Oft-injured Janke hopes for full season
Dexter Janke tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. Then he tore it again. Then he tore it again. The highly-regarded tailback has also played some football between all that ligament shredding, and he’s back on the field this week — determined to, finally, play a full season.
“Everyone jokes and asks which is my bad leg,” says Janke, the University of Saskatchewan Huskies’ tailback. “I tell them I don’t have a bad leg anymore.”
Janke proclaims himself fully healed from his latest left-knee tear, which happened in August 2012 during a pre-season game against Guelph and ended his season before it started. A dash through Huskie defenders during Friday morning’s training-camp opener showed onlookers what he’s capable of.
“First carry, he hits the seam faster than we hit it all last year and goes for 20,” says Huskies’ head coach Brian Towriss. “I think that means some good things.”
Janke tore his ACL both in grades 11 and 12. He joined the Huskies in 2010, but was limited to non-contact work on the scout team while he recovered.
In 2011, he shared the Huskies’ starting tailback job with incumbent Ben Coakwell and led the team with 827 all-purpose yards. In 2012, the top job was his, until he tore the ACL in his left knee for a third time. It was the 11th major knee injury suffered by a Huskies’ tailback since 2003.
“It’s been extremely frustrating, especially with the fact I came here for football,” says Janke, an Edmonton product who has four years of eligibility remaining. “But in another way, it’s grounded me and made me realize I do need to get an education. This program really preaches getting your education, and they pride themselves in that, so in a way, it was almost a blessing for me to realize I do need my education. I can’t play football forever.”
The Huskies plan to be cautious with Janke during training camp before setting him loose during the regular season. He’ll suit up for twoa-day workouts, but will go hard in just one of the two practices each day.
“Like any other ACL, we’re not going to pound him in camp,” Towriss says. “He’s going to go once a day, because he knows what he’s doing. We don’t want to cause some inflammation that takes a while to get out of there. But he looks solid, and that first play, he looked like a bullet going through there.” Dexter Janke of the Huskies is, once again, about to hit the gridiron for a regular season of football after recovering from an ACL tear.
Janke reiterates that he’s trying not to think about the prospect of re-injuring the knee. He’s aware of what’s happened in the past with ex-Huskies tailback David Stevens, who tore the ACL in both knees, but rebounded to be a runner-up for the Hec Crighton Trophy as Canada’s outstanding CIS football player in 2005 while helping his team to the Vanier Cup.
“Hopefully,” Janke says with a grin, “we can get a repeat performance this year.
“One goal,” he adds, “is to play the whole season. The other’s to help this team get to the Vanier. Those are the only goals that really matter to me, to be honest.”
Two-a-day workouts continue at Griffiths Stadium Saturday and Sunday at 9 a.m. and 3:45 p.m.