Windham senior football standout Chase Eye is returning from a hip injury that cut his junior year short. He spent the entire off-season preparing for what he hopes turns into a special 2022.
Tom Nader/Portage Sports

By Tom Nader

Publisher and Editor

Chase Eye’s heart has never matched his body.

As a freshman, Windham’s Eye fit more into the famous line from the movie Rudy than he did anything else.

Five-foot-nothing. A hundred and nothing.

If that’s all you saw, though, you were missing the real Chase Eye.

Eye’s heart was forever making him larger than life.

Sure, he had his doubts and even admits to feeling initimidated as a freshman.

But his belief in himself, along with the support system around him, pushed him to positive places.

And when the time came for the spotlight to shine directly on him, he was ready.

As a sophomore, in a matchup with Waterloo when his Bombers team started the game with only 14 players total and that number dipped to 11 because of injuries, Eye was thrust into the backfield as the team’s lead running back.

Windham lost that game on Oct. 8, 2020, by a final of 28-6, but a lot changed for Eye on that night.

“I fell in love with the game as a freshman, but it was that game against Waterloo that I realized that I belonged on the field no matter how big or small I was,” said Eye, who is also a standout for Windham on the golf course, basketball court and baseball diamond.

It was only eight games later that Eye’s junior season was cut short because of a non-contact hip injury.

On the play he was hurt, Eye had taken a jet-sweep handoff and busted loose down the left sideline, with only grass between him and the end zone. However, with a plant of his foot, Eye crumpled to the ground without being touched.

Windham senior Chase Eye said he remembers idolizing Bombers standouts like Matt Knight and Phillip Maiorca and hoping to be like them one day.
“Now I realize that I am that same role model to other younger kids, and I think about that. I always try to connect with the little kids at the games and interact with them when I can, because I remember how important that made me feel. I want to be part of making them feel that same way.”
Tom Nader/Portage Sports

“He just went down,” Windham football coach and Chase’s father Jake Eye said. “Nobody was around him. He was going to score easy. I thought, ‘Uh oh, something bad happened’.”

Eye had pulled a muscle from his hip bone in an avulsion fracture.

Just like that, Eye went from being one of the area’s leading rushers to the season being over.

All it did was grow Eye’s heart and determination.

He spent the entire off-season working relentlessly, almost stubbornly, to get stronger.

“I think it was that injury that put it in his mind to get stronger,” Jake Eye said. “He took it as serious as anyone I have ever coached. Now he weighs 160 pounds and is putting up a 265 bench. Pound for pound, he is the strongest player on our team.”

Just like, pound for pound, he is the toughest, and always has been.

Now a senior with a 4.0 GPA and valedictorian that will begin college-prep courses this month, but remains a jokester at home, Eye has also transformed into a motivating leader — a role that he has grown into.

“Early in high school, Chase was always the kid that would stay in the background on things,” Jake Eye said. “He has matured into a leader now, and he is the type of kid that will help his teammates get better. I think he feels like this is his team now, and he takes leadership responsibility for that.”

It is not the only responsibility he feels or embraces.

Eye remembers the younger version of himself idolizing Windham standouts like Matt Knight and Phillip Maiorca.

“I wanted to be just like them when I grew up,” Eye said. “Now I realize that I am that same role model to other younger kids, and I think about that. I always try to connect with the little kids at the games and interact with them when I can, because I remember how important that made me feel. I want to be part of making them feel that same way.”

It is all about creating memories, for others and himself.

And, along the way, his dad is capturing the memories, too.

“I tell the kids all the time that today you’re 17 or 18 and tomorrow you will be 37. The next day you will be 62. Time goes by fast for them as players, but it goes by fast for me as a coach and for all of us as parents. I am excited and proud for Chase as a father, and I want to cherish this season. Big things are in his future, and I could not be more proud of him. He is smart and motivated. I plan to savor it and when the final week rolls around, it will be emotional for me.”

Because with the Eye family, it is all about heart.

And that is something that, without question, matches.