Dave Brauer
Communication, Class of 2017
I had a stress fracture in my foot. The first injury happened in Fall of 2015 during cross country. It was a fifth metatarsal fracture on my right foot, so it’s an overuse injury. Thankfully I didn’t have to get surgery. I tried to take a couple of days off, ice it and wrap it just to get through the injury. It happened right before the conference meet so if I could at least jog, I was going to do it. Well, I couldn’t do that. I had to take more time off and get fitted for a boot. About two months passed and I finally started getting healthy. I was really looking forward to getting back out there.
When March finally rolled around, I did the same thing again. Same break but a couple inches up from the first one. I had to get booted again. I took it a lot more seriously this time to get strength back up. I started slow after about six weeks, running a mile or two a day, and worked my way up to my normal routine after a while.
A week before the season started, I did it again. Same thing for the third time. It sucked. I rehabbed a little, got back in the boot and nothing was really working. I had already missed so much that I had to talk to the coaches. To me, if I can’t do it to its fullest, I don’t want to do it. I don’t want to be on the sidelines. I wasn’t able to do it to my fullest potential so I had to part with it. I miss being able to run. I wasn’t the fastest but I was good enough to compete. We always say cross country is the ultimate test of human endurance and will. You’re as good as you want to be. You don’t have to depend on anybody. I loved it. I miss being able to run.
Why Heidelberg?
I originally wanted to come to Heidelberg for athletics. They happened to have the major I wanted, too. They have a really good Communication program. ... Where I’m from is really small. There were 45 people in my graduating class. Heidelberg is small but it’s not too small, like a homebody feel which is what I was looking for.
Originally from Pleasant Hill, Ohio, Dave will graduate in May of 2017 with a Communication degree. He is a member of the Order of Omega, the Excelsior Men’s Society, WHEI-TV 10 and currently interns with the radio station WTTF, located on campus. He is enrolled to pursue his MBA at Heidelberg after graduation.