Horizon linebacker Blaze Markovich begins his comeback trail,
Phoenix Horizon linebacker Blaze Markovich figured to start on last season’s football team that reached the historic Open Division playoffs. But a broken leg sustained in fall camp ended his season.
He’s back, bigger, better, more motivated, and, after a coronavirus pandemic that put the spring on pause, he’s ready to break out big in the fall.
Markovich underwent surgery with a steel rod inserted in his lower right leg near his ankle.
“I went through two months of physical therapy to get it back to walking,” said Markovich, who is 6-foot-3, 210 pounds. “I was able to get back to full strength eventually.”
Markovich would have been ready for spring football in May, but that was canceled by the virus shutting down school. No college football coaches got to see how far he had come in the spring.
Without junior film, Markovich hasn’t been able to leverage himself to college coaches to help his recruiting.
Coach Ty Wisdom knows how good Markovich is, and believes he could end up like outside linebacker Kyle Lewis, who missed his junior season two years ago with an injury, only to have a breakout senior season. Lewis will play for Army.
“Super excited to have Blaze back,” Wisdom said. “He’s had a great offseason. Blaze is a great leader. He gets it done in the classroom, as well as on the field. It’s like having a new kid move in and play for us. He’ll be a leader for us at linebacker.”
Markovich, who grew two inches since last year, was pounding the medicine ball during a recent practice and power-cleaning weights.
He has worked through tough times, not being able to get on the field with his teammates last season when the Huskies went 9-2, becoming one of eight teams among the big-school conferences to qualify for the state’s first Open playoff.
“It was just a freak accident,” Markovich said about the injury. “I went up for the ball. I got hit wrong and it just broke.
“I was pretty disappointed. I got robbed this (spring) season, two seasons in one, you know. I’ll just get ready this season.”
Markovich is hopeful that this fall football season will be played in Arizona with the positive COVID-19 tests in Arizona still climbing.
“We have the distancing (with the weights outside),” Markovich said. “It makes me feel safer. It makes the coaches feel safer. I think it’s really good. And we can also get our workout in. I think it’s really great.”
On Monday, Horizon, like other Paradise Valley Unified School District Schools, was in Phase 2 of summer football activities to get ready for the Arizona Interscholastic Association season.
Wisdom sanitized football with a spray after using them on the field. It was the first time they could use a football.
“Everybody does it a little differently,” Wisdom said. “I just want to make sure we’re doing our due diligence. At the end of the day, we want to play in the fall.”
“Blaze is a great leader. He gets it done in the classroom, as well as on the field. It’s like having a new kid move in and play for us. He’ll be a leader for us at linebacker.” Ty Wisdom Horizon football coach, on Blaze Markovich