The Dual Threat: North’s Hammons is The Republic Football Player of the Year

The progress that Luke Hammons made from his junior year to his senior football season might be exceeded only by his strides between his sophomore and junior seasons.

By the end of his career, the Columbus North signal caller had made himself into an ultimate dual-threat quarterback, equally capable of hurting opponents with his arm and his legs.

“From my sophomore year to my junior year, what I focused on a lot was my running aspect of football,” Hammons said. “From my junior year to senior year, I picked up a lot on passing. I improved a lot on throwing the ball and providing a more balanced offense for the team.”

That balance led the Bull Dogs to their second consecutive Conference Indiana championship and earned Hammons The Republic Football Player of the Year honor.

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To get better, Hammons went to camps over the winter, threw with his receivers on the field, worked with quarterback coaches and went to 7-on-7 tournaments with some of his receivers from North during the offseason.

This fall, Hammons completed 65 percent of his passes, going 98 for 152 for 1,218 yards and 18 touchdowns. He also ran 101 times for 452 yards and nine scores.

“I would say each year, he progressively improved,” North coach Tim Bless said. “This year, his command of our offense, being the general out there, being the unquestioned leader of our team, once our offense got into a rhythm, and what Luke was able to do statistically in both the throwing game and the running game and the number of touchdowns he accounted for, that was probably the most striking statistic.”

Hammons did it against one of the state’s toughest schedules. Three of the Bull Dogs’ four losses came against teams that won state titles last weekend, and the other came against a No. 1-ranked team.

“I had a lot of fun playing with the team,” Hammons said. “It was exciting winning conference for the second time in a row and being undefeated in conference. The competition we played last year did not compare to the competition we played this year, so I’m pretty proud of the way that we could play a team that’s much better than us, lose and come back and play our best football.”

North did manage a victory against a highly-ranked opponent. Hammons threw for 248 yards and five touchdowns to lead the Bull Dogs to a 34-10 rout of Class 5A then-No. 3 and unbeaten Bloomington South in a game that decided the Conference Indiana title.

“That was probably my favorite game of the year,” Hammons said. “The week before, we had run the ball a lot, so they saw a lot of running on film and I think they thought that’s what we were going to do. But we came out and threw the ball quite well in the first half, and we didn’t stop in the second half. It was probably my best game of the year, homecoming and I felt like that clinched us conference.”

Hammons is planning to continue his football career in college. He has visited Olivet Nazarene, Indiana Wesleyan, DePauw and Hanover, and Centre (Kentucky) College came to North to see him last week. Most of those schools are Division III and cannot offer athletic scholarships. But with a 3.7 GPA, Hammons, who plans to study marketing, will get an academic scholarship.

The big question is, at 5-foot-9, 175 pounds, will Hammons have the necessary size to play quarterback at that level, or will he move to defensive back or wide receiver, much like former Columbus East quarterback and current DePauw receiver Josh Major, the 2016 and 2017 Republic co-Football Player of the Year?

“I’ve had that conversation with Luke a lot recently,” Bless said. “He’s garnered a lot of interest, and I think most schools want to look at him as a quarterback, but what’s most intriguing about Luke is, he is valuable in that if the quarterback depth chart makes it tough, he can play other positions.”

“They asked me what I’d be open to, and I just want to go play ball somewhere,” Hammons added. “If they put me at corner or safety, receiver, quarterback, any of those I’d be fine with, and that’s what I told the coaches. I’ll just show up and do what I can.”

Hammons does plans to run track again in the spring.

“I think track is good because it keeps me fast for next season in college,” Hammons said. “I want to show up for college at my best speed, and I think track is the best way to do that.”

Looking back on his career, the three-year starter is happy with what he and his teammates were able to accomplish.

“I had a lot of fun playing at the Max (Andress Field) every Friday night,” Hammons said. “I got to play with a lot of good players my sophomore year and last year and this year. I have a lot of good memories with them.”