“I figure that was coming from the audience, too. The students and alumni and faculty probably all wondered the same thing.”
Was the freshman from Georgia in trouble?
What has he done?
Was he being hassled during the game?
“But then I had a couple of crazy (good) punts and he ran up the field and we jumped and high-fived each other,” Chaires said. “That’s when people started to catch on that he was helping me.
“And when they asked, I just said: ‘Oh, that’s my coach.’” That’s what he calls Officer Kole Patterson, who is part of the 10-person campus police force at Central State.
A few years ago, the 26-year-old Patterson was a punter and kicker himself at West Virginia State University – a historically black college (HBCU) in Institute, W.V, northwest of Charleston – and this spring he volunteered to work with Chaires.
The unique bond between cop and kicker is not only helping make Chaires a better football player – especially after his piñata-like treatment during the 1-9 fiasco of last season – but it’s also helping break down some barriers around campus.
White police officers around the nation – especially in the wake of the deadly police encounters that claimed the lives of people like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and drew widespread protests afterward – aren’t always seen in the best light by young African Americans these days.
CSU Police Chief Stephanie Hill is acutely aware of that and has taken various steps to change the narrative on their HBCU campus.
“Our mission has always been that we have a very unique opportunity here on campus to make a positive impact with how the African American community—particularly our students – views law enforcement,” she said. “I’ve tried to challenge all our officers to engage in activities outside of their normal duties and always engage our students in a positive light.
“When I first came here, we had what we called “Be Seen, Be Heard.’ That meant when anybody comes within three feet, you should say ‘Hello,’ look them in the eyes and then move on. Whether they respond or not, it shows you are aware of them and you’re approachable.
“And then we stepped it up a bit and gave them the charge to bond with a group of students, whether it’s though an organization, athletics, whatever.
“It’s up to us, not the students, to change the narrative and the way to do that is by showing your humanity. When you do that, the first thing people see isn’t your uniform or the color of your skin, they see you as another human being.”
Over the past two weekends, CSU students have gotten a double dose of that from Patterson. Before showing up on the football sidelines, he ventured onto the dance floor at a student get-together at Beacom/Lewis Gym before finals.
“They were playing different genres of music and one of the last was House Party, where everyone goes crazy and does what the song is saying,” he said. “That song came out when I was in college, and it was huge for us.
“I was off to the side, by the bleachers, just sort of dancing to the music. Some students saw me and I was like, ‘You know what? Screw it!’ and I just went out and danced a bit.
“I had no idea somebody was filming it, but it ended up on some huge accounts (Barstool Sports was one) and in all it’s been seen over 16.5 million times.”
Hill said some of the other officers have teased him about it, but Patterson counters with “I have a little boogie to me!”
“He calls it his Bobby Shmurda dance,” Chaires said with a laugh and a reference to the Brooklyn drill rapper. “That video went viral and just exploded all over the internet.
“I guess you could say (Patterson) is one of a kind. He’s been around the atmosphere of Central and he’s young and fits in with the students. He fits in with me.
“He seems to understand.”
‘You have to serve the community’
Patterson grew up in Xenia and won All-Ohio honors as a kicker/punter for the Buccaneers.
But at 5-foot-9 and then 130 pounds, he said college interest was limited:
“A lot of D-III schools were interested, but only Notre Dame College (a Division II school in South Euclid) offered a scholarship.”
He was ready to accept it when West Virginia State invited him to visit. He went and said he liked what he saw: “I wanted to go somewhere that had tradition and culture and would be a fun place.”
He got all that and, in the process, he said he learned a lot being at an HBCU:
“I learned about Katherine Johnson, the first African American woman to work as a NASA scientist. (A WVSU grad, she was the mathematician featured in the film, Hidden Figures.)
“I learned about Earl Lloyd (another WVSU grad) who was the first African American to play in the NBA. And I learned about Harriet Tubman, who helped start the school, and Booker T. Washington, who was a big influence.
“I learned all the stories and I ended up actually giving tours around campus. I loved it.” He was a four-year starter on the football team -- mostly as a punter -- and a three-year team captain.
He initially studied forensic science, but by chance went to a job fair and met a West Virginia State Police SWAT team member who was in town because President Barak Obama was visiting.
“Right then I wanted to be a SWAT team member, too,” he said. “It wasn’t that I was some kind of gun toting dude, but it just seemed like a real brotherhood, a family, that was protecting someone.”
He became a criminal justice major and after his 2018 graduation, he returned to Ohio.
He coached briefly at Wilmington College, put on a free football camp in Xenia and ended up on the CSU force in 2019.
He then joined the police department in New Holland, a small town of 800 east of Washington Court House. After 18 months, he returned to the CSU force – which Hill said she hopes to soon expand to 15 officers -- this past November.
“When we take on officers, I tell them, ‘Look, you’re not gonna be runnin’ and gunnin’ You’re not going to be answering murder calls and things like that” she said.
“But you do have to be of service here. You have to serve the community. And you’ll still have to have those tough conversations with people here about the (negative) things happening elsewhere. You have to be able to reach people in a lot of ways.”
When he returned to CSU six months ago, Patterson said he brought something along that he’d begun in New Holland:
“I started TikTok about a year and a half ago and have over 500,000 followers. I just post stuff showing I’m human. It’s always off duty, but it’s helped on the job.
“A lot of time police work is looked down on by some people and I’ve gotten tons of messages from people saying: ‘I don’t respect cops, but I see you. I see what you’re doing, and I really appreciate you.’
“That’s the first step with some people.”
A ‘tough’ first season
Chaires’ parents are both from Mexico and no one in the family had played football.
“My ninth-grade year in school, they needed a kicker, so I tried out even though I’d never kicked a football in my life,” he said. “I didn’t know anything, but at first I thought, ‘This is pretty easy.’ But pretty soon I realized it was a lot more difficult.”
Add in defenders bearing down on him, the dependence you have on a long snapper and a holder and the pressure of the moment and it becomes a real challenge.
He ended up having a solid career at Hillgrove High School in Powder Springs, Ga., west of Marietta, and got offers from numerous small schools and some invitations to join D-I programs as a walk-on.
He was recruited to CSU by former coach Bobby Rome and his staff.
“They set a high standard for me,” he said. “They said this was a school where I could leave a legacy for others to follow.”
But last season – with shaky special teams and porous blocking – Chaires often became a sitting duck.
He especially remembers the Marauders’ season opener against Kentucky State at Ohio Stadium:
“The first ball ever snapped to me ended up rolling back. I picked it up and tried to punt it quick, but I got drilled.” The punt went two yards.
“That’s how most of the season played out for me,” he said. “It was tough.”
He averaged 53 yards on his kickoffs and 32 yards on in his 52 punts last season. He missed his only two field goal attempts.
After the season, CSU hired former NFL player Kevin Porter as the head coach and he brought in a new staff.
In the winter, some of the coaches spotted Chaires kicking by himself on the McPherson Stadium turf in the cold and snow.
At the same time Porter heard from Travis Everhardt, the assistant head coach at WVSU, who had previously coached with him at two other schools.
Everhardt told him about Patterson, the Yellow Jackets kicker who was now a CSU police officer and said he might be a good mentor for the Marauders’ kickers.
Patterson agreed to help, but said his initial arrival at spring practice – in his police car and uniform—was met with uncertainty by some players:
“That first day walking out onto the field I got some side eyes. People were wondering: ‘Who’s getting looked at? Who was in trouble?
“But once they saw what I was doing, it was OK. The second day was all different.” He studied Chaires’ game films from last season and at times he said he was brutally honest:
“I was like, ‘Dude, that was awful!’ But then I told him, ‘We’ll get it right because it’s easily fixable.”
“Right then I knew this was going to be a good connection,” Chaires said. “I believe he can help me get the kind of All-America season I’m looking for.
“It’s turned out we have a great bond, a real friendship.”
Patterson agreed: “It’s still police officer/coach and civilian/player, but there’s a mutual respect and we’ve become good buddies.”
And when we talked the other day, Patterson said that’s not only happening on the football field:
“Today I walked into the cafeteria to get something to eat. I always try to sit off privately because I know some people still have certain views about police.
“But today I had several students come up to me.
“I didn’t know their names, but they were like: ‘Hey Officer Patterson.’ Some called me Kole. Some called me Coach.”
They seemed to understand.
About the Author