FRUITPORT – Caden Carrillo can accomplish a great deal when he throws his energy and focus into something.
Just look at his typical daily schedule, particularly now that school is back in session and varsity football is in full swing.
He gets up and goes to class in the morning, straight to practice after school, then straight to his job as a restaurant manager until around midnight.
That’s a big load for a high school senior to plow through, but he pushes himself and maintains the pace.
Beginning on Thursday night in Spring Lake, Carrillo will throw that type of determination into his biggest priority – bringing success back to the Fruitport football program before he graduates in the spring.
Carrillo has experienced the best and worst of times with the Trojans.
[1]He was a two-way starter as a sophomore in 2022, when the Trojans posted an 8-3 record, won a share of a conference championship and advanced to the second round of the playoffs.
He was also a two-way starter last year, when the Trojans fielded a much younger team, ran into injuries, and staggered through a painful 0-9 season.
Carrillo can live with last year’s results, because they are in the past. But he’s determined to get the program back on track so he and his teammates can feel the joy of victory again, and future Trojans can inherit a winning culture.
“That’s my mission, one of the main things I think about,” he said. “When I go to our middle school camps, I realize in a couple years they are going to be in our shoes, and I want to leave them without having to rebuild everything. I want us to do the rebuilding this year and lay the foundation for them.”
That kind of passion is why Fruitport head coach Nate Smith calls Carrillo “the cornerstone” of the Trojans.
“He’s our dude,” Smith said. “He’s a great football player, he loves our program and he’s very protective of our program. He’s one of the best leaders I’ve been around.
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“He has taken the leadership thing to a new level. He really wants to help get this thing back to where it was. We talked about how the leadership on the team needed to grow, and I think he took it personal.”
If Carrillo were a selfish athlete, he might be perfectly satisfied with the way his football career has unfolded.
He was called up to varsity and became a starter midway through his freshman year, playing offensive and defensive line.
He improved and earned honorable mention All-Conference honors as a sophomore, then became a first-team All-Conference offensive guard last season.
Coach Smith said Carrillo’s constant improvement has been all about effort.
“He’s just continued to blossom every single year,” he said. “He’s consistent, he’s a worker and he uses technique. He’s a very disciplined football player. That’s why he gets the most out of his abilities.”
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Just being a good player isn’t good enough for Carrillo, however, because he knows how winning makes it all more fun.
He remembers the 2022 season, when he played with older standout seniors like Paschal Jolman, Collin Jolman, Cody Nash and many others.
That team put 453 points on the board, the most for Fruitport since 2001, and won a share of the title in the brutally tough O-K Blue conference.
“That was a lot of fun,” Carrillo said. “That team was great and we made a lot of memories. It was an older team, with a lot of seniors, and we all bonded together.
“I learned a lot about myself and my team and what we were capable of – what Fruitport is capable of.”
Then there was last season, when the Trojans started out with a pair of close losses to Kenowa Hills and Grand Rapids Christian, before the uglier outcomes started to snowball. By the end of the season Fruitport had been outscored 437-148.
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“Last year it was a lack of player leadership, accountability and team confidence,” he said. “I even caught myself sometimes, on hot practice days, feeling sorry for myself. We lacked toughness and discipline.
“It was hard to see the outcome of the work and time I put into it. It was hard to keep my motivation.”
The motivation started to return in the late fall, when the harsh reality of the winless season really sank in.
Carrillo started preparing for 2024 by dropping weight to be a more effective lineman. He had great success – even more than he was hoping for.
“Last year I was at about 290, and now I’m about 230,” he said. “I did not mean to cut quite as much as I did. It was all the early work hours, summer workouts and good eating. I feel a lot more mobile, more flexible.”
The rest of the players also started working over the winter, hitting the weight room and meeting and talking about team identify and goals.
For Carrillo, it all meant setting a better example by becoming a better team captain.
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“Us captains didn’t really hold up our end of the bargain last year, and the rest of the team wasn’t holding up its end,” he said.
“In November, Coach Smith and the team leaders got together and went to a leadership conference. That’s when it became my main goal to lead these guys to a good year.”
Carrillo said the determination to win has spread throughout the roster, and the Trojans are a more determined group heading into the season.
It also helps that a bunch of players are back this year, so inexperience will be much less of an issue.
“This team has put a lot more time in and has more understanding of the sport and the program,” Carrillo said. “There’s been a lot more dedication. The talent is there. There’s a lot of good talent on this team.
“I believe the whole team is in. We’ve been talking about Game 1 for 171 days or something like that. Everybody really wants to win.” 
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