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University of Minnesota Athletics
No Time Off: Defensive Tackle Dan Kwapinski
9/19/2003 12:00:00 AM | Football
For the first time in his football playing years, Kwapinski was not participating. And that may have been more difficult than the road to recovery. After having surgery on the injured right knee, his doctors informed him he would not be back up to par until five or six months later. In some years, an injury in mid-November would mean the player has the entire following months of the off-season to recover. But last year, the Minnesota football season did not end with the month of November. With a record of 7-5, the team was invited to play in the Music City Bowl. For the first time, Kwapinski would have to sit out.
"It was really, really tough," Kwapinski said. "Almost tougher than sitting out of the game was sitting out of practice because we had 15 bowl practices leading up to the game. And I had to sit on the sideline and watch all 15 of them. It's just hard to not be in there when you're injured. It's really tough. You see all the guys doing all the things that you want to do, but can't because of the injury."
While Kwapinski watched, he pointed out to his teammates little things that he noticed or had learned over his three seasons. But for the natural-born leader, sitting and talking simply was not the same. He wanted to be on the line. Instead he was in the training room, nursing the knee back to playing form. "I was really lucky all through my whole career of not having any major injuries. This was the first time that I had to rehab," Kwapinski commented. "I had had some experience rehabbing with people because I was planning on going into physical therapy. And I worked three summers down in Burnsville doing actual rehab with patients and I've seen a lot of knee surgeries and had helped people rehab from those. It was kind of strange to be on the other end of it."
The rehabbing continued all the way through spring practice until May. The six months were painful, but worth all the long hours and hard work to get back on the field. After seeing the success that the defense had in the Golden Gopher victory in the Music City Bowl, Kwapinski was eager to suit up and start tackling again.
The bowl game was treated as the first game of the 2003 season, rather than a game to cap off 2002. Although Kwapinski did not get to participate in the game, he could feel the excitement about the defense's play growing. "I was only watching. There's only so much you can get out of watching compared to playing," he remarked. "But we treated the Music City Bowl as the first game of the 2003 season. We got off to a good start winning that one and hopefully we'll be able to carry it on through the rest of the season."
So far this season, the defense has been one of the most improved areas of the Golden Gophers. The dramatic improvements have been showcased in the first three games of the season, led by Kwapinski as one of Minnesota's four co-captains and a senior leader. In a year when Minnesota is expected to do big things, the mature and talented defensive game is one of the main areas for a positive outlook. With most members of the defense having at least a season under their belt, Kwapinski believes the main difference is just having experienced various playing situations that they learned from and carried into this year.
"We just have a lot more experience really," he said. "Everyone is back and everyone has been here before. Been around the block a couple of times, so they pick up things and learn things. We have a lot more size, too. We got bigger in the weight room. Mike Chism (of strength and conditioning) did a good job with us over the summer, getting us a lot faster and athletic than we were before."
While coming back from a season-ending injury and being a building block in the developing Minnesota defense are achievements Kwapinski takes pride in on the field, what may be most impressive are his achievements in school. After being one of seven current Golden Gophers to have already graduated, he took his degree in biology and has enrolled in pharmacy school at the `U.' Just football and just grad school can be time consuming enough, but together it takes a person with discipline and determination to find success in both.
"It's tough. You really have to manage your day well when balancing football and school because they both take up a lot of your time and there's only so much to go around," Kwapinski said. "So, you have to know when your tests are, know when you practice, things like that. Take advantage of the people in ACSS (Academic Counseling and Student Services). The academic advisors and learning specialists do a great job. If you take advantage of the resources available to you here at the U, it's really a great help."
Kwapinski has always been interested in going into a medical field. He came to Minnesota wanting to be a physical therapist, and then considered becoming a doctor, before settling on the field of pharmacy. He said the thing that usually surprises people meeting him is how he is the complete opposite of the "dumb jock" role that they mistakenly expect. In fact, Kwapinski has been a scholar-athlete award winner every year of attending college as well as being a three-time Academic All-Big Ten and two-time Verizon Academic All-America District V honoree. Undoubtedly, armed with his intelligence, his work ethic and his own personal experience of dealing with injuries, he will find an area off the field to achieve just as much, if not more, success. But as for right now, Dan Kwapinski is just happy to be back on the field. He had his time to sit on the sidelines and did not enjoy it. He has started a new streak of consecutive games started, and hopes to continue this one long after November 15.
Written by Media Relations Assistant Courtney Walerius. She welcomes comments at gophers@umn.edu.
Dan Kwapinski finally took a break last year. After playing in 23 straight games, the defensive tackle found himself sitting on the sidelines. It was not exactly where he wanted to be, watching the game instead of playing in it. But he had no choice. During the final regular season game of the 2002 season against Iowa, Kwapinski went down with a torn ACL in the first half. His team-leading streak of consecutive starts was snapped.
For the first time in his football playing years, Kwapinski was not participating. And that may have been more difficult than the road to recovery. After having surgery on the injured right knee, his doctors informed him he would not be back up to par until five or six months later. In some years, an injury in mid-November would mean the player has the entire following months of the off-season to recover. But last year, the Minnesota football season did not end with the month of November. With a record of 7-5, the team was invited to play in the Music City Bowl. For the first time, Kwapinski would have to sit out.
"It was really, really tough," Kwapinski said. "Almost tougher than sitting out of the game was sitting out of practice because we had 15 bowl practices leading up to the game. And I had to sit on the sideline and watch all 15 of them. It's just hard to not be in there when you're injured. It's really tough. You see all the guys doing all the things that you want to do, but can't because of the injury."
While Kwapinski watched, he pointed out to his teammates little things that he noticed or had learned over his three seasons. But for the natural-born leader, sitting and talking simply was not the same. He wanted to be on the line. Instead he was in the training room, nursing the knee back to playing form. "I was really lucky all through my whole career of not having any major injuries. This was the first time that I had to rehab," Kwapinski commented. "I had had some experience rehabbing with people because I was planning on going into physical therapy. And I worked three summers down in Burnsville doing actual rehab with patients and I've seen a lot of knee surgeries and had helped people rehab from those. It was kind of strange to be on the other end of it."
The rehabbing continued all the way through spring practice until May. The six months were painful, but worth all the long hours and hard work to get back on the field. After seeing the success that the defense had in the Golden Gopher victory in the Music City Bowl, Kwapinski was eager to suit up and start tackling again.
The bowl game was treated as the first game of the 2003 season, rather than a game to cap off 2002. Although Kwapinski did not get to participate in the game, he could feel the excitement about the defense's play growing. "I was only watching. There's only so much you can get out of watching compared to playing," he remarked. "But we treated the Music City Bowl as the first game of the 2003 season. We got off to a good start winning that one and hopefully we'll be able to carry it on through the rest of the season."
So far this season, the defense has been one of the most improved areas of the Golden Gophers. The dramatic improvements have been showcased in the first three games of the season, led by Kwapinski as one of Minnesota's four co-captains and a senior leader. In a year when Minnesota is expected to do big things, the mature and talented defensive game is one of the main areas for a positive outlook. With most members of the defense having at least a season under their belt, Kwapinski believes the main difference is just having experienced various playing situations that they learned from and carried into this year.
"We just have a lot more experience really," he said. "Everyone is back and everyone has been here before. Been around the block a couple of times, so they pick up things and learn things. We have a lot more size, too. We got bigger in the weight room. Mike Chism (of strength and conditioning) did a good job with us over the summer, getting us a lot faster and athletic than we were before."
While coming back from a season-ending injury and being a building block in the developing Minnesota defense are achievements Kwapinski takes pride in on the field, what may be most impressive are his achievements in school. After being one of seven current Golden Gophers to have already graduated, he took his degree in biology and has enrolled in pharmacy school at the `U.' Just football and just grad school can be time consuming enough, but together it takes a person with discipline and determination to find success in both.
"It's tough. You really have to manage your day well when balancing football and school because they both take up a lot of your time and there's only so much to go around," Kwapinski said. "So, you have to know when your tests are, know when you practice, things like that. Take advantage of the people in ACSS (Academic Counseling and Student Services). The academic advisors and learning specialists do a great job. If you take advantage of the resources available to you here at the U, it's really a great help."
Kwapinski has always been interested in going into a medical field. He came to Minnesota wanting to be a physical therapist, and then considered becoming a doctor, before settling on the field of pharmacy. He said the thing that usually surprises people meeting him is how he is the complete opposite of the "dumb jock" role that they mistakenly expect. In fact, Kwapinski has been a scholar-athlete award winner every year of attending college as well as being a three-time Academic All-Big Ten and two-time Verizon Academic All-America District V honoree. Undoubtedly, armed with his intelligence, his work ethic and his own personal experience of dealing with injuries, he will find an area off the field to achieve just as much, if not more, success. But as for right now, Dan Kwapinski is just happy to be back on the field. He had his time to sit on the sidelines and did not enjoy it. He has started a new streak of consecutive games started, and hopes to continue this one long after November 15.
Written by Media Relations Assistant Courtney Walerius. She welcomes comments at gophers@umn.edu.
