Recruiting Report: Brayden Weber – Becker (2021)
In all my years covering high school sports, it was the scariest thing I had ever seen at a competition. It is not even close. Becker’s Brayden Weber Brayden Weber 6'2" | LB Becker | 2021 State MN was wrestling…
Access all of Prep Redzone
Continue reading this article and more.
Continue ReadingIn all my years covering high school sports, it was the scariest thing I had ever seen at a competition. It is not even close. Becker’s
Brayden Weber
Brayden
Weber
6'2" | LB
Becker | 2021
State
MN
was wrestling in the state semi-finals of the Class AA 220-pound individual tournament. Weber would end up losing the match, and as he started walking off the mat, he collapsed – face-first – onto the mat. It took some time for the 10,000 or so spectators to figure out what was going on, but when I saw a Minnesota State High School League employee sprinting toward Weber’s corner mat with a handheld machine in her hand – I and the rest of the crowd – realized something serious had happened.
A sense of dread creped through a now silent Xcel Energy Center as workers put up a temporary barrier around Weber and the fast-thinking medical personnel who – even though we couldn’t see it – were obviously doing emergency CPR. After I would guess a half-hour – it seemed like hours – a medical team brought out a stretcher and placed Weber on it. I could feel the sense of relief throughout the arena when Weber gave the crowd a thumbs-up as he was wheeled out of the arena floor.
Less than six months later – Weber is back training and getting ready for the now Spring football season.
“I feel great,” Weber said. “I have been practicing and lifting since mid-July. I am just trying to get back into shape. I have had no problems with my heart.”
I felt like I needed to go to medical school to figure out what Weber said when describing the medical procedures he went through. From what I could gather, there was a faulty nerve in his heart that contributed to stopping his heart.
“It was like the circuit wasn’t fully functioning – the nerve was misfiring,” Weber explained. “That caused my heart to go out of rhythm. They shocked that nerve with a laser and basically burned it away. Now I shouldn’t have that problem in the future.”
Not unexpectedly, Weber was in for a long road to recovery.
“I was not lifting, not running, for four months. COVID delayed my doctors’ appointments and stuff like that. I lost a lot of weight, but I am starting to get it back now.”
“It taught me to be patient,” Weber continued. “I did a lot of yoga to keep my body somewhat loose and flexible. I just tried to keep a positive attitude about it. It was hard because my body felt good – muscle-wise – I felt like I could do anything, but I had to sit around because my heart wasn’t good.”
Before his heart trouble, Weber was helping Becker’s football team to yet another successful regular season.
“We had a good run. We beat a bunch of good teams. In the section finals, we lost a heartbreaker to Delano. We have been grinding all summer to get back there and make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
Weber was part of a young defense whose worst performance was allowing 17 points in one game.
“I was the right side, outside linebacker. I was usually the pass-rushing linebacker.”
“My strengths are pass-rushing and taking on and defeating blocks,” Weber continued. “I have been doing this since freshman year. The coaches have drilled into my head to work on my hands. That is the key to defeating blocks, just working on hand fighting and stuff like that.”
Weber expects his offensive role to expand this spring – that was weird to type – being that he played situationally on offense as a junior.
“I was basically a blocking tight end. This year we have some packages where I run the ball because we lost nine seniors off the offense.”
Last winter, Weber made his second appearance in the state wrestling tournament.
“My double leg is my strong suit. I basically just football tackle them. I think on bottom, I get away fast. (2020) was my second year at State. I took sixth last year and defaulted to sixth place junior year.”
When he could start working out, Weber had to start slowly.
“For the first four weeks, I did a lot of high rep lifting to get my muscles back. Now I am on to a powerlifting phase – trying to get my power back up. I do a lot of sprint workouts. We focus a lot on form. I have noticed it has helped get my forty time down.”
His heart issue drastically changed his football recruiting status.
“I was getting talked to by the North Dakota State coach and the Northern Iowa coach and the South Dakota coach. Then when the heart thing happened, they all kind of stopped talking to me. Recruiting really shut off for me, but it has started to pick up now.”
Weber just picked up his first offer from Dordt. Some of the other schools are starting to come back around.
“Minnesota-Duluth is talking to me,” Weber – who enjoys hunting waterfowl and pheasant and fishing for bass and walleye – said. “NDSU is talking to me, and Winona State, North Dakota, and St. Thomas have been talking to me.”
Weber is being recruited as a linebacker.
“The schools say I fit their programs well. They like my size. I am 6’2″ 210 pounds. They like my speed off the line and my ability to tackle in space too.”
With as much as Weber has overcome, schools are going to like his determination and work ethic too.