Christian Liberty pursues winning mix

With several new faces on the roster, Christian Liberty Academy football coach Jim Calkins is unsure how the Chargers’ season will go.

“We are working on chemistry,” he said. “It’s going to depend on how the new kids mesh into the team and understand the system.”

Four players will certainly have a good understanding of Calkin’s system — returning players Aaron Cunningham (6-3, 265), Caleb Graham (5-11, 173), Alex Glynn (6-0, 170) and Gabe Grob (5-11, 165).

Glynn was an all-purpose fill-in player last season. He made nice runs from the offensive backfield and he contributed some solid tackles. He will play at running back and outside linebacker this fall.

Cunningham will return to tackle on offense and serve as the nose guard on defense.

The coach believes Glenn and Cunningham both can have big seasons.

“We are looking at maybe first team all-conference potential for Alex and Aaron, who played with some back problems last season,” Calkins said.

Grob is a quarterback who will also be in the Chargers’ defensive secondary while Graham is an outside linebacker and pulling guard.

“We’ll have a small group,” Calkins said. “Maybe we can get 21 players.”

The Chargers (1-8 last fall) defeated visiting CICS Longwood 43-28 to win their first game of the season and gain their first Northeastern Athletic Conference victory in a home game since entering the league four years ago.

In that game, Grob threw 3 touchdown passes to give the Chargers a 27-12 second-quarter lead. Grob finished the game 8-of-17 for 125 yards.

Calkins thinks this year’s team will be similar to a year ago.

“Or maybe we will be better,” he said. “Last season, we had a lot of close games and probably should have won three of them. We were in every game but one, and that was against the undefeated conference champion (Marquette).

“Although our numbers are small this season, I think we can still compete to the level we were at last season,” Calkins said.