The Chenango Forks football team has been as dominant as any team in the state over its history and recent memory is no different. We take a look at one of the Blue Devils' top contributors in Liam Carnegie for our first athlete of the week of the year.

This forks team is big up front, but no one is as big as Carnegie. Though that might not even be his biggest strength.

"He's a smart kid, he does listen, he wants to do well," said Chenango Forks head coach Dave Hogan. "And you can see it from week to week, the things our coaching staff is giving him to do. He challenges himself and he's improving each week and that's exactly what we want from our kids."

A welcomed challenge ever since the Forks center can remember.

"Since I was a baby started off with flag when I was about four years old, played ever since," Carnegie said. "Changed a bunch of positions, started off as a running back, obviously, that's changed now. I've been all over the place."

His favorite memory along that journey has to be...

"Of course last year winning states," Carnegie said. "It was literally a dream come true. Grew up with a bunch of these people, all my friends, and to be able to win something like that was really amazing."

And this year as a senior, Liam is working to help teach up the new guys.

"He's not a yea raw type guy, he's more of a guy that will just do his thing and just try to do it right," Hogan said. "And I think, obviously the people like that are very strong that way too."

Which would be obvious for a guy who's learned to play the game with fundamentals.

"What's interesting about Liam is, especially last year, he wouldn't stand out on the film as like doing something perfectly, but the more you watched it, the more you recognize that he did a lot of good things," Hogan said. "It's like, wow, he's blocking that kid and he's blocking that kid very well or he defeated that block and he went down the line of scrimmage, just like we taught and made the tackle. So those kinds of things, it's like one of those things where, at least for me, and probably the rest of the coaches, the more you watch, the more you're impressed you are and that's a good thing to have a guy like that."

That confidence of play came in part after his "I belong" moment.

"It was actually one game last year that really stuck out to me like at the end, I'm like, I can really do this, this is really my thing," Carnegie said. "The Skaneateles game, you know, playing that game, I think I played really well, it was really fun. It was just a really good game

And Carnegie doesn't plan to stop playing anytime soon. The center plans to play at the next level and major in Business Management and a minor in Sports Management. 

"When I was little that was never really something in my mind, but as I kept getting older, always really wanted to play at the next level and now it's possible," Carnegie said. "It's pretty cool."

If you are interested in nominating someone for Athlete of the Week, email [email protected].