‘Yeah, five:’ Southwest star Rinaldo Callaway ready for Rutgers

Five has always been Rinaldo Callaway’s favorite number. 

It’s sort of a lucky number for him, and has been for about as long as he can remember. He can’t recall a specific reason for picking it. It simply became that way.

So when the Southwest football players were assigned numbers, Callaway — before he towered over his peers at 6-foot-5, before he had become a top recruit, before he had committed to play Big 10 football — snagged No. 5.

That’s when it all began. At some point after the star edge rusher and tight end was assigned that digit, close friend and teammate Montese Green responded in a low voice with a comment that would eventually become a rallying cry for some of Callaway’s confidants and fans.

“Yeeaaaaahh, five.”

Those two words — said specifically in that rising, enthusiastic tone — first arrived in a locker room, spoken by friends and teammates. They have since bounced off the walls of Southwest’s gym and filled the air at the team’s football games, often emerging from the crowd whenever Callaway makes a key play.

Which happens quite a lot, to be clear.

Those big plays became routine as Callaway grew older, smarter, more talented. By his junior year, the defensive end was getting into the backfield in the blink of an eye, all 200-plus pounds of him bearing down on wide-eyed quarterbacks before they could even begin to think about throwing a pass or scrambling away — and those shouts of “Yeeaaaahhh, five” became more and more common.

As if that wasn’t enough, Callaway became a star for Southwest’s basketball team. He was dominant on the court by his junior year as well, warranting more hoots, hollers and clamors of “Yeaaaaah, five” from the crowd.

“I really didn’t pick up on it until last year or this year, but I can totally believe Montese came up with it. At this point I’m out there calling him ‘five,’” said Southwest basketball coach Monquencio Hardnett of the chant’s origins. “They’ve both always had a great relationship and been really important leaders.”

But Callaway will leave for New Jersey on Jan. 17 to begin his football career at Rutgers. The basketball team — in the middle of an important season, attempting to defend a region title and return to the state championship game — will miss him. Callaway will miss them right back. 

“It’s hard to leave them. But we’re brothers. They understand it,” Callaway said.

While the departure is bittersweet and will leave a void on Southwest’s basketball team, it will also leave something else for Patriots students and alumni across Macon: hope.

“We’re all excited to see what he can do,” Hardnett said. “We’re going to watch a lot of Rutgers football.”

A star at Southwest

Callaway is fiery when he’s in game mode. He’s been that way since he watched football with his great grandma as a boy, when he could practically feel the game’s heat and energy through the TV screen.

“The more (we watched), it just got more and more intense. That’s when I knew what I wanted to do. So then we played throw ‘em up buss ‘em up,” Callaway said, referring to the “kill the man with the ball” sort of game that shapes many a football player’s youth. “That makes you tough, more physical.”

But the backyard brawl iteration of football wasn’t enough to sate his appetite. So, at age 6, Callaway began playing at Central City Park in Macon. Two years later, he moved over to Bloomfield to play. That’s when the game really clicked.

“I was playing linebacker and running back, I got used to hitting people. I knew I wanted to keep doing that for as long as I could,” he said.

Because of that, football always came first. In fact, Callaway’s first try on the hardwood wasn’t exactly a success. After running suicides for a bit at his first tryout in seventh grade, Callaway passed on hoops altogether.

“I got a little more motivated the next year and came back. Coach (Maurice) Major helped me learn the footwork, took me home from practice and stuff,” Callaway said. “Then I got into it.”

Hardnett first met Callaway when he arrived at Southwest four years ago as a ninth-grader, but he’d already seen Callaway’s athleticism on display.

“I saw him playing at Ballard-Hudson in eighth grade, and I was definitely impressed. He had all the measurables,” Hardnett said, “but I never expected him to blossom the way he did.”

Callaway’s football coach, Joe Dupree Jr., saw him play on the gridiron in seventh grade. Even then, the youngster knew what he wanted to do on the field.

“I saw him out there at Ballard and said, ‘You’re gonna come play for me.’ He told me right back, ‘I’m gonna be a D-I football player,’” Dupree said. 

A recruiting whirlwind

Callaway’s hard work in basketball demonstrated his fire, something he also showed in his preferred sport. While he was not a top prospect in his first two years playing Patriots football, he attracted some recruiting attention by his junior year.

Then it happened: the 2024-25 basketball season.

Callaway and the Southwest team played lights-out all season, winning their region championship in a triple-overtime thriller over Dublin before streaking all the way to the GHSA Class A-Division I state championship. The run attracted much fanfare in Macon, as it reignited a fanbase and returned Southwest hoops to the winning ways it found in the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s.

Callaway — the team’s big and a crucial leader on and off the court, according to Hardnett — caught the attention of the University of South Florida’s football program. Callaway said the team’s coaching staff were calling during that frantic tournament stretch in February.

“We had to have our phones off in class. I missed the call,” he said. “So my coach came and told me, and I had to get back with them.”

Whether it was the basketball team’s tournament run that accelerated Callaway’s football profile or not, he was a hot ticket and four-star prospect by the time summer workouts arrived for the 2025 football season.

“I don’t know if it was his athleticism during that run or whatever it was that he was showing. They might not have paid attention to it,” Hardnett said of the attention, “but he is the total package.”

But it was hard to commit to the first team that came his way. Callaway wanted to keep his options open. It was a situation Dupree remembered vividly — he had to convince Callaway that if he committed to USF, other offers would eventually come rolling in.

“It’s not that he committed to get anything, but that’s just how it works. I remember that conversation most with him. He eventually told them he’d play there, and he came to me afterward with these happy tears,” Dupree said. “That’s something I’ll never forget.”

So Callaway committed to the Bulls, a prominent program that, while a decent bit away from home, would not be too isolated from his hometown and family.

That was when many schools — including Rutgers from way up north — started calling. 

“It kind of blew up,” Callaway said.

The Scarlet Knights’ staff loved Callaway’s athleticism, particularly his speed while being able to move from sideline to sideline. They “recruited their tails off,” Callaway said, setting up meetings in Macon and taking him to games.

When Callaway watched Rutgers nearly topple Penn State at home Nov. 29, feeling the cold Piscataway air at SHI Stadium and the intensity on the field he so desperately craved, he made a decision.

“It’s cold and the (football) is a different level,” he said. “It’s going to be a new experience.”

A bittersweet ending

Callaway’s last official day on Southwest’s campus was Jan. 9. 

Already graduated and simply hanging out with some of his teammates during a free period, he reclines against the bleachers next to the court where he made thousands of Maconites cheer. He wears glasses and sports an outfit that accentuates his red Rutgers gear featuring a stylish scarlet watch that might be a G-Shock, a pair of Purple jeans — the brand, not the color — and wired headphones.

He seems introspective, relaxed but still alert. As he walks down a concrete path to Southwest’s anthill-ridden football practice field — his Scarlet Knights hoodie almost too warm on an unseasonably muggy January afternoon — he gestures toward the field and nearby facilities.

“When I come back,” he says with quiet confidence that does not seem cocky but instead simply hopeful, “I’m going to change all this.”

Callaway’s love of the people that made him — he credits his family with helping fuel his rise to a top prospect, talks about Dupree’s “hard love” and how his coaches are the reason he’s grown — is one of the things that makes him a great player.

It can be seen Tuesday night at Southwest’s basketball game. Callaway, now unable to play, still shows up to root for his teammates as they roll to an easy win. He puts his arm around Dupree and smiles, talks to Hardnett and casually shoots 3-pointers with Green after the game is over and the gym lights are turning off.

“That’s the thing you have to know about him: he’s an even better person than he is a player,” Dupree said. “Watching him grow like this since that first time I saw him has been rewarding. It’s just amazing.”

That’s the attitude at Southwest High School about Callaway’s future. He appears poised to be Bibb County’s next great football player at the collegiate level, something Macon has been sorely missing in recent years.

As much as his teammates will miss him, Hardnett said the group is thrilled to see him take the next step.

“I think he could’ve gone somewhere for basketball, honestly, but I’ve watched him play football a lot. As soon as I saw him chasing around quarterbacks, I knew we wouldn’t keep him too much longer on the basketball court,” Hardnett said. “He’s what you call a coach’s dream. I look forward to possibly seeing him on Sundays. He’s got all the intangibles to do that.

“After some of us got over the sadness and the worry, it just became excitement.”

It will be tough for Hardnett and the Patriots as they try to return to the title game. Callaway’s closest friend and fellow leader for the basketball team, Green, is currently injured to worsen the blow.

But while the choruses of “yeaaaahh, five” may not be heard at Southwest again this year, that chant might just catch on in New Jersey soon.

If, that is, Callaway can snag his favorite number.

“I told them I wanted No. 5,” Callaway said, smiling. “Hopefully it works out.”