Vieth bouncing back for breakout 2021
Windthorst senior Haven Vieth is a model for perseverance.
The running back/linebacker suffered an elbow injury during Windthorst’s 21-20 win over Archer City on Sept. 11 last season. Four weeks later, he was back in the defensive rotation where he made significant contributions during the Trojans’ state title run.
“I had a bone-on-bone grinding inside my elbow,” Vieth said. “I grinded away all the cartilage basically. Once I got out of my surgery, I started rehab with a lot of band work and a lot of flexibility stuff. Our great trainer Tim Thomas has helped me out a lot with that stuff.”
Windthorst Head Coach Chris Tackett raved on his senior’s resilience to keep battling.
“If you look back at his injuries and things like that, he kept coming back and kept rehabbing to be back,” Tackett said. “He’s everything we want in a Trojan football player.”
Vieth follows in the footsteps of recent graduate Ethan Belcher, filling his role in the offensive backfield and in the linebacking corps. Belcher suffered several ACL tears and knee injuries before recovering fully to lead the Trojans to last season’s state title. This year, Vieth hopes to follow in those same footsteps.
“He has helped me a lot even since he graduated,” Vieth said. “Everyday I’m asking questions about how to make me better with different things. He’s helped a lot. It’s some big shoes to fill, for sure. I enjoy every minute of it so far. It’s going to be fun.”
Vieth credits family and friends for a large portion of motivation on making a quick return to the gridiron.
“My dad was on a state championship team,” Vieth said. “I’m trying to do everything he did, just a little bit better. Having older cousins that played and had a lot of success playing here and having friends that are really good as well has really driven me in my career.”
The senior has simple goals heading into his final season.
“I want to be the best leader I can be. I know my days of being a Trojan are limited. I try to do everything as hard as I can and make everyone around me better. I want to be the best teammate I can be and do anything I can do to help the team win. We’d like to go out and win every game we can. We want to score as many points as possible and shut out every team.”
Tackett just hopes he can pass on that drive for greatness to some of his younger teammates.
“I’m looking for him to provide leadership for younger guys and carry on the Trojan way of football,” Tackett said. “We’re counting on him to let them know what it means to really buy in to the program.”
