Proving the naysayers wrong, Weeks shares his football journey

By Mark Carpenter

People’s Defender

There seems to be some misconception locally about the benefits of playing high school football. Though quite unfortunately, three of the county’s four high school gridiron squads cannot get sanctioned into the OHSAA, those who want to espouse the theory that high school football here will get you “nowhere”,need look no further than Exhibit A, Mr. Andrew Weeks.

Weeks has turned his high school career playing for the West Union squad into a college career and now even into a possible coaching career, and yes, he played football in Adams County. His gridiron journey has been a long and difficult one, marred by the old adage of “one step forward, two steps back”, but through it all Weeks has persevered with grit and determination, attributes he will gladly tell you he picked up as a high school football player.

“I started playing football in the eighth grade when West Union began their junior high program,” said Weeks. “I played four years in high school and kept on from there.”

Weeks certainly has some football blood in his DNA, as his grandfather was Steve Darby, who played football at Miami University under Bo Schembechler and was instrumental, along with Scott McFarland, with bringing high school football back to Adams County.

“My grandfather was such a big influence on me from a young age, even when we didn’t have football around here,” says Weeks. “He put a football in my hand and kept me interested and eventually just fell in love with the game. We built a lot of our relationship around football and he really helped me build confidence in myself.”

Weeks also gives a lot of the credit for his career to the man who rebuilt the West Union football program, Scott McFarland.

“I would have never been playing football if it weren’t for Scott,” Weeks says. “Scott and I have a great relationship, he has been the guy who went out and figured out recruiting process and always pushed me to get better, a better leader and better person.”

“Athletes are made of different shapes and sizes with a variety of skill sets. Often times many sports only cater to speed type athletes which is why most schools in Ohio offer a wide variety of athletic options that appeal to all students. While Andrew was a good basketball and baseball player, he was clearly designed to play football with his size and athletic abilities,” said Coach McFarland. “From the first season he fell in love with the game and the brotherhood that football provides, and the sacrifices and work ethic necessary to succeed. It motivated him in all aspects of his life throughout high school into college and provided a goal to not only play college football but earn his degree while doing so.”

“He has achieved his goal and will finish his final season as a starting lineman at Mount St. Joseph and graduate with his MBA. Football provided a great road map and motivation for his success.”

High school football at West Union will always hold a special place in the heart of Andrew Weeks. The long and hot practices, the hard work, and the molding of the Dragons into a championship team in the Southern Ohio Independent League. The memorable moments are many, but Weeks recalls three particular games as extra special.

“The two games where we went down and played Manchester in my freshman and sophomore seasons, we won by a lot in my freshman year and then lost by a lot by sophomore year. Those were always competitive games with a lot of people in the stands. The other game that sticks out in my mind is going to Green my senior year and finally beating them. They had beaten us the two previous seasons and it had turned into a bit of a rivalry and we beat them by 20 on their Homecoming Night.”

“I think the teamwork concept that you get from football is one of the game’s most important lessons,” Weeks continued. “Just being able to learn to trust each other, trust the guy next to you, in football you have to have 11 guys on the same page at the same time. It’s really tough for one guy to take over a game like in some other sports. I would not have gotten where I am now without the work ethic that I learned playing high school football.”

“We had some film put together on me but we had no idea if I would be recruited by any college because I was really the first guy in the program to be in that situation,” said Weeks. “Scott happened to run into the Mount’s offensive coordinator at a clinic and that kind of got the ball rolling for me. They watched some film on me and got back to Scott right away and said the Mount was interested in me. I went to a Prospect Camp at MSJ my junior year, had a really good day, and got an offer. I visited a couple of other schools but the Mount felt like home.”

Weeks career at the Mount has been nothing short of a roller coaster ride, but using those high school lessons, he battled to get to where he is now.

“My freshman year at the Mount was really difficult,” said Weeks. “I actually drove halfway home the first day of camp but I had a ‘moment’ and turned around and went back. I dressed for some home games but it took me awhile to realize I wasn’t playing in West Union any more, everyone I was playing against was a college football player. My sophomore year I came into camp a lot more physically and mentally prepared. I had a concussion that set me back and in week one we were playing Capital and I got a lot of second half reps and on my last rep of the game I snapped my ankle pretty bad, a very difficult injury that required surgeries and I struggled dealing with all the therapy and rehab.”

“I really worked hard the summer before my junior year and went into camp in my best shape ever. I was playing left guard and anchoring what was a struggling o-line. The day that my grandfather passed away in August of 2019, I came home for his services and I went back to campus knowing that he would want me playing football at that moment. I came back and had a rough week of practice and that cost me my starting spot, but I understood. I ended up spraining my ankle, the same one I broke, and was in a lot of pain from another setback. Just when I thought I was ready to jump back in the lineup, I sprained my ankle again and missed the rest of that season.”

The came the COVID pandemic with students being taken off campus is early spring of 2020, and a job at Winchester Ag Service provided Weeks with what he termed “cheap” conditioning. The athletic teams returned to the MSJ campus in the fall with classes still online and training limited, and spring ball in the fall.

“I felt like a freshman again because we got a new o-line coach and a new system,” said Weeks. “Of course, I only got four practices in before I got mono, just another setback for me. It turned out later that the starting left tackle had quit the team and I was moving into his spot. I went into that winter camp and got a lot of reps. The day before our first scrimmage I went back to left guard. We began in March and won five of six games.”

Weeks has two actual years of eligibility left, but only has plans to use one of them this fall, already finishing his degree in Sports Management and now working on his MBA. He says he’s love to get into coaching and he was spotted on the sidelines last fall helping Coach McFarland with the West Union squad.

Weeks has his own message for those who don’t see Adams County football as providing any type of future for its athletes.

“I’d let kids know that it takes more than talent, it takes a lot of hard work. There are a lot of great football players in Adams County and if they put the time in they can be in a similar position as me. Everyone gave me a funny look when I mentioned playing college football , but it’s developing the mentality of what you hear and translating it into how you work. Make it extra motivation to prove those people wrong. If someone tells you that you can’t, prove them wrong. You have control over all those doubters.”

“It’s also disappointing that we haven’t had the chance to make this football school-affiliated and continue to miss out on the opportunities that would come with that,” Weeks continued. “I think that football is impacting kids who may not be able to compete in other sports and hopefully those kids are taking athletics and academics more seriously. It would be a chance to schedule some different games and build some new rivalries and obviously the revenue from football can help support other sports. It’s time to make that push and get football affiliated with the schools.”

“We’re very proud of Andrew’s accomplishments and hope that it serves as a great example of what is possible if we put full support behind our football athletes,” says Coach McFarland. “We now have other athletes on our conference receiving strong interest from colleges all over the country. It’s time to support these kids and sponsor football as a school sport.”