Junior Jacob Wetzel Named Defensive Player of the Year

by Taylor Diggs

Junior Jacob Wetzel was the recipient of the 2016-2017 Defensive Player of the Year. Wetzel’s determination and hard work brought his team a long way and to be named State Champions. Wetzel’s passion for the game and ability to be a team player earned him this reward.

Achieving such an accomplishment, especially as only a junior, brings a lot of emotion for Wetzel.  “It feels great knowing that I won defensive player of the year. The coaches took defense extremely serious and so did the players. I worked my tail off all year during every practice to get redemption from last year, and I guess at the end of the year the hard work payed off for me,” said Wetzel.

Wetzels teammates very much appreciated his hard work and commitment. “He’s really reliable and we can lean on him every game to make good plays,” said junior Jerimiah Sweet.

“Well it’s obvious how much he helped us statistically; he had an incredible season on offense [and] defense. I think what set him apart from other high school athletes was that no matter how successful he was he was always confident, but never cocky,” said senior Donavon Key.

Wetzel’s family was very impressed with his success and look forward to his bright future. “My parents are extremely happy with me. They knew how hard I worked during the year and what I endured. I dealt with an injury all year long and they were proud of how I fought through it all,” said Wetzel.

Wetzel had an ongoing knee injury which put up a challenge for him during the season. He started out with having patella tendonitis in his left knee and after week one, it developed in his other knee as well. “As the year went on it kept getting worse and it kept me out of practice some days because the pain was so bad,” said Wetzel.

Next season Wetzel has a lot of hope for the team and plans to return with even more drive than this past season. “My plans are to take over 2A again especially because some schools such as Oakdale and Damascus are moving down. Everyone on the team wants to go to states again and show that we are unstoppable,” said Wetzel.