photo by: Nick Henthorn

Wheeling Park’s Brennan Wack, pictured during the Patriots’ week one game against Parkersburg South.

WHEELING — Last Friday, Wheeling Park’s Brennan Wack helped the Patriots to a road win against Butler, Pa.– while still on the road to recovery himself.

Battling a troublesome hamstring injury suffered against St. Clairsville, Wack missed Park’s games against Morgantown and Fairmont Senior, but returned against the Golden Tornado, though not in his full capacity.

Before Friday, Wheeling Park head coach Chris Daugherty had said he wasn’t sure how much Wack was going to play, but he didn’t expect him to pick up 100% of his workload in his first game back.

That much was true, with Wack playing the full game on defense, but only being used throughout the first half as a running back, where he is West Virginia’s reigning Curt Warner Award winner as the top player at that position.

Wack still made serious use of his limited opportunities, to the tune of 109 rushing yards and 43 receiving yards.

“He’s a physical runner and he’s a guy that has enough speed to score at any moment,” Daugherty said. “Last week you could tell he still wasn’t his speedy self, but he was still his physical self. He still turned a three-yard gain into a seven-yard gain. And those things add up. And it did. I think he had 15 carries. He didn’t play in the second half at tailback and had 100 yards. He was probably on pace for 200 yards if he kept playing. But we didn’t do that. And we’re hoping to get a better version of himself this week and get a little bit better every week.”

“It was nice to get back into it,” Wack said. “I was a little limited, just on offense, defense was a little easier for me so I played the full game on defense but it was just nice to get moving around again, get back into game speed.”

Though he has missed time, Wack still remained at the top of the rushing leaderboard for local teams, a testament to his explosive play before he was injured. Going into Friday, Wack still had the second-highest rushing yardage in the area with 1,205 stripes– now 1,314– and had the third-most touchdowns with 17.

Yet despite Wack’s production, perhaps just as important is how Wheeling Park saw others step up in his absence. Isaac Sands and Nolan Yanchak helped keep Park’s running game humming– Sands scored two rushing touchdowns vs. Butler, Yanchak one– and quarterback Jay Bordas picked up his play as well, throwing for 278 yards and three touchdowns against Fairmont Senior.

“I thought they did really well,” Wack said of his teammates. “I thought they stepped up amazingly and I think it helped our offense adapt, when I’m not there. I think it developed the passing game a little bit. I think those guys got used to getting the ball too. I think now we have a lot more options.”

“They were excited to have him back in the huddle,” Daugherty said of his team. “They know what he brings to our football team. But I would agree with Brennan that I think a lot of guys stepped up. Isaac Sands, the offensive line, Jay and the wide receivers in the Fairmont game. So a lot of guys were chipping away at his loss, but now that he’s back, I think everybody feels a little bit better about his return and that hopefully continues.”

This isn’t the end of the road for Wack, who is still putting in extra work to rehab his hamstring.

“It’s a process, you know, because hamstrings are tricky,” Daugherty said. “If you’ve ever injured one, they can feel good, and then all of a sudden, you’re back to square one. And we wanted to make sure that we didn’t get in that position. And so we’ve been slow, and he’s done everything right, from seeing his physical therapist to PRP and just all the things that he did to make sure he was back on the field as soon as possible, but you don’t want to rush it either. So Brennan does a good job of communicating how he feels and what he’s capable of doing.”

For Wack, extra work and rehab is still preferable to watching from the sidelines.

“It just kills you just watching everything, knowing that you could be out there and making a difference,” he said. “But, you just work even harder just to get back on the field.”

Wheeling Park is 5-3 on the season– 5-1 in games where Wack has played– against a grueling schedule, which does not let up one iota this Friday, where the Patriots travel to face perennial power Steubenville.

After that, a bye week before hitting the road once again vs. rival John Marshall. The bye can’t come soon enough for the patriots.

“We still have a game this Friday before we get to our bye week,” Daugherty said. “Probably about the last three weeks we’ve said let’s just get to our bye week healthy. And you know, ‘healthy’– no one’s healthy right now. People are beat up all across the nation if they’re playing high school football. So we don’t mean healthy, we just mean not out for the rest of the season or for multiple weeks. And if we can get to that week and then get some rest, it’s much needed with our schedule. We’ve had to play nine football games to get to that open week. So we’re looking forward to next week.”

The Patriots are currently seeded fourth in the WVSSAC Playoff Computer Ratings, and will need all of their players– Wack certainly included– to finish their season strong.

“I’m glad we have two more games before playoffs,” Wack said. “I think I just need to get used to being on the field and not playing scared or anything like that, and then, just be ready for playoffs.”