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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 3, 2024)
Page 8 April 3, 2024 s ports Rising Star to Continuing Championship Football Program Charlie Landgraf departs Eugene’s Marist Catholic High School for Central Catholic Central Catholic High School (Portland, Ore.) has hired Char- lie Landgraf, former University of Oregon offensive lineman and Offensive Line Coach for Central Catholic from 2021 until 2023, as its new head coach of the Rams football team. Landgraf will leave his head coaching position at Marist Catholic High School in Eugene, Ore. to re-join the Rams. “I could not be more excited to re-join the Central Catholic community as a teacher and head football coach and I am grateful to Central Catholic’s leadership team for the opportunity to lead this championship program,” said Landgraf. “I can’t wait to get back on campus and continue to build a program that the Central Cath- olic community can be proud of. Working together with the dedi- cated and experienced coaching staff at Central Catholic, I will bring a strong focus on developing our players into leaders inside and outside of the classroom, on the field, and out in the community.” Central Catholic's Coaching Team Celebrates the 2021 OSAA 6AState Football Championship As Marist Head Coach he led the team to a #2 ranking in OSAA 4A football, with an overall record in the 2023-24 season of 11-2; 6-0 in league play; in addition the team won the League Champion- ship and was the 4A State Run- ner-up. His team had one of the 10 highest cumulative team GPAs in the state for football this year; 19 players earned all-league honors, and seven all-state players. As the Offensive Line Coach/ Run Game Coordinator at Cen- tral Catholic he helped lead the Rams to a 14-0 season and the 6A State Championship title in 2021. In partnership with Head Coach Steve Pyne and the rest of the coaching staff, Landgraf installed and implemented new techniques and schemes on the offensive line to maximize of- fensive efficiency in the run game, leading to an offensive line that paved the way for over 2,000 rushing yards during the 2021 season. “We are excited to welcome Coach Landgraf back to Central Catholic. He has the skills, cha- risma, and experience to lead our football program, continuing our long tradition of ensuring a team culture focused on developing moral character and faith, team- work, leadership, academic excel- lence, along with athletic success,” said Central Catholic Athletic Di- rector Laura Jaeger. “Charlie’s emphasis on commitment, mental toughness, and respect are traits we value and which we have seen him model in his coaching and teaching career. He walks the talk, and his passion for coaching is ev- ident both on and off the field.” Landgraf was a standout offen- sive lineman at Jesuit High School before walking on at the Universi- ty of Oregon, where he was part of the team that won both the 2019 Pac-12 Championship and the Rose Bowl as a senior. Marcus Arroyo, Offensive Co- ordinator at Arizona State Univer- sity, coached Landgraf at the Uni- versity of Oregon for three years as his Offensive Coordinator, and said this of him, “Charlie knows that building a strong culture in- ternally is vital in laying and sus- taining a successful scholastic en- vironment. He is well aware that the common denominator of this all is his attitude and work eth- ic; he doesn’t expect things to be easy and will work tirelessly for his players, staff and school. His connections with his community and the college football communi- ty give his future student athletes a huge upper-hand when it comes to their life after football, or at the next level.” Landgraf will begin in his coaching role on April 8, when spring training resumes for Cen- tral Catholic’s football program; he will begin as a combination of social studies and PE/Wellness teacher in the 2024-25 school year. From Homeless to Final Four History Fisk Forward Being Honored for His Courage (AP) — Jeremiah Armstead moved around so much he wasn’t even eligible to play high school basketball until his senior year. He never lost faith through all the nights his family slept in their car when they couldn’t get a hotel room or into a shelter. Especially that first night at a beach parking lot after leaving Philadelphia for California only to learn their new home had disappeared. A police officer came by their car that night with no parking al- lowed after midnight and saw a family of four sleeping. “He let us stay there,” Armstead said. “So just encounters like that, with, like, everyday good people, it just helped me to not, like, be mad at the world and what I got going on and just wait, which I did. I wait- ed four or five years, and now it’s something finally changing.” Fisk University basketball player Jeremiah Armstead poses for a portrait Armstead not only has sur- vived, he has flourished. The Fisk forward will make history as the first player from a histori- cally Black college or university or NAIA school to receive the Perry Wallace Most Courageous Award from the U.S. Basket- ball Writers Association at their awards luncheon hours before the national championship game. “I don’t think it’ll sink in fully until I get there to the Final Four and experience everything,” Armstead said of learning about the award, which is named for a Nashville native who made his- tory as the first Black man to play basketball in the Southeast- ern Conference at Vanderbilt. The 6-foot-5 Armstead was born in Atlanta and lived in Phil- adelphia until his mother moved to Long Beach, California, to live with someone close enough to count as family except that wom- an unexpectedly moved to Texas, leaving Mindy Brooks and her three children stranded. They stayed in a hotel for a couple weeks, then wound up in a shelter in Santa Monica. Shel- ter time limits also forced them to move around, making even practicing basketball a challenge for a family focused first on sur- viving. They finally got some stability for his senior year, liv- ing in an apartment during his first semester and into the sec- ond. That gave Armstead time to improve his game. “I could just wake up at 6, go to school, catch the bus and everything,” Armstead said. “I didn’t have to worry about my mom waiting outside in the car all day or anything like that. So the mental fatigue was kind of wearing off.” Stephen Bernstein helped connect Armstead with Fisk through his foundation, We Educate Brilliant Minds, based in Los Angeles. “I have seen the worst of the worst,” Armstead said. Bas- ketball has been his safe place. Now he is in the best physical shape of his life and majoring in kinesiology and almost halfway to a college degree he never thought would be possible. He turned 20 on March 26, an age he never envisioned reaching, let alone celebrating and plan- ning a future. “It showed me why ... I should keep doing what I’m doing and keep having faith in God because a few years ago I didn’t think I was going to be here and I’m here,” Armstead said.
