DOWAGIAC — Col. Abel Young, who helped lead the Dowagiac football team to its 1990 Class BB state championship and went on to play running back for the Army, has come full circle as the military deputy athletic director at West Point.

Growing up watching Walter Peyton, Young tried every sport: baseball, football, basketball, track, and even a little soccer.

Born in Chicago Heights, Illinois, Young moved to Cass County when he was 10 years old. It was at Cassopolis that Young first played organized, contact football. When he was 12, Young switched to Dowagiac Union Schools and helped earn the team a state title in 1990.

“The state championship game was honestly the biggest game of my life,” he said. “We did a phenomenal job just showing off all of our assets and all of our abilities to dominate teams.”

The dream to go to state was conceived in junior high, the tight group of football players knew they wanted to make it all the way.

“Coach Bernard Thomas was able to leverage the fact we had played together, and we were pretty versatile in our ability to change if we had to,” Young said. “We played together so many times that when he threw something new at us, we were able to adapt pretty quickly. We were very resilient.”

Thomas was also the reason Young started to consider a collegiate football career. Standing at 5-foot-7 and 140 pounds, Young’s first priority was to become a doctor. Senior year, Thomas approached Young and asked him if he was interested in playing football beyond high school. That is when the seed was planted.

Young looked at Harvard, University of Michigan and West Point. He said Notre Dame also scouted him for a bit, but that was too close to home. After applying to West Point, Young initially did not get in because of an incomplete file. At the time, he made the decision to attend U of M, but a conversation with the coach, Gary Moeller, changed that.

“Coach Moeller was our keynote speaker at our football banquet,” Young said. “He said, ‘Look, here’s the deal, you are good, and we got you coming. You are going to be a walk-on because you already have an academic scholarship, but you are probably not going to play until your junior or senior year. That may be only on kickoff return or special teams.’”

Moeller told Young if he really wanted to go to West Point, Moeller’s son coached there, and he could see if Young would work out there.

That is when Young realized his file was incomplete, and his coach’s recommendation had not been sent to West Point. West Point had no idea Young could play football.

After his tapes were sent over, Young was encouraged to attend a place called the U.S. Military Preparatory School. If Young did two months there, he would become bigger, faster and smarter and then could be a contender to play football.

Young’s two months paid off and he was a multi-year letter winner for the Black Knights as a running back, and kick returner. He finished his career with 6.7 rushing yards per carry.

Despite playing football at West Point, Young did not focus much on what the U.S. Army was as far as being an officer.

“I was in a pre-med program here at West Point,” Young said. “I made a last-minute decision that I didn’t want to be a doctor and, instead, decided to be a quartermaster.”

At the time, Young did not know that his father had been a quartermaster soldier during the WWII time frame, and it ran in the family.

Young graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1996 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Quartermaster Corps.

“I met a lot of good people and got a chance to lead some of America’s finest men and women,” Young said.

In August 2019, Young accepted the position of military deputy athletic director. Young considers his job to serve as a liaison between the military side of West Point and the student athletic director side.

“I had no idea this was going to happen. It’s one of those things that just came up,” Young said. “It’s fitting. I do understand what an athlete goes through while they are here.”

Young is also able to receive real-time feedback from his own daughter, who plays rugby for the Army. Young also gets the chance to give back through mentorship and working with minority students.

For Young, he has always enjoyed the heart required of athletes when playing sports. 

“Everybody can’t go out there and give it all every game or in every practice,” he said. “Sometimes, you lose but you get back up and you go back out there. Those iterations of you losing, you use as leverage during hard times. You may lose the scrimmage or a single battle, but you are not going to lose the war.”