A healthy Nate Wieland leads Iowa City High football into playoff opener

IOWA CITY - Through it all, Nate Wieland still felt this moment would arrive.

Last year, a puzzling leg injury forced the Iowa City High quarterback to miss the last seven games of a football season in which his teammates won two playoff contests and got within a game of the UNI-Dome.

Seven months of rehabilitation returned Wieland to the practice field in time for summer workouts, and a season of full health delivers the senior to the prep football playoffs for the first time.

Wieland will quarterback the eighth-ranked Little Hawks (7-2) in a Class 4A first-round game at North Scott (5-4) Friday at 7.

'I'm really excited for this opportunity,” Wieland said. 'I'm just making the most of everything. Hoping that our preparation goes well all week and we come out Friday and show that. I had a feeling that it was going to come. We worked really hard all offseason so I had a great feeling that this was going to come. It was going to reward us.”

Wieland's 2015 season ended in a Week 5 home victory over Ottumwa in which a routine option-run play was met by a hit to his right knee, which twisted as additional defenders converged and piled upon him. Wieland 'heard a pop” before numbness enveloped the leg. Initially feared as a torn knee ligament, the subsequent MRI returned an uncharacteristic diagnosis - the ligaments were fine, but nerve damage had occurred.

'The doctors said it was one of the flukiest things they've ever seen,” Wieland said.

Doctors advised the knee would heal on its own, so the ensuing rehab became more mental than physical. With the remainder of the football season and the dawning basketball season wiped out, Wieland surrounded himself with teammates and offered vocal encouragement and motivation. They, in turn, ably recognized his low moments and reciprocated.

'In some ways this injury was the best thing to happen to me,” Wieland said. 'I learned the game a lot more from it. I watched film more, saw things from the sideline perspective of it and saw where the holes were in some defenses.”

By the time summer football workouts began in June, Wieland felt 100 percent. College recruiting interest returned, and Wieland quickly received a scholarship offer from Northern Illinois, which he accepted June 17.

The dual-threat quarterback prospect was a full participant in preseason football practices with the Little Hawks, which provided the impetus for a healthy and productive senior season. Wieland has completed 60.3 percent of his passes for 1,261 yards and five touchdowns, and further damaged opposing defenses with his legs to the tune of 595 yards and 10 TDs.

City High finished as District 4 runner-up and enters the playoffs with wins in five of six games. After starting 1-4, North Scott has won four games in a row.

'Every game he's been out there ready to go and excited to play and practice,” City High Coach Dan Sabers said. 'Now it's what every high school player dreams for and looks forward to. It's the playoffs.”

l Comments: douglas.miles@thegazette.com