From freshman lineman to starting varsity as a tight end as a senior. The journey Nate Wolf took in the two between his freshman and senior year will shock you. A torn ACL in the summer before his sophomore season landed him in the hospital, broken and bruised and confined to a cast. Finally powering through and making it to his junior year, hoping for a better start, he broke a bone in his foot just weeks before the season and took away most of his season due to surgery. Most people in this situation would count their losses, throw in the towel and call it a game; not Nate Wolf.  

 

   His freshman year he played as a lineman for the Royals on the freshman team. Going into his second year at HSE, he had an ACL tear that took away his entire sophomore season of football. The week of the ACL tear, he had already scheduled surgery to push through the pain and get back to football as soon as possible. “I just remember looking down at my knee for the first time with the cast on after surgery and just starting to cry because I was doing everything I could to be better every day and this just felt like something I couldn’t come back from”, said Nate.

Devastated, he did not let it overtake him. With the cast on and a bruised spirit, Nate continued to work with his upper body to continue getting stronger anyway that he could. He made some great strides towards losing weight and gaining muscle. He worked himself to a point of exhaustion just to keep his mind off the pain. By the time the cast was removed, he was on a mission to recover as quickly as possible and get back to the sport he loved.

   The summer leading up to his junior season was looking promising. He was looking at being a strong, important piece of the puzzle for the Royals offense, but a foot injury took him out of the game for nearly 10 weeks before the season started. Royals Head Coach, Adam Morris, stated, “He worked his butt off every day in the weight room because he knew we needed him in the future, and he took it upon himself to stay committed to this team.” With the help of some teammates, they pushed Nate to keep working and reassured him because they knew how special he was and how important he was as a part of the puzzle for the team.

  Nate stated, “I have to thank Coach Weitz, Coach Morris and a couple of my close friends, Andrew Hobson and Tony Myers for sticking with me through the injuries and being there for me on and off the field. It makes it so much easier to enjoy the fight and the struggle of playing at this level and dealing with injuries if you have people you know you can trust.”