Braeden Hardwick suffered a torn ACL and a torn meniscus while scoring a touchdown in Homestead’s week 7 game against Carroll. He was sidelined for the rest of the season. However, Hardwick’s recovery seems to have gone rather well.
“As of right now, I would say I’m at about 95 to 100 percent,” Hardwick said. “I think I recovered pretty well, and pretty quick for what most ACL recoveries would be.”
Spartans’ head coach Chad Zolman likes the way he has progressed. However, Zolman did acknowledge that Hardwick returning for the opener is not necessarily a given.
“Right now, it looks like he’ll be good to go. That’s up to the doctors and our trainers,” Zolman said. “Obviously we’ll play it as the doctors see it and how trainers advise us, and we’ll go from there.”
Hardwick was the Spartans leading rusher last year. He finished the season with 957 yards and 15 touchdowns. He rushed for a season-high 215 yards in the week four game against Bishop Dwenger and had 11.4 yards per carry in the week two game against Concordia. He put together six multi-touchdown games before the injury occurred.
Though he may have a chance to play again in 2020, being sidelined for the last two weeks of the regular season and all three ensuing playoff games was not something Hardwick enjoyed.
“It was sad having to watch everybody on the sideline because I love football, and I love being a part of the game with my teammates out there,” Hardwick said. “But we had a great season, and even though I couldn’t be a part of it, the team did really well, and they fought hard through the rest of it.”
Hardwick has been able to rehab, even with Indiana’s Stay-at-Home order in effect.
“Because of the quarantine thing going on, I’ve been doing a lot of stuff on my own. I was actually pretty much finished up with therapy because I had baseball starting a week before the quarantine got put into effect,” Hardwick said. “So I was pretty much done with therapy. But I’ve been doing a lot of stuff on my own that I was told to do at therapy. So I’ve still been working even though I haven’t really been able to go to SportOne [Parkview Fieldhouse] and do all that stuff there.”
Hardwick did not have to look far to find inspiration when it came to recovering from an injury. His own teammate, tight end Griffin Little (who will start college at Bowling Green in the fall), suffered an offseason ACL injury as a junior. Little was able to recover in time for his senior season, a story that provided Hardwick plenty of inspiration.
“He told me that a lot of it’s mental; that ‘you just have to be mentally strong through it because your body will heal, and your body will be fine, but it’s the mental aspect of it that you just need to overcome,’” Hardwick said. “[He and I] have talked a lot about it and he’s given me a lot of good advice for it. Griffin’s kind of like an inspiration to me right now because seeing how fast he came back and how good he did…it gives me a lot of hope.”
While Hardwick was out, Ryan Burton got most of the carries in the ground game, while Tyler Burris was also used. Burton averaged 5.6 yards per carry last season, while Burris averaged 3.2.
“They fought with me the whole season, even before I got injured, for that spot. They were always working. I always had to outwork them to stay on the field,” Hardwick said. “If there was anyone else who could’ve taken that spot it was those two.”
At this point, the Spartans’ opener is scheduled for August 21st against Northrop. Whether or not that will change due to the Coronavirus pandemic remains to be seen. Either way, Hardwick is eager to get back on the gridiron.
“I feel like I have a lot of unfinished business right now since I didn’t get to finish my season,” Hardwick said. “So I’m ready to get back out there. I’m excited for it, but right now with the staying-at-home effect it’s making me even more anxious to just get outside and have fun with my teammates and just have a good time because that’s what football is about.”
