NAPPANEE - NorthWood's punter is pretty solid this year. He's averaging 39.4 yards per kick. His longest punt is a booming 63 yards.

NorthWood's halfback, you couldn't ask anything more out of him. All he's done is rush for 965 yards - he averages 7.7 yards per carry - and 17 touchdowns. He's also caught 17 passes for 368 yards.

NorthWood's punt and kick returner, that guy does a pretty good job, too. His punt returns average 20.9 yards, while his kick returns average 17.6 yards.

All of this - the punting, the rushing and receiving, the punt returning, the kick returning - is done in a day's work for Aaron Huber.

Right now - and this is one of the few times - the blond-haired, lanky Huber is caught standing still. The softspoken junior wears a gray shirt with Purdue in big, black letters across the front. Sometimes he shoves his hands in his pockets as he nonchalantly answers questions. Other times, he leans on the refrigerator here in head coach Rich Dodson's office.

Another thing. When Huber's not punting, rushing, receiving, punt returning or kick returning, he's laying slobberknockers on opposing players. He also plays defensive back, where he has tallied 34 tackles.

"At the end of the game, I'm not that bad," he says. "If I run a long way, then I'm tired. But I'm used to it."

That Huber juggles about six tasks during four quarters of one football game and still feels "not that bad" should not come as a surprise, given his history.

As a special teams and backup player last year, he felt a pain in his side during the Wawasee game, about halfway through the season. He stayed on the sideline and made it through the game.

The next day - not right after time ran off the clock, not after his postgame shower, but the next day, he had his appendix taken out.

Not only did Huber return to the team, he returned to play in a matter of weeks.

"I missed a few games, then came back and got in on the special teams and as a sub," he says.

Dodson was high on Huber even last year as a sophomore. Huber started the first game at halfback when Dan Rouch was injured.

Rouch came back and played well to take the job away from young Huber.

"Last year (Huber) played behind some seniors," Dodson says. "We saw he had potential as a sophomore. He missed four weeks of football until the tournament came around. Then we played him.

"We would have used him more. We knew then he had that ability to be a good football player."

To Huber, the pain of appendicitis ranks right up there with the pain of a loss. Any player who's worth his salt, the one characteristic that stands out without fail is losses make those players sick.

The good ones have that competitive drive, and that's the first thing that Dodson says about Huber. Right after school, Dodson says, you probably won't find Huber hanging out in the hallways. Instead, you'll find him down in the locker room, where he typically arrives early to prepare for practice.

"Aaron doesn't handle losing too well," Dodson says. "Now when you talk about losing, you talk about every time the ball's snapped. He wants to be successful every single time the ball's snapped."

No game represented this better than the game at Dowiagiac, Mich., on Oct. 3.

NorthWood trailed 24-7 in the second half. At times Dowagiac players used Huber as a pinata. When the game ended, Huber had rushed for only 38 yards.

But the Panthers willed themselves back into the game. And with 55 seconds left, Huber caught a 34-yard touchdown pass to give NorthWood the 33-32 win. Even when Huber couldn't run the ball against a physical Dowagiac team, he made sure he helped his team.

He caught five passes for 154 yards.

"Things weren't going well for us over there," Dodson says, "but every time Aaron got the football, he was giving a good effort. Sometimes he got smacked pretty good. He got up and was determined to give the same effort on the next snap. We could have given up when we were down 24-7."

When a reporter tried to recall one of NorthWood's two losses, Huber blurted, "Goshen." He had no trouble remembering. This was a 28-7 loss to a team that Dodson said afterward was a better football team.

That didn't make it any easier for Huber.

"I was pretty upset," Huber says. "I worked hard in practice the next week so we could win the next game. I didn't want to feel that way again. I felt like I didn't do enough to help us win."

Huber rushed for 42 yards on 14 carries in the Goshen game. One week later, he rushed for 142 yards on 16 carries and scored an 80-yard touchdown to help NorthWood beat Wawasee.

Out of everything Huber does - punting, returning punts, returning kickoffs, running the football, catching the football and laying people out at defensive back - he likes running the ball most of all.

"I think it's fun to run up there and dodge people, see if they can tackle me," he says.

And that's where Dodson, too, believes he helps the team most.

"He offers us the ability to run the football," Dodson says. "He has great quickness and great vision. He can stop and go and change directions well. He's elusive. He's not a power runner; he's not just going to mow you down. But I'll tell you what, he can make you look pretty silly trying to corral him."

NorthWood's football team went 12-1 last year, with the only loss coming at semistate to Bishop Dwenger. That NorthWood team was full of seniors; only three starters returned this year.

Huber knew there would be a difference this year.

"Last year, we could play bad and still win by 40," he says. "This year, we could play bad, and we'd lose."

Dodson says Huber turned out to be a difference maker in a season that has seen the Panthers pick up where they left off, even with what is essentially a new team. NorthWood is 8-2, and both losses are to 10-0 teams, Jimtown and Goshen.

"You look at Aaron and think, Where would we be without him," Dodson says. "I don't think we'd be sitting at 8-2." [[In-content Ad]]