Emotion in motion
Folan turns tragedy into a positive force
Luke Folan was barely out of kindergarten, but he needed something to preoccupy his mind. Anything to take it off the unmistakable tragedy that engulfed his family. His father Seamus opened him up to the world of football.
When Luke was 6 his mother died from breast cancer. Suffering from anger issues and often feeling lost in a stale daily routine, Seamus signed his son up for football with the hopes of giving him an outlet to use his emotions effectively.
Now, a little over a decade later, Luke Folan is the fulcrum of Catholic Memorial’s stout defensive line.
“I really didn’t have anything to do,” Folan said. “I was just going to school. We always had babysitters because my dad always worked so I wasn’t really involved in anything. My dad didn’t want me just sitting around, so he signed me up for football.”
For Folan, football quickly developed into a source of therapy as much sport. Its combination of physicality, competitiveness and camaraderie allowed him to channel his distress. He often went down to the park to play with his younger brother and a handful of friends.
A Weymouth native, Folan played for the town’s Pop Warner team where the coaches encouraged him to take out his personal tragedy on the football field.
“I had a lot of anger problems from my mom passing away,” he said. “My coaches told us to outlet our anger on the field, even though we were just kids, and I had a lot of it to channel. It helped me out a lot.”
It was not until his sophomore year at Catholic Memorial when Folan discovered that football could evolve into a potential collegiate career. Starting at defensive line in the opening round of the postseason, he came through with a pair of sacks to help lead the Knights to a 25-6 win over Needham.
“It was electric,” Folan said. “I got the chance to start over a couple of seniors. I was a little scared, it’s not a spot a ton of players are in, but I came up big. That was a huge confidence booster.”
Folan carried that momentum into his junior campaign when he was named Catholic Conference defensive lineman of the year for the 2017 season.
Now, as a senior, the 6-foot-2, 240-pound Folan has gained notoriety as one of the most feared pass rushers in the state. Through four games he has already amassed nine sacks, torturing opposing offensive linemen with his quickness, agility and physicality.
Yet while his eyes are always firmly drained on the quarterback, relishing in the opportunity for another game-altering defensive play, his focus has turned to repaying his father who gave up so much to introduce him to the game he now cherishes.
“It’s not even so much my mother, but is my dad’s involvement in it all too,” Folan said. “He gave up so much to raise us as kids, and if he can sacrifice that much I need to do something that matches that. The only thing I can really do for him is get him to not pay for college. I want to just do the best I can for him.”