Jake Helgoth is never going to show up on any statistical leaderboard, but the Fleming senior undoubtedly will make a big influence on his team. In fact, he already has.
Helgoth is Fleming’s version of Rudy Ruetiger, the small Notre Dame walk-on who never saw much action on the field but whose work ethic inspired an entire team. Then again, Helgoth is far from small. He stands 7-feet-1. That’s taller than any player in NFL history.
Don’t let the height fool you, though. Helgoth weighs in at a mere 190 pounds. His stature had limited his playing time over the past few seasons, but a rigorous offseason training program has turned Helgoth into a legitimate player.
“I wanted to prove it to myself,” Helgoth said. “I wanted it so bad, that I knew I had to bulk up and do what I needed to do to play.”
When coach Dan Conn took over last season, Helgoth, then a 6-6, 170-pound junior, struggled to just get the bar up doing bench presses. He was clocked at just under seven seconds in the 40 and struggled to finish the mile in 13 minutes.
“He never took on that ‘man, I never get to play’ attitude,” Conn said. “He just loves the game, and he has worked hard.”
From the end of last season until school ended in May, Helgoth was in the weight room twice every day. His teammates followed suit.
In the summer, when the school was closed, Helgoth would stroll over to Conn’s house early in the morning and wake him up to get the weight room open. Again, his teammates followed.
“He’s got a heck of a lot of motivation,” senior Bo Vandenbark said. “I’ve never seen anybody work so hard. He wants to play, and that clearly shows through his work ethic.”
Helgoth, who routinely spends hours on the track with his beagle, Spunky, now benches 160 pounds and has trimmed his 40 time to 5.25 seconds. He also has lowered his mile time to seven minutes.
Helgoth, who has been used sparingly to try to block field goals in the past, likely will see time this season at end and defensive end.
Conn, knowing how badly his senior wanted to get on the field and the potential for injury, sent him to a doctor just in case to make sure everything would be all right.
“He’s just growing so fast that the ligaments around his ankles just can’t keep up, and they will likely break,” Conn said. “The doctor said he would probably be OK and taught us how to wrap him up properly.”
Said Helgoth, who doesn’t worry so much about his ankles: “The ankles are the least of my worries. If it breaks, it breaks. It’s my elbows I worry about.”
Helgoth’s left elbow has no tissue remaining and has been dislocated eight times, including last year when he did it falling out of bed.
Everyone across the state who plays Fleming this season may gawk and stare, but the lanky Helgoth’s explanation for wanting to play football is simple.
“I just love being on the field with the lights bearing down on me,” he said. “It’s just a great feeling.”
