ONCE AND NOW, FOREVER, JOINED AT THE HIP, SOUTH WARREN’S SMITH AND VELTKAMP MADE IT HAPPEN
LEXINGTON — You’ve got to push veteran South Warren High School football coach Brandon Smith to show his sentimental side, even after the Spartans climb a mountain on the way to their goal, and, in this case, even after his team scales the KHSAA’s version of Mount Everest.
See, Smith is always looking for another challenge, another obstacle, another state title, you name it.
Well, now he’s looking for another quarterback, but only because Caden Veltkamp has taken the Spartans back to the promised land.
South Warren 38, Frederick Douglass High School 26.
The Spartans have won their third state championship in school history, and it was the first with Brandon Smith’s father, Chuck Smith, working on the South Warren sideline as an assistant coach.
Chuck Smith built a KHSAA powerhouse at Boyle County High School, which added another championship trophy on Friday night with a 30-13 victory over Johnson Central in the Class 4A state title game at the University of Kentucky’s Kroger Field.
It was Boyle County’s 10th state championship, overall.
Brandon Smith always hoped he could share this kind of moment with his father, but “I always thought it would be the other way around,” with the mentor serving as the head coach, and his son as the assistant.
Suffice it to say Brandon Smith was paying attention, all those years, on the practice field, in the coaches’ offices, even the dinner table.
Smith left Boyle County High School to become Western Kentucky University’s quarterback, when the Hilltoppers were making the adjustment from the Division I-AA level to the top level of college football, the FBS, where Alabama and Ohio State and Georgia usually command the attention. It’s a top-heavy sport if there ever was one, and it takes the right kind of chemistry to even challenge the best, let alone beat them.
Which brings us to the chemistry between Brandon Smith, the personable South Warren coach, and his prized pupil, 6-foot-5 senior quarterback Caden Veltkamp.
Veltkamp’s father, WKU strength coach Jason Veltkamp, took his family with him to South Central Kentucky after a two-year stint as the Cleveland Browns’ stength and conditioning coordinator. Brandon Smith remembers when Caden Veltkamp, 14 or 15 years old and as thin a rail post, walked into the South Warren football complex looking for a chance to play some catch.
Veltkamp did a lot more than that in his splendid South Warren career.
“I’ve always been hard on quarterbacks,” Smith said with a smile when it was over, in the bowels of the University of Kentucky’s Kroger Field. “Believe it or not, Caden’s always wanted to be coached. He’s wanted to be coached, hard. When Caden started out, he was pretty raw …
“Caden puts in the work. It’s been a special relationship, one of the best I’ve had with a quarterback I’ve ever had.”
Someone asked Brandon Smith what he thought WKU coach Tyson Helton might be getting in Caden Veltkamp, standout Spartans receiver/defensive back Avril Bell and rugged defensive tackle Jake Jackson, three-year starters at South Warren who are poised to continue their careers with the hometown Hilltoppers.
Veltkamp said he’ll be signing with Western Kentucky later this month, and he’s yet to make a decision on whether he’ll be playing basketball for South Warren during the 2021-22 season. He’s a top-flight power forward for the Spartans on the hardwood, but he’s a hardened veteran in the pocket as a quarterback, a mature young man always quick to credit his teammates after a victory.
Brandon Smith didn’t hesitate to say Western’s getting the real deal in Veltkamp and his teammates.
“They’re getting some warriors over there,” Smith said. “Sometimes, at the next level, they get caught up in measurables … you’ve got guys like this, who make the big plays, in the biggest moments.”
Like Veltkamp’s 31-yard touchdown pass to teammate Tyler Snell with 2:09 left on Saturday night, which pushed the Spartans to a double-digit lead.
Or 16-of-28 performance for 168 yards and two touchdowns in South Warren’s methodical 28-3 thumping of Bowling Green High School in the second round of the playoffs, when the Spartans eliminated their archrival while avenging last year’s playoff loss to the Purples.
Or the sturdy efforts against Greenwood, or Christian County, or North Hardin, just about anyone the Spartans ran across over the last four months.
Caden Veltkamp always brought his best when the Spartans needed it.
And don’t think he won’t lean on his high school coach when Veltkamp endures some growing pains at Western Kentucky, because he understands experience counts, and the journey is just as important as the destination.
“Coach Smith helped make me the quarterback I am today, the man I am today,” Veltkamp said with a smile. “We’re friends now … He’s not just my coach.”
Caden Veltkamp and Brandon Smith made it happen.
And they made it happen with style.