FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (February 26, 2021) – Due to an injury, and then the COVID-19 pandemic, it's been nearly two years since Northern Arizona linebacker
Tristen Vance has taken the field for the Lumberjacks.
For some, that may rock their world. However, Vance is more determined than ever.
Going into Vance's senior season with the Lumberjacks, he tore the plantar fascia in his foot right before fall camp was about to start. The plantar fascia is the thick tissue on the bottom of the foot that connects the heel bone to the toes and creates the arch of the foot. This forced Vance to be in a boot for 11 weeks, and endure a very tedious rehab process because no surgery was performed.
The injury ultimately caused Vance to miss his entire senior season, but also allowed him to learn more about himself in the meantime.
"The greatest challenge was to find a greater identity than just being a football player," Vance said.
As a result, he started to really hone in on his school work and will earn a master's degree in educational leadership in December 2021. While working through the injury, he also secured an internship with NAU's public relations department working with athletics.
Finding a passion for doing podcasts really helped him grow as a person.
"It challenged me to be more impactful and influential with my platform of being a student athlete," Vance said.
Coming into the 2021 season feeling ready to go, Vance had to overcome another obstacle of learning an entirely new playbook playing under head football coach
Chris Ball for the first time.
If you thought it was finally going to get easier, Vance also switched to a new position under the new coaching staff.
Vance had previously played the Will linebacker, which is someone who primarily plays on the shorter side of the field and is more in there for run support. Now switching over to the Sam linebacker spot, this allows Vance to play more freely in space and become more of a playmaker.
"Ball's defense allows you to be a playmaker and have more freedom instead of having just one responsibility, it gives us more trust in the man next to us," Vance said.
As a result of the position switch, Vance in a way is a leader of this defense which includes making the defensive calls. Add in Vance's seniority within the program, and he's found himself in a position of leadership throughout NAU's practices dating back to the fall.
"Energy, effort, physicality and consistency, those things are just mandatory," Vance said. "The great teams do it consistently every single snap."
The Spring 2021 season is going to be unlike any other for the Lumberjacks, and Vance wants to challenge his teammates to bring energy every single game in a season with empty arenas.
"We have to be our own source of juice," Vance said.
Now looked to as a leader for NAU's defense, once filled with many young players, Vance said he's thrilled about the team's willingness to learn and want to get better every day in practice.
"Our willingness not to be content is going to push us to that next level," Vance said.
Communication has been crucial for the Lumberjacks throughout camp thus far and having such an extended break between the end of the 2019 season has allowed them to really understand the defensive scheme under Ball.
Now more than two years from his last game in November 2018, Vance is chomping at the bit for that first game against Southern Utah on Feb. 27. Having to endure through such an extended rehab process, only for the pandemic to push back the start of the season by six months, it could be easy for anyone to steer off course, but not Vance.
"It's honestly hard to put into words," Vance said. "It's been a long time coming...I'm just thankful and I'm just ready."
The maturity Vance developed through the process has taken him to the next level in his life off the field, but the opportunity to return to the field still carries an important meaning to the work he's put in while away from the game.
"At the end of the day I am more than an athlete, but there is nothing I love more than playing the game of football," Vance said.
