Caleb Small hits the ground running for Huskies

Coaching his alma mater: ‘It’s my dream job”

By RICHIE HALL
sports@readthereporter.com

ARCADIA – Caleb Small was back on the Hamilton Heights football field on Wednesday, still wearing orange.

Instead of a uniform, Small was sporting an orange sweatshirt, not unlike coaches do. The 2008 Heights graduate is now the coach of the Huskies football team, and he was calling out plays to the Huskies as they held a scrimmage with Greenwood.

After nearly two decades, Small is back where he wants to be. After the scrimmage, Small spoke with The Reporter and said that coaching for his alma mater is “my dream job.”

“Having the opportunity to come back, in a place that you already have pride in and seeing some familiar faces has been really good for me,” said Small. “It’s really lit a spark in myself personally, as much as anything.”

The Huskies assistant coaches list includes men who coached Small, were coached by Small, or played for Heights. That list includes Gene “Smoke” Starrett, a longtime Huskies coach that Small said is one of his mentors.

“Coach Smoke has been around for a long, long time,” said Small. “For him to be able to put orange back on has been really cool for me.”

Another assistant is Luke Melloh a Noblesville graduate that Small coached when he was on the Millers’ staff.

“My first quarterback I’d ever coached was Luke,” said Small.

Jesse Brown played for the Huskies, graduating in 2017 – “a little bit younger than me, but he’s an alum,” said Small.

“We’ve got five or six alum on staff, which is huge,” said Small.

Adam Hughes, the Huskies’ head baseball coach, is another alumnus and is the football team’s co-offensive coordinator.

“He’s been very, very selfless into his role as an offensive coordinator the last three years,” said Small. “He’s kind of taken a step back, but he’s also been in a leadership role that’s been really good for me in that I can really focus my time in coaching the quarterbacks. I feel good that everything else is getting done on the other side, and that’s a good feeling.”

Solid track record

Small was a three-sport athlete for the Huskies, playing football, basketball and baseball. After graduating from Heights, Small played football and baseball for Marian University; he was part of the Knights’ 2012 national champion NAIA football team.

Once in the coaching ranks, Small put together a solid track record of success. He was an assistant football and baseball coach at Noblesville and was part of the staff on the Millers’ 2014 state champion team.

Small assisted under Jason Simmons at Noblesville, then followed Simmons to Ben Davis after he became the head coach in 2018. The Giants won three consecutive Class 6A regional championships during the tenure of Simmons and Small.

Small got his first head coaching job in 2024 at Northwestern, helping the Tigers to improve a 3-7 record the previous season to a 9-2 mark in 2024. Small coached at Kokomo in the 2025 season before he came to Hamilton Heights in February of this year.

Small was welcomed with open arms. He credited administration – superintendent Dr. Derek Arrowood, Heights principal Whitney Gray and assistant principal Mitch Street with finding a way “to allow for me to get into the building for the rest of the year.”

Small said it’s “been good to build the relationships with our players first and foremost,” but also with the people in the building, who helped learn the lay of the land.

“I was very thankful for that opportunity,” said Small.

TOMORROW: Small talks about the facilities and how he’s teaching selflessness and toughness to the Huskies.