What drives the Franklin Towne Charter senior baseball star cannot be found in an Xbox game or the contents of a tweet. To understand what makes him tick, it would help to have read Paulo Coelho’s novel The Alchemist. If you haven’t, the story, published in 1988, follows a Spanish shepherd boy named Santiago who embarks on a journey to the Egyptian Pyramids after a recurring dream tells him he will find treasure there.
So how does a kid who grew up playing three sports for the Holmesburg Tigers garner philosophical and existential inspiration from a Brazilian novelist?
“I’ve read it multiple times, especially in the last year,” Callahan said. “This guy, Santiago, his heart just keeps telling him to do whatever he has to in order to get to the Pyramids and find his treasure that he sees in his dreams. The book taught me that if you truly believe in something and yourself, so much so that you’re willing to die for it to make it happen, then you can accomplish anything and everything that you want. I never felt like I was the best player in any sport, but I’ve got that Holmesburg attitude where I lead through my actions and work ethic to the point where I’m not afraid to die out there on that field.”
Callahan is speaking figuratively … we think. After all, this is a kid who, in the 2013 Public League championship game, took a screaming line drive directly off the face, resulting in a shattered nose. He brushed himself off as if nothing had happened and resumed playing. His high school basketball and baseball coach, Chris Lauber, stated that there isn’t a player less afraid to get himself dirty to get the job done.
“He leaves every practice covered in dirt, sweat, sometimes blood,” Lauber said. “And I’m talking 90-minute practices where all we do is take BP or work on defensive positioning. He always goes at it 110 percent, because it’s all that he knows. Even if he was the last person on the bench, the least-talented player on the team, he’d still bring that level of hard work and determination, and that funnels through to the other players.”
Like Santiago in The Alchemist, Callahan is something of a nomad. He pitches (often very well) and in the past has also played shortstop and left field. In a 6–3 win over Frankford last week, Callahan played second base for the first time since his freshman year. Not only does his extreme versatility allow him to play almost every position, but he also is quick to adapt and play each one skillfully.
Also like his favorite protagonist, Callahan is driven by an elusive treasure. In his case, it’s the Public League championship trophy, which Callahan has come tantalizingly close to snatching the last two seasons (Towne has finished as league runner-up in both his sophomore and junior campaigns). Now a senior, there is no next year for one of the most respected student-athletes to ever don a Towne jersey, so 2015 represents his last shot at high school baseball glory.
“I just want to win so badly,” said Callahan, one of the most quotable teenagers you’re likely to come across. “It’s hard for some people to understand that this is about more than just bringing home a championship for my school. The way I look at it, it’s a chapter in my life that I have to complete, the last chance to break through and succeed. Success in life is built off failure, so you can almost say that I like failing, because it gives me the opportunity to try again and become stronger, wiser and more elite in the process. I’m going to keep working until I finish the job.”
Callahan said he was hard on himself following the two title game defeats, especially last year’s narrow 3–2 loss to George Washington, a season in which Towne went 11–1 and won the regular-season Division A title.
“The last two seasons, they taught me not to fear failure,” he said. “When you’re chasing a dream, the only thing that can stop you is you. I try to forget (the losses), but I want to remember the feeling because it’s what drives me. I want this so bad, man. It’s just a chapter in my life that I have to complete.”
Luckily for Towne supporters, Callahan will have plenty of help in his pursuit. Starting catcher Chris Hammerstein and third baseman Brian Bradley graduated, but everyone else is back, from hulking first baseman Zackery Beltran and his big bat, sophomore shortstop Rob Henry (one of the championship game’s shining stars), slick-fielding left fielder Matt Schlernitzauer and outfielders and Callahan’s co-captains Phil Gilchrist and Fred Courduff. Beltran’s brother, sophomore Brendan, steps in at third base, while sophomore Jason Santiago has filled in admirably behind the plate. The team is, without question, one of the favorites in Division A.
“Everyone on our team is so hungry that it’s ridiculous,” Callahan said. “I love it. It’s just an endless cycle of confidence, and we all want to see that trophy in the end. I feel like we’re one of the elite teams, and I love the attitude of everyone on the team. In the end, I want us to look back on this and say that this team, we meant something.”
Franklin Towne has never won a baseball championship, but everyone involved, most especially the team’s best player, believes the Coyotes are right on the precipice. Callahan said he rabidly attacked his training in the offseason, living in the batting cages and packing on 20 pounds to remain stronger and more durable throughout the long season. And while Lauber believes Callahan could play — and play well — at some level collegiately, the senior hasn’t decided yet if he wants to. Callahan, an ace student as well, expressed a desire to commit himself to only one thing next year, and he said his studies come first. A decision on that should come soon (maybe studying business at Temple, “because I’ve always wanted to make money”), meaning that with the 2015 season comes a looming sense of finality.
“If he chooses to become a plumber, he’ll be the best plumber out there,” Lauber said. “Baseball…business, whatever he ends up doing, he’ll do well. He makes my job so easy, because he’s like an assistant coach out there. Nothing he does surprises me anymore, because that’s just Steve being Steve.”
A leader in every sense of the word, Callahan is ready to rock and roll, and he hopes and believes the third time will be a charm for the Towne baseball program.
“We won a game 15–0 already this season, and after it’s over Rob Henry comes up to me practically in tears, promising me to win it for me this year,” Callahan said. “I love that, and I think about it a lot, the fact that this is my last shot at this.
“It doesn’t scare me, but it does feel different. I guess it’s bittersweet knowing it has to end, but once I’m out there and I pick up that bat and glove, I feel nothing but confident. When I get out there, it’s the same old game and I’m going to do the same old thing: be the hardest, most determined worker that leads through his actions.” ••
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