By Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports 
IOWA CITY – Alex Kleinow has always looked the part. Since he burst onto the varsity scene as a sophomore two years ago Kleinow has looked like a Division 1 lineman. This summer Kleinow cemented his status as a major college prospect giving a verbal commitment to Iowa State. These days at 6-foot-6 and a toned down yet bulked up 285 pounds Kleinow looks the part more than ever.More importantly as his senior year at West High approaches Kleinow is walking the walk and talking the talk as a team leader for the Trojans. “Alex physically is very talented and he is division 1 lineman but what he really brings to the table is his leadership,” West High head coach Garrett Hartwig said. “He is the unquestioned leader of this team. He has led by example first and he is vocal when he needs to be.”Kleinow caught the attention of the West High coaching staff two years ago. He started every game on the offensive line as a sophomore helping West High to a 7-5 mark that included a trip to the Class 4A quarterfinals. “He is a pretty special player and I think we saw that as a sophomore, just that natural ability,” West High offensive line coach Travis Meade said. “He was a big kid as a sophomore, kind of a string bean but he had that motor. He could get into people and he just didn’t quit. It looked ugly a lot, kind of gangly and uncoordinated but he was driving kids and I think people noticed that right away.”Kleinow appeared poised to jump onto the radar of college coaches as a junior but his fast track to college football hit a speed bump. He tore the meniscus in his knee in the season-opener against Cedar Rapids Kennedy and dealt with a fracture on his tibia and thin cartilage in the same knee for the remainder of the season. The injuries kept Kleinow on the sidelines until the final two games last season as West High finished 4-7. “It was super frustrating,” Kleinow said. “I worked as hard as I could to get back for those last two games but it was just an incredibly hard thing to have to watch most of the year.” As soon as last season ended Kleinow went back to work. Still on crutches from his injury he hit the weight room, the film room and the training room with the same drive that he showed on the field as a sophomore. “I crutched my way up to the weight room every single day,” Kleinow said. “We don’t have an elevator so I had to crutch up the stairs every single day, two flights and went to the weight room and did everything I could.” The results started to show up. He got bigger, faster and stronger. Kleinow estimated his total weight in his main lifts has increased more than 300 pounds since his sophomore season. Suddenly every workout came with a sense of urgency. “My junior year, the injury, I don’t want to say it helped me but it definitely set me straight that I had to go hard and I had to give everything if I really wanted to play at the next level,” Kleinow said. “After my injury I probably made the biggest gains, that’s when I knew I only had one more year so I went as hard as I could and started giving everything on every lift.” While trying to put weight on his 6-foot-6 frame as a sophomore, Kleinow saw his weight rise to 290 pounds. After last season Kleinow took a hard look at his diet in an attempt to re-make his massive physique. He dropped the junk food and tried to avoid the extra carbohydrates. “I gained a ton of muscle in the off season after my injury, I slimmed down during my injury and had to build it all back up,” Kleinow said. “Dieting was huge. I feel a lot better, I feel a lot healthier.”The work didn’t stop there. Kleinow upped his conditioning to go along with his weight lifting. He joined the track team as a thrower last spring and spent the summer pushing a blocking sled loaded with weights around his back yard. “This spring he did track and he worked really hard on putting on some pounds,” Meade said. “By doing track he was staying fit and mobile at the same time and I think that really helped him.” His work ethic helped make Kleinow a leader for the Trojans during the offseason. Since the start of fall practice he has taken that leadership to another level. “Over this past year, especially through the offseason and into the fall season he has become a lot more vocal and intense trying to get everyone going because he knows where this team can go and he wants to make sure we play up to our potential,” West High senior Oliver Martin said. “He has definitely become more of a leader and he has gotten bigger. He’s playing the part.” With a college scholarship under his belt Kleinow is still as motivated as ever. The same attitude and intensity that caught the attention of West High coaches is still coming out every day during his senior season. “He plays with that kind of anger or that chip on his shoulder,” Meade said. “I don’t know if part of that is he really feels like he hasn’t proved himself on the field yet. He’s got a lot of accolades and people know he is good but I think in the back of his mind he still has to prove that to somebody and I think that’s how he plays.”