Comet RB Trever Heitz is preparing for record-setting season … even if it doesn’t happen

By John Burbridge
sports@charlescitypress.com
CHARLES CITY — It has been said in jest that it would likely take an unprecedented act of nature to prevent Trever Heitz from becoming the Charles City Comets’ all-time leading rusher.

Yet here we are.

After being the first Comet sophomore to rush for 1,000 yards (exactly) in a season, Heitz followed up gaining a team-leading 829 yards on the ground his junior season.

That put Heitz just 34 yards behind 2008 Charles City graduate Taylor Fiser for the school’s top career mark (1,863).

Barring a season-ending-before-it-started injury, Heitz was practically assured a top perch in the Comet record books.

But with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s a chance that the forthcoming 2020 football season — as well as Heitz’s quest to make history — will be stuffed at the line of scrimmage.

“I definitely hope that will not be the case,” Heitz said, “but I understand why they’re keeping school closed now.”

Even if the pandemic does take out the football season, Heitz is not going down without a fight.

Though the Charles City weight room has remained off limits since mid-March, and many of the local gyms in the area are just starting to tentatively re-open, Heitz has remained a committed gym rat … at home.

“Over the past few years, I built a gym in my basement,” Heitz said. “There’s always a place where I could train.”

As part of an online physical education class he took while schooling at home, Heitz has created a training regimen which he demonstrates by using himself as an example.

“It’s stuff I’ve learned and added over the years,” Heitz said.

One of Heitz’s online workouts impressed Comet head football coach Darren Bohlen, who retweeted the exhibition with “No school, no weight room, no problem … Trever Heitz is crushing the pandemic.”

Even before the pandemic, Heitz has been “crushing it” as in crushing Charles City powerlifting milestones.
With personal-best lifts of 505 pounds in the squat, 325 lbs. In the power clean, and 275 lbs. in the bench press, Heitz has achieved rare company amid the school’s 1,100-pound club.

“My goal is to reach 1,250 by the end of my senior year,” said Heitz, who has school records in the squat and power clean, and is about 50 pounds shy of the school record in the bench press.

Even if Heitz doesn’t get a chance to play his senior football season with the Comets, he will likely continue his football career in college.

“I’ve gotten some interest from (NCAA) Division III schools,” said Heitz, an All-Class 3A-District 3 first-teamer last season who also was among the Comets’ leading tacklers as a linebacker on defense, “but I haven’t made any decisions yet.”