Return of junior gadget player Max Soffin from a four-week injury bolsters Chesterton football team’s depth in multiple areas

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Every football team needs at least one player who can help at multiple positions, relishes every opportunity, and tries to use every practice to become better at every role.
Junior Max Soffin is one of those players for the Chesterton football team that opens sectional play at home vs. LaPorte on Friday, a 7 p.m. kickoff.
If running back Andrew Goveia needs a breather or is sidelined by injury, Soffin takes the carries. Louis Raffin, Gus Wisch and Patrick Mochen rank ahead of him on the depth chart, but if a receiver needs a breather, Soffin is always ready to run routes and catch passes.
Holding for the placekicker, one of the more anonymous roles on a football team, is one Soffin loves.
“I like being a gadget guy,” Soffin said. “I can line up at running back, receiver, quarterback. Wherever you need me, I can fill in.”
His first exposure to tackle football came in seventh and eighth grade, playing for Chesterton Middle School, where he played some outside linebacker, running back and receiver.
As a freshman, he was converted to quarterback, a position he never played in organized football. As a sophomore, he played some quarterback for the JV team, but mostly running back, and played some varsity running back. At the start of this season, slot receiver was his main position. Now it’s running back.
Everything is tougher at the varsity level, even holding.
“I enjoy it a lot,” Soffin said. “I’m good buddies with (kicker) Mace (Redman), so it’s fun to do that.”
That’s not all he likes about doing the job.
“I like being in command, trying to get guys to jump,” Soffin said. “JV it would always work, but not this year on varsity yet.”
It doesn’t surprise Soffin that it’s tougher to draw players offsides in varsity games because the players are “way more disciplined. The varsity coaches get on guys harder to make sure they’re disciplined.”
Soffin and Redman each played a big role in Chesterton’s first and closest win of the season, 20-19 at home vs. Hammond Morton on Aug. 29. Redman booted a 33-yard field goal and Soffin caught a 6-yard touchdown pass.
Generously listed on the roster as 5-11, 175, Soffin is not as fast as Raffin, Mochen or Wisch, but does have Wisch’s wiggle. He’s not as powerful as Goveia, but what he does have in common with the much bigger back is the ability to make tacklers miss.
Soffin played in just one JV game this season, in the fourth week against LaPorte. He was sent in on defense to help the secondary late in the game and suffered an ankle injury. He missed the next four weeks before returning for the varsity regular season finale at Merrillville, where he played in place of the injured Goveia, who is expected back Friday.
Forced to watch four games, Soffin used it as a football educational opportunity.
“I like watching Andrew. He works hard. I try to pick up things from him,” Soffin said. “Andrew has good vision. He knows when to just dive up in the hole and get what he can. I try to replicate his patience and vision.”
Based on how few running backs exhibit Goveia’s patience, it must be more difficult than it sounds.
“It is,” Soffin said. “You’re eager to get up in the hole, but if you wait longer it will open up for you.”
Wisch is the receiver Soffin watches most closely, he said.
“Gus, he’s a very good route runner,” Soffin said. “He’s kind of elusive.”
Based on the playing time he receives now and how many seniors are ahead of him, Soffin is wiser than to assume that he will ascend to a starting position, be it at running back or receiver. He’s smarter than to assume anything and knows how he will need to use the offseason to give himself the best shot at a spot in the starting lineup.
“Lift a lot of weights, try to put on weight, get faster, more elusive, and gain power,” Soffin said, adding that he will follow strength and conditioning coach Matt Wagner’s lead.
“He’s a very good weight-training coach,” Soffin said. “He’s nice. He’s very good at explaining what he’s doing, the purpose of it and why and he’s helped me to get a lot stronger.”
Getting faster, Soffin said, will involve “speed training with resistance bands, weights,” under Wagner’s direction.
For now, he’s focused on getting his ankle closer to full strength and readying himself for whatever role he’s called upon to play in Friday’s postseason opener.