Christian McKinney is prepared to make a difference, both for himself and for the Homewood-Flossmoor football team as a whole.
The senior linebacker spent the offseason getting his body right. He was down to as little as 208 pounds at one point last season and now sits at 215. He credits his work in the weight room and during personal workouts. He’s also eating right, drinking enough water and paying attention to the little things.
“It’s my senior season. Something clicks in everybody’s mind their senior season and you realize it’s your last time playing high school ball,” McKinney said. “I just want to win.”
The Vikings hope to make an equal adjustment this season. H-F is coming off of a disappointing 4-5 season. It missed the playoffs, something that used to be a given.
McKinney was a freshman playing varsity on the 2019 team that was one of the final eight remaining in Class 8A. He remembers what it feels like to be part of a winner and tries to convey what that means to some of the younger Vikings.
“I heard my teammates say that we’re the reason it fell off, so we got to get it back to where it was,” he said. “I saw how practice was (in 2019). Everybody was excited. It was loud. It was fun. They played hard for each other, and we didn’t really see that during the last two seasons. I feel like it’s coming back.”
Coach Terrell Alexander said McKinney is the type of leader that teams need in the locker room. Sometimes a player of his caliber can put his focus on recruiting and his personal future. McKinney doesn’t do that. His teammates are always the priority.
“I love him. He’s done everything we’ve asked him to do,” Alexander said. “He’s a great kid and our program is happy to have him.”
The program is circling the wagons this year. It’s an “us versus the world” mentality. McKinney said last season’s record turned some of the team’s usual supporters into doubters, or at least questioners.
He doesn’t mind.
“Nobody in this (school) really thinks we’re going to be good. Everybody knows I play football and everybody’s asking ‘Are you guys going to win? Will you be good?’” McKinney said. “The students in this school don’t think we’re going to be a good football team and that angers me. To me, I play better when I’m angry, so that’s all right.”
McKinney will play angrier this year, but he’ll also play faster, he thinks, due to the work he put in. He feels like he’s got a better ability to get to both sidelines and make plays.
“He’s a quick-pop guy, a quick-twitch guy. He arrives violently, and I think he’s just going do it that much better,” Alexander said. “He did it the right way. It wasn’t just ‘Well, I’m going to lose weight.’ or ‘I’m going to get faster.’ He let the training speak for the way that his body developed.”
McKinney had scholarship offers from power conference schools like Syracuse and Iowa State. He visited those schools, plus Minnesota, Illinois and Northwestern. He felt like some of them weren’t being completely honest with him during his recruitment, though. Coaches asked him to wait or wouldn’t accept his commitment, he said.
So, he chose a college program where he felt appreciated. McKinney will play in the Mid American Conference at Miami of Ohio. He may have the opportunity to see the field early for the RedHawks.
“They offered me in February, and I wasn’t even considering them at the time. They kept at it, kept calling me, kept asking me to come out,” he said. “They came out to see me a few times. I was like ‘Yeah, this school really wants me.’”
He’s considering majoring in sports medicine or finance. He’s taken classes in both at H-F.
Until then, McKinney’s trying to help the class of 2023 leave a lasting legacy with the Vikings football program, one that’s more than as the group that let the program slide.
“It’d be nice to get all-state. I feel like I’m one of the best linebackers in the state. To be recognized would be nice,” he said. “But I just want to win. I didn’t like last year at all.”