Blessed Trinity product coming home with Buckeyes for clash with UGA

ALPHARETTA, Ga. - When you hear Steele Chambers’ name, it’s hard not to think of "The Man of Steel." 

But for his parents, Stacy and Eric Chambers, their core memory of their son is more "Forrest Gump."

"(It was) a 'Run, Forrest, Run!' moment. He ran through the end zone and then continued into the parking lot. And I think his dad had to go run after him and say, ‘Come back, come back, come back!’ He just kept running," Stacy Chambers recalled to FOX 5 Sports. "But that was probably a thing that I remember about when I think about where he is now."

"I remember before that, the coach said, 'Hey, we're down by a touchdown. What do you think we ought to do?'" Eric Chambers recalled. "I said, I don't know. I'd just give it to the fastest kid and tell him to go that way. And that's exactly what he did."

And that was a theme for Steele, all throughout peewee football and at Blessed Trinity, where he won two state championships and never missed a game.

"We were we were at Woodward (Academy) one night in a in a dogfight and had not played well in the first half. And that's a big rivalry between the two schools," former Blessed Trinity head coach Tim McFarlin told FOX 5 Sports. "And so Steele, who never says anything, walked up to me as we're leaving the locker room to go back on the field at halftime. And he walked right up beside me and he said, 'Coach, look, just give me the ball this half and let's get out of here.' And it was one of those moments, you know, you always remember because he never he was the most unselfish player I ever had. But he he knew what it was going to take in that game. And I just I really appreciated him at that moment."

But taking it back a few years, having Steele become a Titan was "the hardest sell" for his mom.

"Because I thought, ‘OK, this is a small school. Nobody knows where BT is. Coach (Nick) Saban doesn't know where BT is.' He does now," Stacy said. "So I remember Coach McFarland said, ‘Stacy. I promise you: They will find him.’"

And after Ohio State found him at Blessed Trinity, Steele found a home in Columbus, Ohio.

"I mean, for me, of course, as parents, you want your kids play local and be here. But once again, he jumbled Georgia with all the other schools. So he's going to look at them fairly. And it was just a feel that he had at the Big Ten environment. It's just a very different feel." 

A big part in that decision was being recruited on both sides of the ball… But once he spent three seasons as a Buckeyes running back, he had second thoughts when his coaches asked him to consider the switch to linebacker.

"And at first he was a little bit resistant. I mean, he said, but he said no, because he was finally he had never been it was getting ready start his third, third year and he had never been through a spring practice in a position. So he was like, I finally know my position and I'm getting ready to go to a spring, which is where you win your position.

And now you want me to change? No. So we went through spring and he stayed at running back. He felt that he was doing quite well, but he kind of made a deal that, okay, I'll just do some reps, you know, coming out of that linebacker, etc. While the linebacker room was decimated. So there was really, you know, just a few injuries and everything else."

"So I think I think ultimately you felt a little bit more free on that side of the ball. And, you know, everyone's always said, hey, that's probably you're more natural position. So ceiling, I think, is ceilings a little bit higher. But he had he has come to that on his own zone even before he went." 

And in the Transfer Portal Era of college football, it’s rare to see things work out that way.

By like Steele committing to an Ohio State program led by Urban Meyer before Ryan Day took over, he remained steadfast in his decision and loyal to his choice.

"I'll be the first to say that I was after a couple of years, I was still like, you need to get on the field," Stacy said. 

"Transfer portal – let me tell you about it!" she recalled pushing and pushing.

"Mom, I'm not entering the transfer portal. This is my home. I'm not done here yet. Let me exhaust every possibility here. Then we'll talk about it," she said her son would say.

"There came a point where I think a lot of kids in today's college football world would have been looking to leave, Steele was looking for every reason to stay," McFarland said. "And so he had the opportunity to move to defense. What was the most remarkable thing about that is at that level, he made that move during the season and he was on the field by the end of the season. That's impossible."

"He wanted to stay put," Stacy said. "So I knew once he committed to Ohio State, there's even coaching changes, whatever he is not committing because (he thought) 'I gave my word, that was it, I don't do that.'"

Now, after going north for college, Steele comes home now for the Peach Bowl – where he will play against and in front of lots of familiar faces.

"I think it's pretty cool to come home and just have an opportunity to play against, you know, a lot of people that he grew up with get an opportunity to be, you know, I guess to be honest, is relevant in the area again," Eric said. "And the stage is absolutely massive. You know, we know what kind of guys are at Georgia, right? You know, every team that we met that we played against growing up, the best player on that team most likely ended up at Georgia. So we know it's quite a challenge, but it's really a good opportunity for him to just kind of showcase, you know, what he took up into the into the Midwest."

So where did the name Steele come from? Well, his dad says he threw the name option into contention after watching the 1997 movie starring Shaquille O’Neal as DC Comics character "Steel."

"At the hospital, I think the doctor came in and after, you know, he looked at birth certificate was like, 'Wow, this kid's going to grow up to be a football player some day with that name,'" Stacy said. "So it's funny. Everybody always asks – that is really his real name."

And from running with the rock to now laying down the steel on the other side of the ball, looks like that’s come to fruition for the Ohio State senior coming home on New Year's Eve.

As for whenever the Buckeyes' postseason run is through?

"That's still up in the air and he doesn't want to talk about it. So after the season is over, he's got some decisions to make," Stacy said. "I know what I'd like him to do. I'm sure he knows what he'd like to do. And I'm sure he's having conversations with his coaches and some of his close confidants and teammates and and so he'll have to make a decision. But that's the fortunate thing that you do have a choice to make. And I don't think you go wrong either way."