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Hudson QB Wynn Is Getting Back Up To Speed

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By BART O'CONNELL

Tribune correspondent

Published: May 10, 2008

HUDSON - After a two-hour football practice in the hot sun, learning you don't have to do conditioning drills is reward enough for a day's work.

As Zack Wynn breaks from the post-practice huddle, however, he's summoned to join the offensive line for gassers, sprints from sideline-to-sideline on Hudson's practice field. The best quarterback in Pasco County doesn't hesitate to take his place.

The drill serves its purpose. After doing four of them, finishing at the front of the pack each time and even doubling back when a teammate lags behind, he's hunched over and gasping for air.

It has been five months and four days since Wynn had surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, yet he's winning the mental and physical battle to return to full speed by next season. A few full-pads practices into spring football, Wynn says the knee is "85 to 90 percent," yet when it comes to being a leader, he's 100 percent a Hudson captain before his sophomore year ends.

"It's more mental than anything," Wynn said. "You think about the knee. You try to baby it. Coach has been telling me all year, 'Stop limping.' So I'm trying. It's thinking about it. If you don't think about it, you run normal.

"It's not necessarily my team, but I believe I'm a good part of this team, and I think they look up to me a little bit right now. And I want to gain on that throughout the spring."

He breezed through rehab, which began days after his surgery at Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point, going from a weeklong stint on crutches to walking in an immobilizing brace, then riding a stationary bike, doing squats with light weights and walking up stairs after two months.

Aside from Wynn's blue, non-contact jersey (he has a May 17 doctor's appointment to get cleared), Coach Mark Nash has not taken it easy on his injured star.

One of only two quarterbacks on the Cobras roster, Wynn is critiqued on every pass he throws in practice, and if he's off-target, he knows a "C'mon, Zack" is coming from Nash.

"Zack benefited last year from a great group of receivers. If he put the ball anywhere in the vicinity, they were going to catch it," Nash said. "This year, it's going to have to be a little tighter target."

But even Nash can't hold back on the impressive things he's seen so far. Running an option play this week, Wynn turned up the sideline and "it was faster than I'd ever seen him run," Nash said.

Adding to the excitement is Wynn's increasingly imposing frame: 6-foot-3, about 200 pounds, quick release, the ball jumping out of his hand. He throws deep slants and 20-yard outs that seem to take his inexperienced receivers by surprise. He looks like a Division I prospect in the making; now he just has to play, and lead, like one for two more years.

Nash got Wynn invited to the Select Offense and Defense Camp starting June 9 at Saint Leo, which features current and former NFL players as coaches, with college scouts also in attendance. Nash said he wants Wynn to attend more "showcase" camps instead of the more mechanical camps he's done recently, like the one hosted by Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden.

But as long as spring practice is going on, Wynn will be focused on bringing his team together, and improving on last year's 7-4 playoff season. In his final six games before injury, all wins, he completed 66 percent of his passes for nearly 240 yards per game, with 19 TDs and three interceptions.

"I want to try to carry on that role. Just step up as a leader," he said. "I'm a quarterback, I need to do that."

Bart O'Connell can be reached at boconnell@pop.tampatrib.com.

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