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Saints center leaves behind football for new beginning
Jon Fuccillo
The Advocate
There wasn’t a cloud in the sky in the summer of 2007. It was late July and high school football players were proving their skills during a combine showcase at Oregon State University. The daylong camp was coming to an end and the linemen were working on their blocking skills to finish the day.
“Snap.” The sound echoed across Reser Stadium and Chris Weitzel’s dreams came to a quick end. He had torn the ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) in his right knee.
“I was pass blocking another recruit to the right,” said Weitzel. “He crossed my face and our knees collided. I got the worst of it when my knee buckled from the impact of the collision. The only thing that was going through my head was that it was all over for my football career and possibly sports altogether.”
Weitzel, a Gresham native, is now a freshman at Mt. Hood Community College, and a forward on the men’s basketball team. He dreamed one day that he would be a Division I athlete, but with the knee injury his worst nightmare had become a reality. “I was 15 minutes away from receiving a full ride to Oregon State University. Then in the blink of an eye it was all over.”
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Weitzel grew up with one thing on his mind — sports. He lived and breathed sports as a youngster. He started playing organized sports in the fifth grade when he joined a YMCA basketball team.
He was a three-sport standout athlete at Gresham High School, playing football, basketball and baseball. He lettered for two years in football, three years in basketball and two years in baseball. Weitzel missed his senior season of football after tearing his ACL and was left with no choice but to rehab and watch his team from the sidelines.
“It was a painful process, not only recovering from the injury but not being able to play,” said Weitzel. After six months of non-stop rehabbing, Weitzel was cleared to play sports again and was quick to do so, but maybe too quickly.
During his junior year, Weitzel was ranked as one of the top football players in the Northwest and getting national attention, including coverage on ESPN.com as one of the top tight ends in the country. He started receiving letters from Oregon, Oregon State, Portland State, Washington, Washington State, California and Notre Dame. These were all schools he dreamed about playing for as a kid. “Notre Dame made two official visits to Gresham and it had always been a dream of mine to play for the Fighting Irish.”
He joined the basketball team halfway into the season and when the season was over, he joined the baseball team. Weitzel was working out in the weight room power cleaning when his right knee once again buckled on him, but this time it was worse than before.
“It was a freak accident,” said Weitzel. “Not only did I tear my ACL again, I also had severe lateral and medial meniscus damage.” This time rehab was more severe since he had torn his ACL twice in less than a year. “The rehab was more intense and it sidelined me for a bit longer this time around. At this point, I really thought my career in sports was completely over. It was like I had been sent a message saying that sports were no longer meant for me.”
Weitzel signed a letter of intent back in October 2006 after his junior year to play football at Portland State as an offensive lineman for the Vikings on a full ride scholarship. Even though Weitzel had two surgeries in a one-year period, the Vikings still had a lot of interest in the 6’6’’, 290-pound prospect. “Portland State stood fully behind me in my recovery and offered me to grey shirt (medical redshirt). They told me not to worry about my injuries and to focus on getting healthy.”
But Weitzel decided to withdraw from his scholarship and take the year off to fully recover. “I got nervous. At one point I got up to 310-pounds and decided my health was more important to me than playing football for a program that wanted me to continue to put on weight since they thought that I hid my weight too well.”
During the 2007-2008, he realized his warehouse job wasn’t the future he wanted.
“I was working long, hard labor hours in the warehouse for a laundry company. That kind of job wasn’t any fun nor the future I wanted. I started losing a lot of weight and started getting really healthy again. I decided I wanted to go back to school.”
Long-time friend Michael Wohlers, now a sophomore shooting guard for the Saints basketball team, put in a good word to Head Coach Rob Nielsen. “Wohlers told coach Nielsen about me since the team was looking for big guys and told him about my situation. And I really wanted to play basketball again, the sport I grew up loving the most”
“It was rough watching him go through those injuries,” said Wohlers. “He learned a lot from his injury and knew he needed to get healthy if he ever wanted to play sports again.” Wohlers, who attended Gresham High School with Weitzel, has been best friends with him since fifth grade. “We have gone through a lot together,” said Wohlers. “This was definitely the worse thing to go through with him as a friend. But in the end he’s playing a sport he loves again. He worked really hard getting back in shape and continues to work harder and harder each day.”
Weitzel thought long and hard and questioned the issue of playing and replayed the vivid images in his head about the two surgeries. “My initial thought was there was no way in hell I could play. I was so out of shape and plus I didn’t want to put my knee in any more jeopardy. I was scared.”
Coach Nielson said, “A lot of kids sit out a year and think about what they want.
Then they realize that they want to play again. He came and proved himself and we liked what we (coaching staff) saw.”
Nielson describes Weitzel’s personality on and off the court as being a carefree kid. “He’s built a lot of confidence and takes a lot of initiative for his actions on and off the court.” Nielson also said Weitzel has gotten physically stronger and in better shape. “He has improved so much in his skill development. He is very important to our team this year. For a team to be good and successful, they need a solid point guard and big guy — and Chris is our solid big guy.”
Nielson realizes that Weitzel still has a lot to work on but believes after a solid summer coming up he will be just fine. “Basketball kids are made up in the summer. I believe that he will get a lot stronger and develop this summer. I am looking forward to seeing what he does next year.”