Freshmen athletes feeling overwhelmed and underqualified should know that four years ago Jack Gearhart felt the same way and now he’s an Eagle Scout playing football at Franklin College

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

No doubt there are multiple Chesterton freshman athletes trying a sport for the first time in their lives who are feeling overwhelmed and untalented, overmatched and underqualified.
Before reaching any conclusions about what the future looks like in that sport, or worse, quitting, first listen to the words of 2026 CHS graduate Jack Gearhart when he was in the same spot.
The want-to never was the problem on the football field for him. But when he picked up the game as a freshman in high school, his talent and knowledge didn’t match his desire.
“I was playing defense,” Gearhart recalled. “I was getting my butt chewed every day. I didn’t know what I was doing. It was a rough first year of playing football.”
He didn’t give up. He didn’t stop trying to get better. He stayed with it. And he’s glad he did.
“After that, I really started to enjoy it,”
Gearhart said.
So much so that Gearhart’s name can be found on the Franklin College football roster.
Following a suggestion from classmate Gus Wisch midway through their freshman year was the moment that Gearhart’s transition from feeling so overmatched to enjoying the sport began.
“Gus told me, ‘You should play center. You should try to snap some balls.’ So I did,” Gearhart said.
Again, he wasn’t an instant hit, but it ended up being a great move in the long run.
He remembers his first start at center for the freshman team vs. Crown Point. Not all memories are fond ones.
“I stepped in with no experience or recollection of what the plays were. I was clueless,” he said. “I just went out there and tried to hit somebody. That was my goal. That was my mentality, just try not to mess up, try not to be a liability.”
High school varsity teams have plenty of athletes who felt clueless and hopeless the way Gearhart did as a freshman and those teams are better off for those athletes sticking it out to contribute, sometimes in big ways.
“After that, I really grew to enjoy playing football and I was sitting down with my mom one night, and we were just talking about how I really want to go play college football, “Gearhart said. “I told her I thought that’d be a great goal. I’ve always wanted to be included in something and be greater than just like what I’m doing right then and there. I wanted to set my mind to something, and I did.”
He accompanied CHS 2025 grad Owen Edlen, now on Eastern Michigan’s football roster after first attending the Naval Academy, suffering a shoulder injury, and deciding a military future was not for him, to multiple summer camps after Gearhart’s sophomore season. They went to camps at Notre Dame, Western Michigan, Northwestern, Ball State, Ohio State and others.
After visiting Franklin College in 2025 and hearing what former Trojans and Grizzles football player Luke Stento (CHS ’22, now playing at Adrian College) had to say about the experience, Gearhart committed to Franklin and in the wake of his visit said, “I love Franklin College. It’s a great school.”
Family friend and CHS 2021 graduate Mitch McElfresh, a former Franklin football player, also influenced Gearhart’s decision by talking up the experience.
Gearhart’s advice to anyone who has doubts as to whether they ever will be capable of contributing to a varsity sports team is to embrace the grind the way he and his older friend Stento did on their paths not just to college football but to Eagle Scout status as members of Boy Scout Troop 908.
Gearhart was far from the most talented lineman at his high school, but he worked his way into becoming the sixth man of the offensive line as a junior, filling in at whatever position was needed. He made sure to learn the responsibilities of centers, guards and tackles, studied film and trained to become a reliable snapper.
“I watch videos. I look at the best players to see what they’re doing, see what their techniques are,” he said. “I learned off of that a lot and senior year I knew that it was my time.”
That’s how it worked out.
“I think that there were still a lot of people doubting me saying that I couldn’t start on varsity, but I mean, I did,” he said. “It’s cool to work with a chip on your shoulder, and that’s how I took on my senior year. I started every game. There were some instances where I got benched because I missed my assignment, but those things quickly got fixed and I did whatever I could to stay in the game and not lose focus and keep going.”
It wasn’t smooth sailing for his entire senior season but he kept at it, the way athletes struggling early in their freshman seasons right now need to keep at it.
Classmate Carlos Leon was injured in the third game of the ’25 season and Gearhart moved to center in the fourth game.
“Then against LaPorte I missed my assignment and got benched for the rest of the game,” he said. “It was disappointing, but then at film the next day Coach (Rob) Kania said: ‘You’re going to play center the rest of the year.’ And the next week we were playing at Valpo and I was like, ‘I’m going to play my position against our rival. This is going to be awesome.’ Luckily it was my best game ever, so I was really up on myself after that.”
Gearhart contributed to Chesterton snapping a 13-game losing streak in the series.
His advice to any freshman mired in self-doubt is to embrace the grind the way he and his older friend Stento did on their paths not just to college football but to Eagle Scout status as members of Boy Scout Troop 908.
Similarly, Chesterton’s current varsity football players didn’t let a season-opening lopsided loss at home to Hobart, 33-0, or the doubts of others define them as football players. They embraced the grind, followed their coaches’ blueprint, and scored the upset at Morton, 21-14, seven days. later.