Sean Callahan has taken Armwood to the state final.
By EMILY NIPPS
Published December 11, 2003
[Times photos: Thomas M. Goethe]
Sean Callahan has led the top-ranked Hawks to a 14-0 record and the state title game.
One of Armwood coach Sean Callahan's rules is that his players must be silent during today's bus ride to Gainesville, unless they are talking about the game.
Sean Callahan remembers the exact moment his story began. It's not the way stories like this usually start, either.
The 21-year-old was sitting at a restaurant bar in his Bridgeport, Conn., hometown when an elderly woman mentioned she was moving to Florida. She offered Callahan $200 to drive her car down and a plane ticket back.
Just three days after graduating from Slippery Rock State College in Pennsylvania, Callahan couldn't refuse.
He never went back.
"My family thought I was crazy," Callahan said, but it wasn't as crazy as the way he would live for the next year, with no phone, no car, no furniture, nothing.
He slapped together a resume and got three job offers, choosing the physical education job at Eisenhower Middle School. He put his $200 toward an apartment in the first complex he found.
It was the first stop in a long, winding track that led to his dream come true, his career goal before his career had started.
Callahan and undefeated Armwood are one win from being Class 4A champions. If it beats Lake Gibson tonight, it will be the first Hillsborough team to win a state title since 1969.
* * *
It didn't come quickly or without setbacks. There were times Callahan thought it would never come at all.
After landing his first job, Callahan hitchhiked to Eisenhower the first three days, then got rides from a coworker the rest of the year.
He began coaching football as an assistant at East Bay, which went 4-6 his first season in 1980-81 and 0-10 in 1981-82.
"I was mortified," Callahan said.
In 1984, Callahan transferred to the newly-built Armwood as a defensive coordinator for Mike Burnett, who led the first-year Hawks to a 4-6 record. The Hawks improved to 8-2 the following year.
Through the years, Callahan grew impatient for his chance to lead the team.
His break came in 1990 after Armwood coachEd Hoffman quit. The Hawks were coming off a 0-10 season and attendance had been dwindling.
"One of the worst words you could say around here (Armwood) was "football,"' Callahan said. "Before that last game in '89, there were maybe 12 kids left at practice ... not even enough to run a practice."
Callahan was the only assistant who had been with the school since it opened, and after getting passed over the year before, he was thrilled to finally get his shot.
"I got a brand new whistle and a brand new clipboard," he said. "I was ready."
He counted the minutes until the first official practice, the one he had advertised with flyers and intercom announcements and face-to-face meetings.
Two kids showed up. One said he needed to leave early to go to work and could they wrap this thing up? The other had never played football but promised he was a hard worker.
That first season, after patching together a team, the Hawks went 2-8.
Callahan was on his way.
* * *
Born and raised in Bridgeport, Callahan was the oldest of three brothers. His youngest brother, Kevin, coaches football in Connecticut and has won a state high school championship.
"We're a lot better in Florida, though," Callahan said. "He knows it, too. I don't say anything about it. He takes it way too seriously."
The middle brother, Patrick, is a businessman.
Callahan married Anna Marie about a year after moving to Florida - they met in college and reconnected later - and they had three children. He made several friends along the way, mostly through teaching and football.
He also made adversaries. Quirky and candid, Callahan is known for speaking bluntly about opponents, often to the media, and he does so without apologies. After beating highly-ranked rival Jefferson last season, Callahan ruffled feathers by saying the Dragons "didn't look like the 11th-ranked team in the state. They looked more like the 11th-ranked team in Hillsborough County."
Then there's this, for which he does apologize: recruiting. In 1995, Armwood was fined more than $3,000 by the Florida High School Athletic Association after Callahan sent a letter to a Temple Heights player. Callahan was investigated in 2000 after a player transferred from King, but the FHSAA ruled Armwood innocent.
"It definitely hangs a cloud over my head and over the program's head," he said. "They nailed me. I never denied anything."
The criticism hasn't gone away and likely never will, said longtime friend and Hillsborough coach Earl Garcia.
"That comes with the territory," said Garcia, who was fined for recruiting the same year as Callahan. "He elevated his program, and that's a typical reaction."
Callahan said he learned his lesson. Garcia said Callahan doesn't need to recruit, even if he wanted to.
"Winners attract athletes who want to be winners," Garcia said. "What people don't see is how much work he puts into that program in January and February when he's putting together game tapes and taking his kids to camps.
"I applaud him for what he's done."
* * *
Over the last few days, Callahan has been more serious than usual at practice. The mood in the locker room has been a mix of giddy buzz and heavy tension.
On the bus ride to Gainesville today, Callahan will demand silence from his players. They can listen to headphones or watch a videotape, but they cannot speak unless it is about the game.
It's a rule the Hawks faithfully follow. The players tend to move and feel as their coach moves and feels.
"We're really close to Coach," fullback Kalvin Bailey said. "He puts all of his feelings on the line, and that's what we do."
Callahan's mother, Maureen, passed away suddenly a few weeks before the playoffs started, and the players all signed a card for him. Callahan admitted he hasn't had time to mourn and hasn't talked about it much with his players.
He's about to enter what he feels is a final stop on a long road.
"I've always thought if I could just get a state championship," he said, "that's all I would need. Then I'll be happy."
