DANE FUELLING
WZBD.com
“It would be easy to come home from school and sit on the couch and relax, but I only have four years to play this game and I am going to make the most out of it.”
Dylan Velez knows that playing football is not easy. For many players, the reward is winning, but for this Bellmont senior, he has persevered through a rough stretch for the Bellmont football program and wants to see out the rest of this year with pride.
His football journey is an interesting one, with twists and turns, but with it comes a sense of pride in the way he has worn the Bellmont colors from his very first game as a freshman.
That first game, however, almost didn’t come.
“Honestly, I considered quitting going into my freshman year,” Velez admits.
The Bellmont football program was on shaky ground that summer, with the pandemic putting the season in peril and the team suddenly in need of a head coach.
Eric Davis spent one year with the Braves while Velez was an 8th grader at St. Joe. The team went 0-10 and scored just seven touchdowns all season. He resigned late in July, just days before the season was set to begin.
“For the most part, yeah, I was considering quitting,” recalls Velez. “But coach Hall quickly convinced me to play.”
From the moment he got into a varsity game his freshman year, coach Hall and his staff knew that they had a special player.
“When you look at film each week, you will struggle to find anyone playing harder than Dylan Velez,” says coach Hall. “Dylan plays every down like it’s his last and plays with the attitude that no one is going to beat him.”
While the Braves have struggled to put up wins as a team, there’s no doubt that Velez has become an outstanding player with the help of Hall and his staff.
“I am biased,” says Hall, “but I think Dylan will go down as one of the best defensive linemen to ever come through Bellmont and we’ve had some really good linemen here.”
Hall rattled off several names who would be historical peers to his current senior, including Billy Baker, who went on to win a national championship at Marian. Tise Aby graduated in 2004 and was part of some great St. Francis teams. Bill Schultz was an Indiana All-Star back in the late 70s.
“Dylan has a chance to become the first three-time first-team All-NE8 selection,” he notes.
Hall believes that Velez’s defensive stats at the end of the year will put him in position to become just the eighth player in school history to be named an Indiana All-Star.
Despite all his success, Velez is grounded in the fact that he can still improve and that the game can still sometimes frustrate him.
“The game can be very irritating,” he told WZBD. “I am a very competitive person and it’s hard to get back up after a tough blow.”
Velez says that he couldn’t imagine letting people down by quitting, however.
“I’d let my team down. I’d let me coaches down. I’d let my family down if I would just quit and do nothing. I know that if I would have walked away from this team, I would have regretted it for forever.”
Bettering His Future
Casual football fans may not recognize it from the stands because of his football pads or from the photos they see on WZBD.com, but Velez has lost a considerable amount of weight since last fall. He says the change wasn’t a football one, but a personal decision in his life.
“It was all body image,” he says. “I felt unhealthy and unsatisfied with myself.”
Velez says he put his foot down and made a change.
“I got really into running and fitness and working towards, and then maintaining, a healthy figure and changing my habits right now for my own betterment.”
The senior is convinced that he is a better football player on the field because of his decision.
Change In Weight Brings Change in Position
Seemingly 100 pounds lighter than he was at his heaviest, Velez invited his coach to sit down with him at the end of the summer and have a discussion about where he could help the team most.
“I told him that I didn’t think I should be playing on the O-Line anymore and he disagreed with me.”
Hall told Velez that he felt the new offense the team would be using would create a perfect fit for Velez, who agreed and began the season at guard.
An injury to senior Aiden Miller at fullback threw that plan out the window after just the first week.
“I threw my name in there immediately,” said Velez. The captain admits that his coach was hesitant at first, but he was confident that the coaches had already discussed their options at length and that there was little choice for the Braves.
“The start of the next practice came around the next day and he (Hall) tells me not to go with the offensive line group and keeps me with him so I could learn fullback.”
Hall said his staff had to do something to change things up and they knew they could rely on Velez.
“It was a collective agreement after week one and it was putting Dylan in that made sense. He put in a lot of work getting faster and more athletic, so it just made sense to get the ball in the hands of one of our best athletes.”
Hall joked that he didn’t have to tell Velez twice to run the ball.
“No lineman is ever going to argue or question a coach when they are told they are going to run the ball.”
While the Braves didn’t make gains on the scoreboard with Velez in that spot, they certainly got yardage out of using a reliable senior in a tough spot.
Velez is currently the team’s leading rusher with 247 yards on the ground in five games at the position. He also has one of the team’s touchdowns.
Avoiding Burnout
Of course, football is not a game where a coach can expect his hard-nosed senior captain to play every snap.
Velez, who also serves as the team’s kicker, rarely takes a breather on the sideline with the Braves’ small team size.
“As a staff we struggle finding breaks to get him rest because we want him out there for everything, we just can’t take him off the field. It’s a luxury to have a player like Dylan out there all the time.”
Showing Support
This Friday’s game is Homecoming at Bellmont and coach Hall feels Velez and the team deserve support from the community.
“Like all the players, the lessons offered by Football make you into a better person and Dylan is no exception. He’s a better person now than he was four years ago,” says Hall. “It’s been fun watching him grow as a young man these past four years.”
Hall says it’s been a remarkable part of his job to be the coach of this maturing young man.
“I know he will carry that maturity into life after football.”
For now, though, Velez says he still likes laying a good lickin’ on an opposing player every once in a while. He has just a few chances left to do that in front of the Bellmont crowd.
“The student section always shows out for us,” he says. “I am extremely thankful to my friends and other supporters who come to watch us play on Fridays. They add an aspect to the game that makes it more fun to play. It adds momentum.”
Velez will kick off the game against the New Haven Bulldogs Friday at Bob Worthman Stadium at 7 p.m. Friday.
Could he be crowned Homecoming King as well? Stay tuned to WZBD.com and find out Friday.