Calel Olicia-Aramboles: Reading the signs leading to CCSF Rams’ success
By Derek Chartrand Wallace
The Guardsman (City College of San Francisco)
SAN FRANCISCO - The crunching football pads and clattering helmets of rivaled Titans. The rising fervor as fans leapt to their feet, cheering on their hometown heroes. Each time Calel Justice Olicia-Aramboles has entered the hallowed end zone, he has heard none of these social cues. However, this running back for the Rams would be the first to tell you that silence is not the hindrance you may have thought.
“I don’t see deafness as a block to what I can do as an athlete,” confessed Olicia-Aramboles during an interpreter-assisted Zoom video conference with The Guardsman, “I was given talent by God and I’ve had that as a gift, so I’m ready to put it all into football.”
Calel’s grandfather was a pastor, whom he cited as a big role model for helping him to understand his own faith. “Anytime I finish a touchdown or a successful tackle or block, if I have a good day, have a great run, it doesn’t matter how much I’m playing, I thank God. I thank God every day, every moment, I give up that gratitude.”
He also counted among his influences his parents. Olicia-Aramboles’ father, who was in the U.S. Army, encouraged his children to do something—so Calel and his brothers got into sports.
“I was five or six when I joined a flag football team, and that experience playing that sport, I really felt like at that moment, this is something I’m gonna be into,” he reflected. “You know, I tried different other sports. I tried my hand at those, but they weren’t as exciting. So I came back to football. At age 11 when I was playing two-hand touch, the first game that I played, I ran my first touchdown,” adding, “I was hooked from there on out.”
Among his professional football inspirations, the running back listed NFL coach Dave Atkins and players Sean Taylor, Walter Payton, and Saquon Barkley. The qualities Calel used to describe them are the same his coaches and teammates had used to describe himself: family-oriented, personable, and good to others.
Finding inspiration in both the hearing and deaf worlds, Calel internalized these positive traits, and the results left coaches and teammates unable to speak highly enough of the young man. “He’s a good player, I saw that when I went to go watch him play at the School of the Deaf,” running backs coach Ed Smith said during a phone interview. “You don’t really know people until you are around them, and he’s an even better person than he is a player. I love having him out there, working with him every day.”
Rams assistant wide receivers coach and special teams coordinator Brendan Henderson echoed this sentiment. “He’s a dream to coach, he wants to learn so much. Working with him is quite easy, you know, because he’s a ballplayer, he knows football in and out. We saw it in his high school tape.” Henderson added, “He’s a great kid, all the kids love him on the team,” and highlighted that he “loves to celebrate his teammates’ successes.”
Fellow running back Devan Walker could not have agreed more. “On his last touchdown when he ran it in, I was one of the first ones running down to congratulate him, jumping on him, super excited for him.” Walker, whom fans have kept an eye on as well, thinks that the secret to their team’s success this season was “doing all the little things. Not taking each day for granted. Taking each day in and out. Making sure you’re getting better.”
The business of “getting better” was a challenge to which Olicia-Aramboles was eager to rise. “We are unrelenting in our focus and we practice in that regard,” he elaborated. “We’re on all the time and then we’re just getting better.” Defensive lineman Dino Kahaulelio noted that “He’s studied a lot of film, and studied a lot of the paperwork that we’ve prepared for him beforehand.”
“Determination to me means you have a special gift, use that gift for the rest of your life,” Olicia-Aramboles explained. “Keep on it, keep at it, don’t give up. ‘Determination’ is my mantra.”
Crossfit proponent and a big fan of gyms, Calel kept in shape off-season with weightlifting and aerobic exercise, from running, stretching, powerlifting, and isometrics, to sauna, steam, and swimming.
“He’s into fitness,” Walker concurred, “I know that for sure because working out with him, you’ll be sore! Me and him were working out the other day and my legs are tired right now”. “Uber-competitive, he loves the competition,” coach Henderson added. “He plays his heart out and he’s fast and he’s physical and he’s willing to do what a lot of other people won’t do.” Galvanizing the team has become standard-issue for Calel as “every game he makes a big tackle on kickoff or he’s caused two forced fumbles, which are stats that we track—so he’s been an integral part of our team having success this year.”
(Click here to read the remainder of the story from The Guardsman)