Every year, the Iron Dog award is given to a senior football player whose dedication to the weight room has translated to their success on the football field. This year it came down to a few select players but in the end, the winner was Indiana Hurst. His 4 years at CHS have all been dedicated to becoming a better athlete and a better person.

“I knew that if I were to get the iron dog, that means I’d have to work, but I mean, I wanted the iron dog, but I just wanted the team to do well, so whatever it came down to, I would push myself as hard as I could that week so that I could really be prepared for it, and that level of commitment is what I’m happy was caught by my teammates,” Indiana Hurst said.

Winning the Iron Dog award is a huge accomplishment and it would definitely help motivate Hurst to go on to bigger things, it will also help with higher-level coaches noticing him. This will benefit him while he tries to continue his football career at a collegiate level.

“It helped with my publicity, I mean colleges are gonna look at it, right? Another thing is, one of the bigger reasons I wanted to win the award because there’s a few I had, I literally put a list on my phone, like this is why I want to win the iron dog,” Hurst said. “But I needed to push myself, and from what I know, I’m the first person with special needs to win the Iron Dog Award.”

With this huge accomplishment, Hurst had, it was setting him up for a very bright future. All the work he had put in, in the weight room and on the football field paid off and even though there were setbacks, they were setting him up for success after high school. He had lots of motivation to achieve this immense goal and he is extremely proud of himself because of being the first player with special needs to win it. 

“So I wanted to win it so that I could show other people with disabilities that anything’s possible and that as long as you work hard and you reach for the stars, you might grab some,” Hurst said.