An honest Abrams speaks from his heart.

“He’s going to be a beast,” Cary-Grove’s 6-foot-3, 230-pound senior Logan Abrams said of his football-playing brother Ryan, who will be a seventh grader this fall and is the baby of four in his athletic family.

Like Logan, Ryan plays fullback and linebacker. Logan, a state champion in football who earned state medals in the discus and shot put in the spring, already is a beast.

No Abrams, honestly, is a cupcake.

Dad Michael is a Cook County deputy sheriff and former high school football player. Mom Jennifer, who like her husband graduated from Conant, is a personal trainer and former body builder. Oldest child Alyssa, a registered nurse, played rugby at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. Oldest boy Wade (6-0, 235 pounds) plays linebacker for the University of South Dakota.

That’s one big, strong family.

“You know it,” Logan said with a smile. “My dad’s been coaching me since I was little. I think he’s coming up on like 20 years that he’s been coaching me, my older brother and my little brother.”

The 2025 prep football season provides Logan one last time to go beast-mode for C-G. That’s what he did in 2023, when he dominated at fullback in helping the Trojans win the Class 6A state championship. That’s what he did for half of last season, until suffering a broken foot.

In Week 6 against Hampshire, a defender fell on his right heel, tearing four ligaments. Diagnosed with a Lisfranc injury, Abrams underwent surgery and missed the rest of the season, which didn’t end with C-G successfully defending its state title.

The Trojans lost to host Geneva 28-26 in a state semifinal, snapping their 19-game winning streak. For Abrams, who missed eight games, including the season opener because of a hamstring injury, watching his team fall short may have been more painful than his foot injury.

“I think we could have done better and not just because I’m a good football player,” said Abrams, who played defensive line as a varsity player his freshman year and then led the McHenry County area with 1,590 rushing yards and 26 touchdowns as a sophomore.

“When I got hurt, we had to fill a spot, and our main guy, Holden (Boone), who did fabulous last year, bounced between our H-back and fullback. Having two weapons who are both very capable, compared to just one guy who’s getting the ball most of the time, just creates more options, more thinking for the defense. I really think just finding someone to fill the spot was what we were struggling with.”

Abrams finally got back to competitive action in the spring. After heaving the shot a personal-best and winning 60 feet, 5.25 inches in the Class 3A Huntley boys track and field Sectional, he placed fifth at state in the shot put and seventh in the discus. He had earned his first state medal his sophomore year, finishing eighth in the shot put.

The track and field season – coupled with practices this summer with the football team – showed Abrams that he’s back to his old self.

“I really feel like I’m back to being normal after my whole foot problem,” Abrams said. “I’m doing a lot of fun stuff with my team, rebuilding, stuff like that.”

When Abrams wasn’t working out and continuing to get stronger, he worked at MT Performance Training with owner Marcus Thimios, a strength coach and former C-G football player who helps young athletes get faster and stronger.

C-G football coach Brad Seaburg has seen a stronger Abrams this summer.

“To me, he’s every bit where he was, if not better, [than before the foot injury],” Seaburg said. “I know he’s stronger because he spent really the whole offseason training to get himself back into shape, and he did a really great job of that.”

Abrams received a scholarship offer from Toledo after his sophomore year, and it remains his only one from a Division-I school. He visited Illinois State and Indiana for football camps this summer.

“I don’t think I have anything to prove,” Abrams said as the 2025 football season approaches. “I just really want to be there for my team and be able to help my team when it matters the most, and I want us to go all the way.”