Lazerus: Wheeler's Naspinski displays his toughness

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Wheeler quarterback Nick Naspinski jumps to avoid Renssalaer's Coltyn McNelly in the first quarter Friday night at Wheeler High School. | Jeffrey D. Nicholls~Sun-Times Media

Updated: November 30, 2011 8:11AM

VALPARAISO — Nick Naspinski took a few exploratory stutter steps, waiting for an opening. It never came. So Naspinski did what athletic teenagers with no regard for their physical well-being do. The Wheeler quarterback ran right at two Rensselaer defenders and leapt for the end zone, helicoptering over the two Bombers and landing in the end zone on one foot — the right one. The one attached to the ankle that was broken exactly five weeks earlier.

Now I had never met Naspinski until Friday night. Talked with him on the phone once. Seemed like a nice kid. That was the extent of our relationship.

But when he landed on that right foot with all his weight, I cringed. Winced. Groaned. Heck, every step he took left me feeling phantom pain. Every cut, every push, every time a Rensselaer defender grabbed him by the ankles to bring him down.

I wasn’t alone.

“There were a couple of times when there were kids hanging on his leg that I was thinking, ‘Get down! Get down!’ ” said Wheeler coach Dan Klimczak.

But Tina Naspinski didn’t flinch. She knows her son. She knows how tough he is. She knows he belonged out there, even if nobody else thought it was even possible, let alone logical.

“I felt good, I was confident,” Tina said in the giddy aftermath of Wheeler’s 14-7 meatgrinder victory over meatgrinding specialist Rensselaer in the Class 2A sectional semifinals. “He’s been taking off that boot since the second week and running around. He’s a scrappy kid.”

That’s just it. Those of us who didn’t know Naspinski well might have been stunned when Union Township’s best-kept secret — that Naspinski was starting after missing the last four games — was finally revealed about an hour before kickoff.

But those who know Naspinski and how tough he is just shrugged it off as par for the course.

Everyone knew Naspinski was willing to play on it. The only surprise was that the doctor agreed.

“I was prepared to beg the doctor on Tuesday to let me play,” Naspinski said. “But he said it was healed and I could play.”

Naspinski didn’t light up the scoreboard. In fact, he had easily his worst game as a varsity quarterback. He was 6-of-16 passing for 50 yards (though a few of his spot-on passes were dropped by receivers who haven’t had to make a catch in five weeks in a stripped-down offense) and he ran for a pedestrian 47 yards on 19 carries.

But his mere presence made a difference — as a leader and as a weapon. Rensselaer couldn’t stack eight or nine guys in the box with such an accurate, accomplished passer taking the snaps. That cleared room for Adam Abrell, Derek Hartwig and Rober Hurd — and yes, Naspinski — to get just enough yards to beat the Bombers at their own game.

And Naspinski’s John Elway-like touchdown on fourth-and-goal from the 2-yard line (Wheeler’s third fourth-down conversion on the brilliant 8-minute, 23-second drive) that tied the game at 7-7 soothed a nervous roster — and a nervous fanbase.

That’s the effect a guy like Naspinski has. And that’s why his return was so important, so exciting, so worth all the winces and flinches and groans from those who had to watch him.

When Naspinski — who had 26 total touchdowns in five games before suffering the injury on Sept. 23 on this same field against River Forest — went down, he was told the injury could take anywhere from two weeks to four months to heal, depending on how clean the spiral fracture was and whether he’d need surgery. He didn’t.

But he was supposed to be out for the season. Even his mom had all but written off this potential storybook ending.

“We didn’t think he’d play again,” she said.

Most kids wouldn’t.

Nick Naspinski isn’t most kids.

“I’m a quick healer,” he said with a smile, as relative after relative came up for a hug between every question and every answer. It looked like a family reunion by the time the interview was done.

“We travel in a group,” Tina said with a laugh.

The only thing that would have made the doctor’s blessing better was if it had come a week earlier. Naspinski said he was “100 percent excited” that his Bearcats teammates knocked off Andrean in one of the biggest upsets in region history, but watching it from the sidelines was hard.

“The worst feeling in the world,” he said.

Four days later, getting cleared was pretty much the opposite. And knowing Naspinski the way he does, Klimczak never thought twice about reinserting the senior into the starting lineup, no matter what kind of roll the team was on, no matter how wince-inducing it was to watch him play so soon after such a serious injury.

“You know, Nick’s such an athlete and such a competitor, you just have to let him go,” Klimczak said.

In fact, Naspinski might have been the only one even a little nervous about coming back. But that didn’t last long.

“Wednesday’s practice (his first one back), I got blitzed on the practice field, and instincts took over,” he said. “I just ran hard and it didn’t hurt, so that was all the clearance I needed. I was surprised it felt full strength.”

It’ll hurt this morning. That’s for sure. Heck, the ankle might be so swollen he’ll need a chainsaw to get his shoe off. It’ll probably hurt all week, and then hurt again for however long Wheeler’s surprising postseason run lasts.

And you know what?

Totally worth it.