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He’s not easy to tackle — bowling balls usually aren’t, and Kevin Lindh is a 5-foot-8, 180-pound nearly unstoppable force for the Houston High School football team.
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Houston running back Kevin Lindh runs through the gap Wendesday during a drill at practice in Houston. (photo by Katie Derus/Winona Daily News) |
But if Lindh had his way, nothing would be said about him. He’s not getting his way.
Trying to talk to Lindh is kind of like talking to a tree, but with a tree, at least the branches move around and make a noise.
Lindh doesn’t say much. He doesn’t celebrate big gains or touchdowns.
“He’s just quiet,” teammate Andy Sires said. “He just scores and lets us do the celebrating for him. He’ll high five once in awhile. We get pumped, but with Kevin, it’s different.”
The only time Lindh is ever really emotional is in the weight room. In fact, he kind of makes anyone who is in the school a little emotional when he’s lifting.
Lindh is kind of a freak when it comes to lifting weights. Rumor is he has a cot in there.
The senior running back has been crazy about weights since the eighth grade. The results are a little crazy, too. Lindh can bench press 395 pounds — but if you asked him, he’d say 400. He apparently likes to round up. He also squats 600.
“We’ve only got one other guy on the team that can put up 395,” Sires said. “And he isn’t bench pressing, he’s squatting 395, and here Kevin can bench that.”
When Lindh puts that much weight on the bar he tends to get emotional.
“Teachers have said they can hear him screaming from the weight room,” Sires said. “Another parent said their kid got scared to go in the weight room because there was a guy in there screaming with a bunch of weight on.”
Other than screaming at the weights, Lindh doesn’t really say a lot, but he lets his game do the talking.
So far this season, Lindh has carried 35 times for 439 yards — a whopping 12.5 yards per carry — with five touchdowns.
“He sheds tackles like crazy,” said teammate Trent Kerrigan, who has 36 carries for 362 yards (10.1 ypc) and seven touchdowns. “He’s so quick from East to West; so quick with his feet. It’s pretty crazy.”
Lindh has been playing running back since his freshman year and has amassed 2,925 career yards rushing with 38 touchdowns.
He also plays defensive end and had 14 sacks last season. He has five in four games this year. Houston is 4-0 and ranked fourth in MSHSL nine-man, having just knocked off Grand Meadow 56-8. The Superlarks were ranked eighth in nine-man last week before the thrashing.
“He’s had a lot of success since he was a freshman, and that’s allowed other guys to spring some runs,” Houston coach Jason Freed said, noting he has four running backs getting carries. “But when push comes to shove, we can put the ball in Kevin’s hands and ride him.”
While Lindh has been driven and motivated to keep getting quicker, stronger and faster since he was in eighth grade, his teammates have noticed he’s a little more determined this season — if that’s possible.
Lindh will use all two hours the weight room is open, and then he’ll go in the adjacent cafeteria and keep working out.
“He’ll go in there and do band workouts or speed workouts,” Sires said. “And he’s the only guy I know that has a punching bag in his front yard. You’ll drive by see this big ole’ punching bag hanging from the tree, or you drive by school and see him flipping tractor tires on our practice field, which is only one block away from his house.”
Lindh may not say much, but he’s the poster boy of leading by example.
“He’s the quiet type,” teammate Trent Kerrigan said, “but he has some moments when he does speak, and we take those to heart.”
One of those moments was the last day of two-a-day practices when each team captain gives a speech.
“As a junior, Kevin’s speech was short and sweet,” Sires said. “He talked about how we have to play with no regrets.“
Houston ended the regular season undefeated and made it to the state playoffs for the first time in 25 years last year, before losing in the first round. Some would say mission accomplished, but a lot of the Houston players, including Lindh, feel the 28-12 loss to Verndale in the first round of state was a winnable game.
“Kevin’s senior year speech was emotional,” continued Sires. “He said about the last speech and no regrets — how he was pretty sure we all had regrets — and losing that game was the worst feeling and he wanted to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
Lindh has used that loss to keep himself motivated.
“Losing last year, those were hard feelings to go through,” Lindh said. “I don’t want to go through that again.”
The bowling ball has spoken.
Kevin Lindh by the numbers
