Gary Leininger / The Morning Journal. West Branch’s Dru DeShields throws a pass earlier this season while being pursued by Salem’s Ross Davidson.

Few high school players have put up numbers in their careers quite like Dru DeShields.

During his senior season at West Branch this past fall, DeShields completed 64 percent of his passes for 3,932 yards, 46 touchdowns and just three interceptions. He also ran for 679 yards and 16 more touchdowns. All-in-all DeShields set 12 school records during his time with the Warriors.

He was simply an offensive powerhouse in head coach Tim Cooper’s pass-friendly offensive scheme.

“I had a really good experience during my last year,” DeShields said. “Coach Cooper was like another father figure — he taught me everything. He taught me how to be a man, and I feel like that was the biggest thing I took away from school.”

Those numbers become all the more impressive when it is noted that DeShields played most of his final season with an injured ACL and meniscus.

During the Warriors’ second game of the season at home against Woodridge, DeShields was running into the end zone and accidentally stepped in a hole in the field. He hyperextended his knee at the time, but it didn’t stop him.

“I would just throw a brace on it and keep playing,” DeShields said.

Despite experiencing bouts of pain, DeShields played through it and went on to lead West Branch to an 12-2 record and a second consecutive regional runner-up finish in Division IV, Region 13.

However, at the end of the season in December, DeShields had to have surgery to repair his ACL and meniscus.

As he recovered and rehabbed from surgery during the winter, DeShields was forced to miss his senior basketball campaign.

“It was pretty tough having to just sit on the bench,” DeShields said. “But I just tried to do my best. I want to become a coach after I’m done playing, so I tried to take that role and really sort of learn from Coach (Michael) Brown. I just tried to take in as much as I could.”

But, during West Branch’s Senior Night game against Girard on Feb. 10, DeShields still got a chance to make his mark on the season.

He started the game and the Indians allowed him to score a layup for the game’s opening basket. After scoring, he checked out of the game and returned to the bench, where he was greeted by a hug from Brown and a standing ovation from the Warrior-faithful in attendance.

“It was amazing — I love that Girard let me do that,” DeShields said. “They didn’t care about giving up two points. It just made my whole season. I got to be out there one more time and just make one more bucket.”

Then, just a couple months later, DeShields finally made his athletic return — running the 100m and 200m dashes during a track meet at Poland on May 4. Just 4 1/2 months after surgery, he was finally back.

“It just felt great to compete again,” DeShields said. “I really needed to. I was cooped up at home for a while and I was really bored. I didn’t really know what to do and I was kind of sad. I just wanted to compete. But that’s what I was working towards with physical therapy, and then I ended up getting to do that again.”

DeShields finished out the rest of track season, and graduated from West Branch. But then the real work began.

After initially committing to Eastern Illinois during his junior season, DeShields decommited and ended up committing to Kent State after receiving an offer from former Golden Flashes head coach Sean Lewis, who ended up being hired as the offensive coordinator for Deion Sanders at Colorado just a week later.

“The distance away was really a big part of it,” DeShields said of decommiting from EIU. “It was around a five- or six-hour drive, while Kent is 35 minutes from my house. That was a really big reason. Facilities were another big reason and then Kent’s offense — they were No. 1 in either 2020 or 2021 in yards in all of college football. So I just really love their offense.”

Despite losing the coach that recruited him, DeShields opted to stick with Kent State after getting to meet new head coach Kenni Burns.

“I love what they’re doing there with Coach Burns as the new coach,” DeShields said. “I really love what he’s doing with the program and I think it’s going in the right direction. It was a little bit of a transition because Coach Lewis recruited me, but then a week later he left for Colorado. I didn’t know how Coach Burns was going to be (at the time), but I really like him.”

DeShields moved in at Kent earlier this month on June 7, and has begun working out with the team and getting ready for camp at the end of the summer and then his freshman season in the fall.

Now six months out from surgery, DeShields has almost been fully cleared by his doctors. He still has some small limitations — to limit hard cutting on the field during practice and workouts, but otherwise, he’s full go for the Golden Flashes.

“I’m doing all the workouts right now and I’m not really sitting out of anything,” DeShields said. “I’m still getting used to it, but I’m fully in all the workouts.”

Yet, DeShields still has one final obligation before he can fully put high school in the rearview mirror.

The Quad-County Football Coaches Association selected him this year for Thursday’s Penn-Ohio Stateline Classic.

“It means a lot (to be picked) because they didn’t have to pick me because they know I’m not playing,” DeShields said. “I give (Team Ohio head) Coach (Ron) Johnson credit for doing that for me. (Salem) was a big rival. I respect that a lot because I can’t play in the game, but they’re still going to honor me.”

While he won’t be playing in the game itself for precautionary reasons, DeShields will still be there on the sidelines at Sebo Stadium in Salem to support his former Warrior teammates Mitch Coffee, Thomas Egli and Christian Martig in their final game together.

“That’s the last game that they’ll ever play together, so I’m going to be there for them,” DeShields said.

nmadhavan@tribtoday.com