Van Hook Is Hoping Success Is Contagious : Football: Calvary Chapel’s standout wrestler brings his winning attitude to the team expected to win the Olympic League.

As a member of Calvary Chapel’s two-time State champion wrestling team, Matt Van Hook has experienced victories as sweet as they come.

In the Southern Section Division III dual-meet championship, Van Hook defeated his opponent with a major decision to help the Eagles to the title. He finished second in the Division III individual championships, helping them win their fourth consecutive section title. He wrestled in the State meet.

Now Van Hook is hoping some of that success will rub off on the Eagles’ football team. Calvary Chapel, which finished third in the Olympic League last season, is favored to win the league title this season. In one preseason poll, the Eagles were ranked No. 7 in the state in Division IV.

“It helps our football team to see how the wrestling team’s hard work helped us win the State title,” Van Hook said.

Van Hook, one of only a few Calvary Chapel wrestlers who play football, provides a daily first-hand example. A three-year, two-way starter at center and linebacker, he is starting his second season as an Eagle captain.

At 6 feet, 190 pounds, Van Hook is the Eagles’ smallest offensive lineman, but he easily holds his own. Last season, during the game against Brethren Christian, Darryl Jones, a 6-3, 295-pound nose guard who is now playing at Washington State, often lined up opposite Van Hook. Jones was contained and the Eagles won, 30-13.

“A lot of people think I can’t play because I’m smaller, but last year I went against some of the biggest guys around,” Van Hook said. “It doesn’t come down to how big you are; it comes down to how good you are.”

Van Hook is good enough to attract attention from college recruiters. His academic standing--4.1 grade-point average and 1,230 SAT--hasn’t hurt either. Army, Wheaton (Ill.) and Cal Lutheran are among those that have shown interest in him as football player; Stanford, Cornell, Army and Air Force are following him as a wrestler.

Van Hook doesn’t want to stop playing football.

If he decides to attend a Division I school such as Stanford, he would probably try out for the football team as a long snapper. Calvary Chapel Coach Kris Van Hook, Matt’s father, says he now snaps almost as well as a college starter.

Considering where he started, it’s amazing that anyone is considering recruiting him, his father says.

“If you saw him playing Junior All-American football five years ago, you wouldn’t have expected him to get this far in any sport,” Kris Van Hook said. “But work ethic takes you a long way.”

By the time Matt made up his athletic-ability deficit, he had turned into a solid football player.

“I wasn’t born as a super-natural athlete,” Van Hook said, “Everything I have done has been because of a lot of super hard work.”

Rich Saul, the six-time All-Pro center with the Rams who is the Eagles’ first-year offensive line coach, says Van Hook does so well because he is technically sound and quick.

“He has good balance and real good body control,” Saul said. “Whichever way the other guy goes, he’s going to be wrong because Matt’s going to be there.”

Van Hook, who is moving this season to inside linebacker after playing outside the last two, says the team is ready to go after their goal. When the seniors on the team were freshmen, the Eagles won the Arrowhead League and advanced to the Division X title game. The freshmen who had turned by the playoffs got to dress for playoff games. Van Hook wasn’t old enough, so he had already joined the wrestling team.

This year he hopes to finally get his shot.

“That was a really good team, and we’ve been working to get back to that level,” Van Hook said. “That’s our goal.”