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| Giovanni Weeks has had the ball in his hands on a lot of important occasions for Wheaton this season. Photo by Jimmy Naprstek for Wheaton athletics |
By Greg Thomas
D3football.com
As the Wheaton Thunder prepare for their fifth trip to the second round of the NCAA Division III Football Championship in the past eight tournaments, their 2023 season has been defined by perseverance. After a loss to No. 1 North Central in their fourth game, Wheaton had to run the table, win on the last play of the game against Washington U., and rally from 14 points behind to beat Mount St. Joseph in the first round of the playoffs.
Persevere they have, and senior running back Giovanni Weeks has been in the middle of it all. Weeks’s personal journey at Wheaton has been an exercise in perseverance, in fact.
Wheaton head coach Jesse Scott recalls Weeks impressing the coaching staff in just the first few days of his first preseason camp in 2019: “A couple of days into training camp, he's killing it, was making waves and probably would have had an opportunity to get on the field on special teams at the very least, if not potentially in our offensive backfield even with just what we had seen from him physically in the first couple of days.”
Before Weeks had an opportunity to showcase his talent as a rookie, a knee injury ended his 2019 season. The following fall, Wheaton and the rest of the CCIW canceled their season and Weeks’s return to the playing field could only happen in COVID-era practices- 36 of them to be exact. For his first two years at Wheaton, Weeks could only rehab an injured knee and practice with his teammates.
Weeks’s patience has paid dividends. When he was finally able to take the field in 2021, one of the most prolific offensive careers in Wheaton history commenced. Weeks is the only player in Wheaton history to rush for over 4,000 career yards. His 416 career points is the most in program history as are his 69 total touchdowns. In Saturday’s win against Mount St. Joseph, Weeks became the school’s all-time leader in all-purpose yards with 5,366 yards. Needless to say, Weeks has become one of the most reliable offensive players in the division.
How reliable has Weeks become? Reliable enough for Scott to put Wheaton’s season quite literally in his hands. In the moments after Seth Kortenhoeven hauled in a touchdown pass with no time remaining against Washington U. and the Thunder trailing 35-34, Scott initially sent his kicking team out to attempt to send the game to overtime. The Bears took a timeout, and Scott quickly changed his strategy.
“It didn't take real long for us to pivot to going for two at that point. There were a couple of nods and that's all it took to know that we're going to go that direction,” Scott said. “There were two options. One of those two point plays put the ball in No. 30's hands, and one of them didn't. So we felt pretty strongly at that point in the game to put the ball in 30's hands.
Weeks also remembers those moments just before his dash for two points and a walk off win against Washington. “Coach Scott called the offense over into a huddle and he looked at me and he just asked, ‘Gio, can we get this in the end zone,’” Weeks recalled. “I'd be lying if I told you I didn't hesitate, but I hesitated and I thought to myself and I knew I didn't want the ball in anyone else's hands but my own. So I said ‘Yeah, we can get this in.’”
Weeks won the race to the pylon and in doing so helped secure the Thunder’s spot in the postseason.
In the first round, Mount St. Joseph led Wheaton 14-0 before Wheaton’s offense ran even one play. With the season on the line again, Wheaton turned to their star running back again. Weeks carried the ball on 12 of Wheaton’s first 22 snaps, scoring the first two touchdowns to equalize with the Lions after the fast start. When the dust settled, Weeks had given the Thunder a career high in carries (38) and a season high in rushing yards (256) and touchdowns (4).
Despite the heavy workload, particularly in the first half, Weeks knew he had to dig down and give his team his best effort. “When everything's on the line in those moments, and when you know this could be it, you'll find a way,” Weeks said. “I think the offense just found a way, our team found a way, and we've been in a lot of those kinds of games this year. We keep finding a way to win and that's what matters.”
That willingness to push to new limits is something Scott has seen in Weeks throughout his senior season. “We talk about urgency all the time. I think you can read body language and see urgency. That's absolutely the case for Gio,” Scott said. “If you watch him practice right now, it's pretty clear how wired and focused he is on accomplishing what we want to and what he wants to in terms of being 1-0 in a given play and in the given weekend.”
Scott continued, “There's a lot of focus. He does a great job rallying his teammates around the moment when we're out on the practice field. In the huddle, he's drawing attention to the task at hand and the way we need to operate. And then he's one of the first to tap himself on the shoulder to make sure that he and his actions are doing it the way that he's challenging everybody else to do it.”
Weeks’s focus and determination has produced 20 rushing touchdowns and more than 1,500 rushing yards so far in 2023. Those are just some of the stats that have led Weeks to being named a semifinalist for the 2023 Gagliardi Trophy, the award to Division III’s most outstanding player that recognizes achievement in athletics, academics, and community service.
“I’m honored. I love the sport, I love Division III football,” Weeks said of his reaction to being named a Gagliardi Trophy semifinalist. “We’re challenged in a different way with the academic grind and the athletic grind. To be recognized as one of the best is a privilege. I don't think it would be an individual honor for me. I think it would be more of an honor for our offense and it would just be awesome to represent the team and the program if I won.”
Being an impactful leader off of the field has been an important part of Weeks’s Wheaton experience as well. “Wheaton College and Wheaton Football has a great relationship with Kanekuk Kamps in Missouri. Being a Christian evangelical college it's a great ministry opportunity to serve there,” Weeks said. “I was there for about a month and a half to two months this summer as a camp counselor, helping the kids and investing in their lives. I think the motivation to do that was just to honor God and to serve Him. It was a great time and a great way to serve.”
While the hours were long and keeping up with younger children is tiring even for top collegiate athletes, Weeks left his experience feeling good about his influence on his campers. “You could see these kids starting to understand the teachings of the Bible better and some would just give their life to Christ. To be able to do that as a Christian, believing that that's an eternal impact, it's pretty incredible. I'm just thankful that I got to be a part of it.”
Scott also noted Weeks’s off-field commitments as being as impressive as what he has done on the field. “To see him serve on mission trips and to see him this past summer at a kids camp as a counselor for the entirety of the summer- that sort of sacrificial mindset to give of himself for the sake of others is significant,” Scott said. “I think that that's what makes him what this award stands for. The on-field credentials are absolutely there, but he's a really special representative of what college athletics is and what Wheaton football is off of it.”
Giovanni Weeks’s fate with the Gagliardi Trophy remains uncertain, but what is certain is that Weeks has at least one more game to play for Wheaton College, and tournament games against the Division’s royalty are one reason why Weeks came back to Wheaton for a fifth year.
Wheaton may be underdogs this weekend in its second-round game on the road at UW-Whitewater and Perkins Stadium, but the Thunder have been finding a way to survive all season. “This is the kind of game you dream of playing in,” said Weeks. “We've been here before and a lot of times we haven't been on the winning side. You want to rewrite the script and be one of the contributors who can change the narrative for a program.”