Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Shortly after earning the first medal of his career at the state wrestling tournament Will Hoeft began to think about his senior football season.

That, in itself, hardly sets Hoeft apart. Plenty of wrestlers spend their spring and summer prepping for a fall on the gridiron.

What made his preparation unique is that three weeks before Hoeft received the medal for a sixth-place finish at the Class 3A wrestling tournament last February he had torn the ACL in his right knee.

“Wresting is sort of my main sport over football and you only get so many shots at state,” Hoeft explained. “I wanted to wrestle at state and hopefully get back for my senior year of football.”

Hoeft has been able to do both of those things.

After sustaining the knee injury at the Mississippi Valley Conference meet last January Hoeft put a brace on his torn up knee and won six of his next seven matches winning a district title before placing sixth at 182 pounds at the state meet.

Just seven Seven months later he returned to the football field, making a team-high 9.5 tackles in a week-four loss to Dubuque Senior.

“I had the surgery schedule as soon as I could after wrestling because I knew the recovery time was six to nine months,” Hoeft said. “We kind of planned for it and I got back as soon as I could and that ended up being week four.”

Before his injury Hoeft was one of the defensive leaders for West High during a 9-2 season last fall.

Hoeft made 34.5 tackles during his junior season.

The 5-foot-10, 180-pound linebacker hasn’t missed a beat in his return to the field.

Despite missing three games this season Hoeft ranks third on the team with 33.5 tackles entering the annual Battle for the Boot with City High on Friday at Bates Field at 7:15 p.m.

“In my own mind I have a pantheon of players that I’ve always considered to be hard-nosed tough kids that kind of represent everything you want in a high school football player and Will Hoeft is definitely one of them,” West High coach Garrett Hartwig said. “The fact that he has come back from a severe knee injury seven months later to play at the level he is amazing.”

Hoeft spent most of his spring and summer rehabbing from the injury then spent the first three games of the season watching as West High went 0-3.

That was the most difficult part of the whirlwind seven-month process for Hoeft.

“I think it was probably the mental state more than anything,” Hoeft said. “There were a lot of hard times when I would seem my friends working their butts off out there. That was hard for me.”

Hoeft hasn’t slowed down since his 9.5 tackle effort in his return to the field in week four.

He had seven tackles in a win over Davenport North in week six and 7.5 more to go with an interception last week against Muscatine.

“I felt pretty good right away because I was going a lot of jogging and I felt like I was able to get into pretty good shape so I just hit the ground running,” Hoeft said. “I had a week to rest run at practice and figure it out.”

Since Hoeft returned to the field the West High defense has seen steady improvement.

After allowing 26.3 points per game in the first three games the Trojans have trimmed that number to 17.6 in their last five games.

Teams total offense went from 322 through three games to 298 over the last five with Hoeft back in the middle of the defense.

“He’s tough, knows his responsibilities and he always plays within himself,” Hartwig said. “When it comes down to it if it’s one-on-one he’s the guy that we want there to make the play.”

Hoeft hurried back to play as much football as he could as a senior.

Friday’s matchup with City High is the type of game that brought Hoeft back to the football field.

“I love it. This season means the world to me regardless of the final outcome. Just to spend time with my friends one last year,” Hoeft said. “If we don’t make the playoffs it’s just perfect that we end the season playing at City. We’ve had some good games in the past and we all look forward to this game.”

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