Even though senior Joey Holtz is a star running back on the football team, he finds himself watching the football games from the sidelines on Friday nights instead of playing on the field.

Holtz is not sitting out because of bad performance or eligibility, but because of an injury. Holtz tore his meniscus during the preseason blue-white scrimmage while going to block someone, and he will be out until October 18.

“It’s senior year and I’m supposed to make the best of it as it’ll be the last time I play this game, and the last time I might have played this game came before the season even started,” Holtz said. “I’ve taken this as a challenge God has given me to overcome. He wants to see how I handle the adversity and my goal is to come back bigger, faster, and stronger. I don’t want to let my senior season be over just yet.”

Although Holtz does not plan on playing football in college, he does plan on playing baseball in college. As a result, he does not want his injury to affect his baseball season, as it could alter his future baseball career. After his meniscus heals, Holtz is looking forward to returning to the sport he loves.

“I feel good about returning, and I really want to return, but my main focus right now is to just get healthy,” Holtz said.

Even though he is focused on returning to the football field, Holtz’s main goal is to feel 100 percent healthy when he steps on the field in order to minimize any future injuries. As much as he wants to play again, he knows how important baseball is to his future and wants to be fully healed before baseball season.

In order to heal from his injury, he attends rehabilitation every day and does exercises in order to strengthen his meniscus and the muscles surrounding it.

“I rehab every day, which consists of riding a bike, basic exercises, and a lot of icing,” Holtz said. “Then I have to watch film [of the practices] every day because I miss parts of practice for my rehab.”

Even though Holtz is going through an obstacle in his season, his teammates and coaches are always supporting him and making sure he still feels like part of the team, even when he cannot play.

“A lot of other teammates have had this injury, so they just send me a lot of texts and are always trying to keep me positive. They are always checking in on me to see how I’m doing,” Holtz said. “The coaches are doing the same thing: always checking in on me and making sure I’m following through with my rehab.”

Holtz began running again a few weeks ago, and is planning on returning in the game against Libertyville on October 18. He looks forward to playing in the few games he will be able to participate in before the season is over. Even though Holtz has hated being out of football because of this injury, he believes it has taught him a valuable life lesson.

“This injury has made me realize to never take anything for granted. I kind of took for granted my senior year. I didn’t put as much effort as I could have in the offseason, as I knew I’d be projected as a starter. It’s so hard to go out there and watch your team play on a Friday night while you’re crutching along behind them. I’ve shed tears before every game knowing I can’t play one last time with my brothers.”