Matt Weisker is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Northwest Christian School for AZPreps365.

August 20 was just another day within the Northwest Christian football program. The collective mindsets of the staff were centered around that day's scrimmage at home against Greenway, with the first game away at Independence looming.

The AIA required the scrimmages which are looked at as friendly, low-stakes matches to get both offenses warmed up before kicking off the regular season. Junior guard and linebacker Caleb Faust had the same mindset as his peers.

During the second set of 15 offensive plays for Greenway on an outside run, Faust, as a linebacker, ran to his right near the sideline to find a tackling angle.

A Greenway player was pushed into Faust’s leg, allowing his knee to go the other direction.

Coaches described the aftermath, seeming as if nothing severe had happened. The thought process was due to team captain Faust, who wanted to sit out for only a few plays.

But the truth was the opposite.

The initial diagnosis, made by team trainer Amy Lucht at the time of the injury through knee manipulation and later confirmed by MRI imaging on August 22, indicated that Faust suffered a broken femur, a fracture in the shinbone, a torn calf muscle, a torn ACL, MPFL and MCL, ligaments housed within and around the knee. Faust’s meniscus was also torn in the process.

Even after the injury, Faust urged the coaching staff that he could come in for the next series of plays.

The conversation quickly shifted following the trainer’s initial prognosis after the injury from being able to play again to how long it would take for him to walk again, with potentially four surgeries needing to be performed and uncertainty surrounding the status of the growth plate in his knee.

According to the Cleveland Clinic’s website, recovering from a broken femur and a fractured tibia takes four to six months; torn calf muscle can take at least a few weeks; an ACL calls for six to nine months with physical therapy usually tacked on, and an MCL usually healing in a shorter duration. An MPFL tear, a product of a traumatic kneecap dislocation, takes four to six months as well, according to Massachusetts General Hospital’s recovery roadmap.

Observing the injuries one-by-one, it would take a total of 15 months for all injuries to heal nonsequentially.

Following the femur surgery on August 28, Faust began physical therapy through movements of mobility and stretching, even squatting using light weights. He felt no pain and retained full range of motion.

Yet in a little over three months since the injury, Faust is walking fine in a brace. He threw passes on the sidelines and stood tall during team prayer before and after each game, making quips to coaches saying he can run or get in a three-point stance in his current condition.

Kallie Faust, Caleb’s mother, said the entire process has been miraculously bizarre at every turn.

“Our last appointment, he’s bending [Faust’s] leg like a pretzel,” she said. “The doctor said, ‘you should not be doing that with what I’ve seen on the MRI’... he had only seen this extent of injuries in one other patient and it was a motorcycle accident.”

Every game, home and away including a playoff run that saw the team travel past Tucson one week and to Bullhead City the next, Caleb Faust is with his team every step of the way.

His school has accommodated him as well throughout the process via calls broadcasting well wishes while the student body is huddled around him. 

“To watch his friends from the very beginning push this kid around in a wheelchair so that he can get to class … is well beyond their years,” Dean of Students Jim James said. “Our entire Northwest Christian community from supporting churches that all of the teams and faculty are involved in have surrounded [Faust] with prayer and support that he and his family needed.”

One of Caleb Faust's key advocates still remains his head coach.

“[His demeanor] doesn’t surprise me,” Crusader head coach David Inness said. “He doesn’t want anybody to feel sorry for him. He wants these guys to just continue to play and it’s just mind boggling to see how he’s moving and jumping around and jumping in and talking to the guys throughout the games … we’re going to be there to support him and do whatever to help him.”

Inness said Faust is crucial to the program.

“What I love to watch is how he is so proud of his brother [sophomore running back and linebacker Conner Faust],” Inness said. “[Caleb’s] the leader and a captain for us, regardless if he’s in the lineup or not next year. It would still mean the world to us to just have him out here because he knows what he’s doing…he can talk with the guys and I plan on him getting his butt out there, I might have to slow him down just a tad but that’s the way he was raised by an amazing family.”

Shawn Kohner, offensive line coach for the Crusaders, is optimistic about the future of Faust’s career and his ability to put the shoulderpads back on.

“He has a smile on his face telling me, ‘I’m going to be able to go next year,’” Kohner said. “‘I’m going to be able to play on Senior Night next year’...grace is the best word I can think of … he’s looking to next year with excitement planning on being a part of this team and I can’t think of a more inspirational way for a player to be.”

Kohner then detailed the weight of Faust’s potential return.

“I believe the game that he is able to come out on the field there won’t be a dry eye in the place,” Kohner said. “I’m emotional thinking about it. As the O-line coach, there was a big hole that he left that I didn’t know how to fill ... we’ve had guys step up and get it done, but we want our field general back on the field.”

Coaches have also expressed their desire to have Faust back on the field in time for his senior baseball season in the spring of 2027 as a second or third baseman, if a return to football is not in the cards. Faust primarily played in JV while being called up to the varsity squad for some games during his sophomore season.

Faust went into surgery on December 1, not knowing the extent of the damage or the true timetable for recovery or his athletic future. 

Nate Faust, Caleb’s father, said that the idea of a medical retirement was on the table following the MRI results in August.

“It’s the elephant in the room,” Faust said. “From day one, he said, ‘I’m playing next year.’ He’s aware of the possibility that he’s done, but he’s just not accepting that. We’re fully supportive as long as all the medical staff that has been helping him clear him and if they do, let’s go for it.”

Only his ACL needed to be repaired, his other ligaments intact. His calf muscle and meniscus had also healed as well. 

The once-JV team MVP and half of the “Rage n’ Cage” duo with his brother, Conner, is expected to make a full recovery in time to get at least one more snap on the gridiron alongside his second family.

For the Faust family and all of Northwest Christian, they see this small setback as the prelude to a major comeback in God’s plan for their son, teammate and friend.