Christian Haigh could still be a quarterback.
Haigh is a senior at Father Judge High School, and when he got to high school, he was a very good signal-caller.
He quarterbacked the freshman team, and was working hard at improving. But there was a problem.
Tyler Yerkov was the starter, was only a year older than Haigh, and he was one of the top quarterbacks in the area.
Haigh could have waited his turn. Instead, he changed positions and became an asset to the Crusaders much earlier.
“Last year I started on defense, safety,” said Haigh, who lives in Winchester Park. “It was good and a great learning experience. Sophomore year I was a role player, if they needed me, I would play. Mostly corner. I played quarterback my whole life, but I knew if I wanted to get on the field, I wasn’t going to start over Tyler.
“I think it helped me a lot. I got on the field when I was younger, so I learned a lot playing with the other guys. It definitely helped me going into junior year and junior year helped me going into senior year.”
Now he’s a senior and he’s rarely leaving the field.
Haigh will start at safety once again and on offense, he’s seeing time at receiver, mostly out of the slot.
It’s been an adjustment, playing multiple positions, but after last year, he’s comfortable playing defense and finding his way on offense.
“It’s good, I’m mostly playing in the slot, and we’re doing pretty well on offense,” Haigh said. “Defense, we have some good players and the offense is coming along. We’re figuring things out and we’re getting better.”
Judge started its season with a loss to Ryan, but followed that up with a 17-7 triumph over Lansdale Catholic in Ocean City over Labor Day weekend.
The 1-1 record after two games isn’t a bad way to start the season, and Haigh thinks it’s only going to get better from here.
While the competition gets tough the Crusaders are starting to come together.
“I’m excited because football is such a team game, if you have 11 guys out there and only 10 are doing their job, it’s not going to work,” Haigh said. “It’s a team game. Everyone has to be playing together. And we’re getting closer. We’re starting to come together like we need to.”
Haigh is ready to do his part.
He was picked to be a captain, and that’s a role he takes very seriously.
One of those jobs he has as captain is getting the defensive plays from coach Frank McArdle and calling it in the huddle.
He’s big on communication, so it’s a role he’s very comfortable with.
“I’m a captain and I get the signals from Coach Frank, I call it and then I do my job,” Haigh said. “And I try to motivate everyone and do what I have to do to win.
“I get along very well with coach, and I try to help him. He helps me. We have a good connection. I don’t know, I just love playing for him. Whatever he says I try to do. If I have an idea, I give it to him. And he knows I play tough and I’m not going to give up on big plays. I think he likes the way I play and I like the way he coaches.”
While Haigh has been a football star for three years now, he’s also been contributing in other sports.
Freshman and sophomore years he played basketball at Judge, but he gave that up to focus on football and baseball, his spring sport of choice.
“It was hard giving up basketball, I played my whole life but I had to to focus on the other sports,” Haigh said. “I do miss basketball. Now it starts early, before football ends. I did it sophomore year, Turkey Bowl, then basketball is Saturday. That was my sophomore year, I wanted to focus on football and baseball.
“Baseball is great. It’s great being part of it just for the friendships. I wasn’t a part of the state championship, I was on JV, but it was great to go to the games and see what they did. I was proud of the baseball team.
“Last year, we had two very good pitchers, they were back, but we didn’t have a lot of returning players in the field. I didn’t start, I swung, but I was really proud of how they played. It was a good season.”
If Haigh plays at the next level, it will likely be football. He’s heard from Division II and III coaches, and he’ll decide on his future later this school year.
Nursing and sports medicine are two potential careers.
But he’s laser focused on football, and he has high hopes.
“I think we’ll play more like our second game than our first game,” Haigh said. “My goal is to go undefeated in the rest of our nonleague schedule. Our league schedule is tough, but I think we can have a great year. We’re playing good teams, but we’re a good team. We just have to go out and do what we can. This is a good team.”
And he knows he’ll have plenty of support every game.
“My family, my mom and my dad help me a lot, my grandpop does, too,” Haigh said. “He plays a big role in my life. He loves that I play sports at Judge and he tells everyone about me. It makes me feel great. He tells me about his friends, they always tell me how he talks about me.
“I’m very lucky to have that. I get great support. That definitely helps me.”
