Spartan gridiron stars to join Division II powerhouse
EL CENTRO — The excitement of Central Union High’s 2018 football season is now months in the rearview, but despite the long-ago cessation of onfield action there are still news items to be found coming out of Spartanland.
The latest dispatch is this: Thadeo Campbell and Joseph Tarango — amongst the leading lights of Big Blue’s undefeated regular season — are going to be ThunderWolves.
Scientific consensus sheds little light on what exactly a “ThunderWolf” is supposed to be, but somehow, some way, that’s what Colorado State University-Pueblo settled on for a sports mascot, and that’s where Campbell and Tarango are set to play next year.
The once-and-future classmates affirmed as much on Tuesday when they signed their National Letters of Intent in a ceremony Central’s main gym.
In doing so, they sealed the lid on a months-long recruiting process that involved a good deal of extracurricular work — including campus visits and participating in the 2018 edition of the Alex Spanos High School AllStar Game — and plenty of stumping by Spartan coach David Peña, whose network of connections built through a lifetime in the game came in mighty handy, and for whom Campbell and Tarango are the first graduates (to-be) to make it to the next level under his watch
Both Campbell and Tarango — twoway stars for the Spartans — were recruited primarily as defensive backs, which is what they’ll play for the ThunderWolves.
Despite the pleasing optics of their swapping Spartan Blue for CSU-Pueblo’s darker hue in unison, the joint changeover was more serendipity than schematic, with the two sorting out their offers more or less independently of one another, according to Tarango — their shared Colorado visit notwithstanding.
Regardless of whether they caucused on it, both students were wooed by the campus’s comfortable atmosphere.
“The feeling I got when I went out there was just different,” said Campbell. “It felt like home … like I belonged there. (It had) the feeling that you get when you know it’s right.”
Tarango agreed, noting that “it’s a small town, too,” one which “felt like El Centro” despite being unreasonably cold.
But the “home-away-from-home” vibes weren’t the only factor under consideration.
Campbell and Tarango were also impressed with the program’s pedigree.
Since emerging from a 22-year hiatus in 2007, the CSU-Pueblo football team has been a NCAA Division II powerhouse.
As of this writing, they’ve won eight straight conference titles, and in 2014 they walked away with a national championship trophy, and hardware like that is always an eye-opener.
“It’s a really good school,” said Campbell, who feels that, if you’re going to be playing at all, “obviously, you wanna go and win.”
“We all wanna go and have fun,” he continued, “But if you’re not winning, it’s not really that fun.”
Tarango also felt the program atmosphere, “played a big factor,” and noted that the ThunderWolf defense ran a lot of concepts — such as cover three and cover man — suited to their “physical” play style
“We did that a lot this year,” Campbell agreed, “So I feel like we’re comfortable with that, and we should transition pretty easily.”
For all the excitement surrounding their future prospects, both Campbell and Tarango admitted struggling with their college decisions at times.
Campbell, in particular, had hard a tough time sorting out offers.
“It was a lot,” he said, “It took a while for me to decide just because, you know, you’re leaving home and it’s miles away, (and) you’re not gonna have the comforts of your family. But my mom told me I needed to decide for me … that’s it’s my life and I shouldn’t put (outside) factors in the way of me chasing something that I want.”
Ultimately, however, both Tarango and Campbell appear satisfied with their landing spot, with Tarango planning to take advantage of his opportunity to study “either business or construction” and Campbell looking at pursuing either “biology or criminal justice and criminology.”