Yearbooks often list students that are voted most popular, best dressed and most likely to succeed among several categories. When Willmar students voted this year, Justin Schwieger was named "the boy who talked the most and said the least".
On the football field, the 6-foot, 210-pound senior tackled the most and loafed the least. He let his actions do the talking for him.
A tenacious middle linebacker who plays hurt, plays with intensity and always seems to be around the ball, Schwieger led the area in tackles each of the past two season with 145 as a junior and 146 this season despite the team playing only nine games each season.
"He is our defensive quarterback," said Willmar head coach Ken Heitzman. "He plays with a determination to get to the ball on every play."
Early in his career, Schwieger was out of shape, overweight and not nearly as aggressive as he is now. But, like a Jack-in-the-box, he eventually popped out of his shell and emerged as an outstanding player.
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"I was the sixth string fullback in eighth grade," laughed Schwieger. "The coach told me to get into the weight room and I really started to hit the weights after that."
As a result of Schwieger's dedication to making himself a better player, the next season he was the starting fullback on the freshman team and the backup linebacker.
Schwieger was then moved from fullback to guard to utilize his strength as a sophomore. His ability to make plays on defense led to him being promoted to the varsity halfway through his sophomore season.
His first tackle on varsity was memorable. With Detroit Lakes facing a fourth-and-one on its own 30-yard line in a close game, Schwieger was assigned to the quarterback. He followed him closely and when the quarterback faked an inside handoff and rolled outside, Schwieger was there to flatten him for a loss.
From then on, he hasn't been taken out of the lineup.
"I've always been able to read the guards on offense and can tell where the ball is going to go," Schwieger said, explaining his ability to disrupt a play so often. "Sometimes I can tell their tendencies by which way they might lean before a play."
Schwieger, who was one of only two Willmar players to play every game both ways this season, never missed a down the past two seasons despite numerous minor injuries.
On one occassion this fall, Schwieger rose slowly from the pile after making a tackle, hobbled back to the huddle with a sore ankle, waved off a subsitute, then took out his pain on the next play by crashing through a block and flattening a running back for a three-yard loss.
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"I can tell you how sore I was the next day after a game," said Schwieger. "I had a bad ankle all season that wouldn't go away. You don't think about the pain during the game much."
Schwieger had double-digit tackles in every game this season, including a career-high 22 against Hutchinson in the section playoffs. He had an uncanny ability to read a play and, like someone accidentally opening the door to a photographer's darkroom, squelch it before it had a chance to develop.
Schwieger is spending half his time at Ridgewater College taking classes and plans to become on optometrist some day.
For now, he would like to continue to play football with his sight set on St. John's University in Collegeville.
