I want to be clear on this: I am not a journalist, I am a storyteller. It’s probably that reason that I took the news of Caleb Berry leaving Washington with a bit of disbelief.
I’ve known Caleb for a couple of years, but I haven’t spoken to him since he enrolled.
It was an honor to tell Caleb’s story, to get to know him, to watch him grow but not let the world around change him. In fact, he’s one of the reasons that I decided to buy RealDawg.com–to be able to help tell other kid’s stories. Their journeys.
Caleb’s journey was 2,245 miles from Lufkin, Texas to Seattle. It passed through Pac-12, SEC and Big XII country. Washington was one of his seven Power 5 offers. He could have easily chosen a much closer school close to home. He chose the school that was the greatest distance from Lufkin but closest to his heart.
When he made his official visit to the UW campus it was a typical middle of December day on the shores of Lake Washington. It wasn’t cold to most Seattleites but surely it would give a kid from Lufkin, Texas second thoughts.
After his visit, he told me that, “the weather was perfect.”
Yeah, a perfect day to catch a cold. But what he’d caught was Husky Fever.
For him, the culture was always contagious.
And it was a two-way street. Washington never waivered on him, even when he broke his leg during his senior season. They were as committed to him as he was to them. He was so set on forever being a “Dawg” so much that he got a tattoo of a “W” on his arm.
Caleb is the caliber of person that Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles was talking about when he said that Washington players are “well-trained, they’re good people. They’re our kinda people.”
Berry is a villain on the field, a scholar in the classroom, and a gentleman to all. And he always has a positive outlook.
And in his room back in Lufkin he pulled up old Husky football videos dating back to the Don James-era on YouTube. But his favorite was https://twitter.com/UW_Football/status/1332508280627728384?s=20&t=eVwUKN5MRPjjknmZMq6T5g .
One time I tested his Husky football knowledge and he did better than most Husky fans. He knew the names, he knew stories and he couldn’t wait to walk down the tunnel onto the field as a Husky one day to experience what he’d only seen on YouTube.
Washington was supposed to be the final leg of his college journey but then another storm blew in on the lake. The Huskies are shifting from Lake’s “Run The Damn Ball” to attacking offense.
In a tweet from him earlier in the week, the writing on the wall was clear that something was in the air, saying. He followed that tweet a day later saying, “I need a new home.”
Knowing Caleb, he will land on his feet, in a new home, closer to home.
