Definition of determination: Wires overcomes pair of ACL surgeries to become factor at heart of Blue Devils’ defense

QUINCY — Every step Max Wires takes is one closer to leaving the past behind.

Saturday may be his final stride.

That’s when, for the first time in his prep football career, Wires will walk onto the Flinn Stadium turf for a playoff game. Injuries to both knees — the senior linebacker suffered a torn ACL in his right knee as a sophomore, then did the same to his left knee as a junior — cost him the opportunity to participate in Quincy High School’s historic breakthrough a year ago.

This fall, as healthy as he’s beeen since the start of his high school career, Wires has been a mainstay in the middle of the defense and will be in the starting lineup at 1 p.m. Saturday when the second-seeded Blue Devils (9-0) face Summit Argo (5-4) in a Class 7A first-round playoff game.

“It means God is good,” Wires said. “Everything I went through — two ACL surgeries and appendicitis — to be able to come back and do what I’m doing, to even be on the field this Saturday, it feels great.”

It’s a far different emotion than he’s experienced at previous seasons’ ends.

Four games into his sophomore season, during a 49-14 victory over United Township at Flinn Stadium, Wires’ right knee took a hard hit and the injury was immediate and serious.

“Everyone knew,” Wires said. “My knee got taken away. It was gone.”

Surgery followed, but he maintained a positive outlook.

“I was like, ‘I’m good, I’m good, I’m good,’” Wires said. “I had a lot of people in my ear telling me, ‘You’re going to come back. You’ll make it back.’ And I don’t like to give up. So after surgery, I’m thinking, ‘This is nothing.’”

Initially told he would be sidelined a minimum of nine months, Wires finished his rehabilitation in seven months. All signs pointed to a strong return to the field as part of a defense that ultimately helped the Blue Devils to the first undefeated regular season since 1935.

However, two games into his junior season, during a 40-6 victory at Alton, Wires felt a twinge in his left knee and hobbled off the field.

“It was non-contact,” Wires said. “I went to make a tackle and I stepped wrong I guess. I felt it, but I ran off the field and I was like, ‘OK, I’m fine.’”

He wasn’t.

“Day by day, it swelled more,” Wires said. “I couldn’t walk and it was hurting, but I was like, ‘There’s no way it’s my ACL.’ I knew what that felt like from the year before. Then I come to find out, sitting in that exam room, that I had an ACL tear and a meniscus tear also.

“I went into straight tears. It was a different type of pain, knowing I was going to have to be out for another year away from my guys.”

That realization took a toll.

“It took a mental strain on me as a player and as an individual in my normal day-to-day life,” Wires said. “It took a lot of passion, a lot of faith in God, a lot from my teammates to get back. I heard a lot of, ‘You’ll never play football again. You’ll never be the same.’ But I believed I would be back.”

Not everyone could be sure, including Quincy coach Rick Little and his staff.

“If he had come in and said, ‘Hey, I just can’t do this,’ I don’t think anyone would have batted an eye and thought that was the wrong thing,” Little said. “Max refused to do that.”

His toughness wouldn’t allow it.

“I’ve always had to be the one who was hard-nosed,” Wires said. “I was the one spraining the ankles, jamming the fingers, showing the toughness. I’ve seen that God wasn’t finished with me and my story wasn’t done. I really understood there was more for me to do.”

Namely, he had a role to play on this team, no matter how long it took him to get comfortable.

Wires made five tackles in the season-opening 40-12 victory at Quincy Notre Dame and steadily made as many as six tackles each week of the six games that followed. In Week 8, with the Blue Devils looking to cement a perfect run through the Western Big 6 Conference, Wires had a team-leading 12 tackles in a 55-18 victory at Geneseo.

Overall, he has 46 tackles and 3.5 tackles for loss this season.

“We’ve had a lot of really deep conversations about how he’s doing, how he’s feeling and he has had moments where he’s like, ‘I don’t really trust myself or trust my knee yet,’” QHS defensive coordinator Eric Gauer said. “But he’s always back the next day. There’s no quit in him. That’s for sure.

“He has a good motor and understands everything we’re trying to accomplish. He’s definitely a leader for us.”

His relentlessness and competitive desire supersedes all else.

“He has this ability to refuse to accept failure or refuse to accept disappointment,” Little said. “I was concerned we might have to have a tough conversation because here’s a kid who just refuses to fail. But we never had to have that conversation because we watched him slowly get better over the summer and continue to get better and better throughout the fall.

“Next thing you know, he’s out there all the time. He just refused to give in and has made the most of his opportunity.”

Wires wanted to reward his coaches for their trust and belief in him.

“(Gauer) put his faith in me,” Wires said. “After the first ACL injury, he told me, ‘You’re not going anywhere.’ I tore my ACL again and I come back for summer drills and he tells me, ‘I put my faith in you. You’re not going anywhere. You’re part of this team.’ Man, that meant so much.

“They questioned my ability to fly around a little bit. When you have two surgeries, you have to question something. My coaches really knew what type of player I was and they knew what I could do.”

Proving it on a weekly basis is enough to make him cry.

“I saw a prayer before the game,” Wires said. “I get on one knee and I drop some tears, some happy tears obviously. I’ve been blessed to have the opportunity I have.”