BYRON, Minn. (KTTC) – “It would mean everything,” Byron junior running back Carson Heimer said. “Byron, we haven‘t won a state title for football, so that’d be everything right now.”
Byron football is three wins away from a championship, and Heimer certainly played a role in getting them to this point, running wild throughout the season. But when asked if he knew he was in line for a special year, he focused on the team.
“I believed the team was going to have a good season,” he said.
Heimer likes to shine the spotlight on others, like the offensive line.
“I just read the gaps and hit the holes. There are multiple runs that I‘ve had where I haven’t even been touched, and that’s all credit to them.”
But the light was shining on him in the section championship on Friday, toting the rock 24 times for 241 yards and four touchdowns in a 42-7 win to send the Bears to state.
“Carson does a really good job of taking what‘s given to him, and he also has that home run ability,” Byron football head coach Ben Halder said. “There’s a lot of times he makes the first guy miss, and when the first guy misses and you have a hat on a hat, it usually ends up being a big chunk.”
Having the rock in his hands isn’t the only way Heimer makes an impact.
“He‘s a really good defensive football player too,” Halder said. “People don’t see that as much, I think, as the 20 carries for 200 yards or whatever it is every night, but defensively he has a huge impact for us.”
This is his second year as a key piece on defense, but his first year as the lead back for the Bears as he took the spot of standout Adam Glynn. But big shoes to fill didn’t deter expectations.
“There was a lot of people saying, last year we graduated a lot of people, it was a lot of uncertainty,” Heimer said. “But Coach Halder just kept preaching how this was the goal, and kept telling us to meet a new standard and make a new standard in Byron football.”
A new standard has been made, with the Bears reaching state in back-to-back years for the first time in school history. With more than 1,400 yards in just 10 games, Carson has helped shape it. But that standard is shaped by culture, and the culture is strong in Byron.
“It‘s like a family, honestly and that‘s what Coach Halder preaches,” he said. “You can see we‘ve all got bleached hair, we‘re all going through that. I‘m getting mine bleached tomorrow. We’re a family.”
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