A little less than two years after the big announcement, Calvin is ready to take the field and play an actual varsity football game. Calvin athletics photo

By Joe Sager
D3sports.com

Calvin University has been around since 1876, so it’s witnessed a lot in its time.

However, the institution will experience a bunch of firsts on Saturday.

Calvin debuts its football program when the Knights play host to Oberlin on the campus of nearby Grand Rapids Christian High School.

“We’ve spent the last 19 months building for this first game and, really, the first season,” Calvin coach Trent Figg said. “I am so thankful. We have 110 kids who are ready to write history at Calvin.”

Calvin, which has established a rich academic and athletic tradition, including 11 national championships, announced it was adding football, along with women’s acrobatics and tumbling and men’s volleyball, on Oct 28, 2022.

That set off a hectic pace of building and preparation that hasn’t stopped since.

“At Calvin, we did not own a football. Some of these schools who started football had football and brought it back or had alumni who played football. We had no history with football,” said Jim Timmer, Calvin’s director of athletics and a former Knights baseball and basketball standout. “Building this program is both literal and figurative. Literally, we had to order everything and, figuratively, we had to build our football history and tradition from scratch — whether it’s ordering a helmet or figuring out how you approach the game. It’s been great.

“It’s been busy, but it’s been exhilarating.”

The goal was to get the program in place so it could have practices last fall as well as an entire offseason to prepare for game play in 2024. Figg was hired on Jan. 6, 2023, to accelerate the building process and the team met its goals.

“We added a very, very high profile sport and one that we wanted to get right. That takes a lot of people pulling on the rope together. That was a main push for us,” Trimmer said. “We try to divide out the work. When Trent came on board, we had somebody who had connections to football and understood what football needed and could certainly help the process along.”

Every aspect of the program needed to be built from the ground up. That meant getting things going even before Figg — or any football staffer — came on board.

“If we were going to have a fall practice in 2023, we knew we had to start ordering equipment and helmets as soon as we announced the program,” Trimmer said. “We were already making some plays before we hired a football coach. All that supply chain stuff and other things, you had to get going. Trent spent a great deal of time early getting all that sorted out, too.”

When Figg came on board, he had more to worry about than just ordering gear.

“It was getting a recruiting class together, getting assistants hired. Those had to happen immediately, yet you don’t want to make poor decisions, in terms of going fast,” Trimmer said. “But, we had to order uniforms, practice stuff, equipment, etc. It was like drinking from a firehose.”

Figg, along with Trimmer, worked long hours to try to get the infrastructure in place.

“It’s been such an honor. Our athletic director empowered me to build this thing as I see fit — every square inch of the design,” Figg said. “Our focus is building for long-term sustained success.

“Those first 90 days, I was really focused on personnel. We had to hire the right staff and get that first recruiting class. From a recruiting standpoint, we went out and hit the road immediately. Our first class came together in a 90-day period. The second class, we had an entire year to recruit. Our big task has been bringing those two classes together to form one team.”

The goal is to turn Calvin into a yearly contender on the gridiron.

“We had all these immediate goals, but, while that is going on, you have other groups of people, including the head football coach and athletic administration and other administrators figuring out the long term,” Trimmer said. “Where’s the locker room going? Where are the coaches’ offices going?

“Then, you look at the building capacity, beyond brick and mortar, of what it takes to have 112 kids report to fall camp. You have to feed them. You have to house them. Those questions were a little easier for us to answer. We’re going to try to do it at the Calvin level. We think we have a pretty good product overall.

“You had that daily to-do list, then a six-month to-do list and then a two-year to-do list and then a five-year to-do list. You work on them simultaneously.”

The urge to accelerate the process and take shortcuts exists, but the Knights want to avoid temptation and take their time to get things right. That’s why the team, which practices on campus, will play its home games at Grand Rapids Christian until an on-campus stadium is completed, scheduled for next fall.

“You have all those firsts going on, but. at the same time, you’re setting the standard. You don’t want to compromise some stuff early in the process that is going to hurt us five years down the road,” Trimmer said. “I think that has been the most interesting thing. Whether that’s building a locker room — let’s do it right the first time. What about a weight room? Let’s do it right the first time so we’re not going back to those things. That could be frustrating on the front end. That tension is always there. Every day, I have a pit in my stomach hoping that we’re doing it the right way.”

The Knights got a chance to see the program in action for the first time when it took on Manchester in a scrimmage Aug. 28.

“To see it from a concept on a piece of paper to see us blocking and tackling players from another institution was really cool,” Trimmer said. “I just kind of sat there with a very satisfied feeling. To take something from concept to reality is a great experience.

“It got that way thanks to hundreds of people, whether that’s from our development and marketing team, the administration, the coaches of our other programs — everybody has had a part. It’s been an all-hands on deck process. I think the whole university and community will be proud when we kick it off.”

Meanwhile, the on-field work of getting to play an actual game continues for Calvin. The team went through fall practice last year and throughout the spring with 62 players. The Knights brought in 62 more this fall. They’ve had to come together quickly.

“These guys have done a great job of coming together,” Figg said. “The mission statement for our program is building champions for life. That’s on the field, in the classroom, in the community and being champions of our faith. We are going to be a physical, hardworking team.”

Bringing two classes together in a short time in a new program is a challenge. The program could have sought out transfers and graduate students to benefit from collegiate experience, but chose to go with a more traditional, grassroots approach.

“We want to build it for long-term success,” Figg said. “The vast majority of the team is freshmen or sophomores. We did take some transfers — kids are drawn here. We have some grad transfers. We could have really taken that approach to building a roster, but we didn’t want to do that. Sure, we want to win right now, but, at the same time, we want to be successful for a long time.

“These kids get to write the history of Calvin football at a university that has done things so well for years in the classroom and in athletics,” he continued. “We’ve challenged every kid be a leader. Most kids don’t play their freshman year. Here, they all have to be ready to compete from Day 1. We were very honest with them about what needed and wanted so that, when they got here, it wasn’t a surprise.

“I think our kids understand that. We wanted to bring in kids that came from winning high school programs. We also looked at players who were team captains and leaders. The chemistry piece has been huge. We’ve done a lot of team events to help our guys become connected quickly.”

This season, Calvin has had an intrasquad game and a scrimmage to prepare for Oberlin on Saturday. Calvin athletics photo

While the roster is mainly made up of freshmen and sophomores, there are some transfers in the mix, including starting quarterback Chase Bradman, who played four years at NAIA Indiana Wesleyan. He was excited to come to Calvin to help provide leadership. He graduated from nearby South Christian High School.

“It’s super exciting. I only live 10-15 minutes down the road. I’ve always known about Calvin, so it’s an honor to play on the first football team,” he said. “I am planning on living here in Grand Rapids my entire life, so it’ll be great to say I was a part of history.

“Not many guys on this team have college football experience. It was fun coming in and working with the guys and showing what it is like to be a college athlete. A lot of them didn’t know and don’t have that senior leadership like they would at most programs,” he continued. “Having that for four years at another school, it’s been great showing what the standard should be and how they should do things. Everyone is really receptive to coaching, not only by the coaches, but by the elders, so to speak, on the team. They listen to what is said and take action on it.”

K.J. Harp is one of those young players. The redshirt freshman defensive lineman is thrilled to be part of the program and grow along with it.

“I am totally and completely blessed to be a part of this program. It’s been a joy meeting all these new people and making connections that will last for the rest of my life,” he said. “There’s definitely a buzz around here with football games starting. I can just tell there’s a lot of excitement. Even from all of the staff here — some of them have been waiting 20 years for this. It’s something to be excited about. It’s not just another year; it’s a special year. The endless support we’ve had from the community is amazing. I can’t wait until we put on a show for them now and over the next few years I am here.”

After all the effort and months of building up the program, the Knights are relieved — and eager — to get on the field for their first official game.

“My faith is the most important thing in my life. I didn’t do this on my own. God pulled it together in a way that’s really, really cool,” Figg said. “We are young and inexperienced, but the kids are super hungry and tough. I am excited to see our kids go out and compete and be here for four years and see things through.”