As the Case Western Reserve University football team’s game against Rowan University on Sept. 6 came to an early end, a new reality became clear: the Spartans would be forced to battle adversity for the rest of the season. As a result of fourth-year starting quarterback Aaron Filips tearing his ACL while playing against Rowan, he and a few other key players would be unable to play for the remainder of the season.

Spartans head coach Greg Debeljak vividly remembers the moment Aaron was injured.

“Almost instantly, I started walking out on the field before the play was even over,” Debeljak said. “When you see an athlete go down like that and how the reaction was, you know it was serious.”

As the team’s starting quarterback, Filips was set to play a crucial role on the team—one that became vacant following his injury. Filips is not alone in this. Throughout this past season the Spartans have been dealing with a myriad of injuries, leaving numerous key players off the field.

Filips’s torn ACL is undoubtedly the most high-profile of these injuries, given the significance of his position. With the loss of such a crucial player to the team’s roster, there are many inevitable changes that will happen to the team and its dynamic moving forward.

“Aaron could do a lot of things really well,” Debeljak said. “He could throw the deep ball. He throws the ball with timing. He’s very accurate. He’s a brutal runner inside. He’s fast. So you rarely have a guy that can do all those things.”

Other high-profile players that have been injured this season include fourth-year wide receiver Alec Angello and third-year running back Mitchell Waite, both of whom were also injured during the game against Rowan. Waite is expected to return for the latter end of the season after recovering from his elbow injury, but Angello’s torn MCL will likely leave him off the field for the rest of the season. Their absences are especially noticeable too, considering their prominent roles in the Spartan offense.

Fourth-year running back Stefan Lopez commented on the challenges that come with having so many injured players.

“I would say that the biggest challenge for the team is getting used to the different play styles of the players filling in for injured starters,” Lopez said. “Every player has a unique skill set, and adding in new players calls for adaptation to their unique skill sets.”

For all the injuries that the Spartans have suffered so far this season, there remains far more than just a mere glimmer of hope. For some football teams, an onslaught of injuries would have been a death knell for the season. For the Spartans, this has not been the case. In spite of their continuous injuries, the squad has persevered.

“It’s a sport [where] you have to deal with injuries. There’s no doubt about that. And some years you have to deal with more than others,” Debeljak said. “I think you just be honest with the players and let them know that…you can’t use it as an excuse, and we have to get the people that are going to be playing ready to play, and we don’t expect them to be the same type of player as the person they’re replacing. We just expect them to be the best version of themselves.”

This mentality was echoed by Lopez, who took note of how members of the squad have brought out their own unique traits in replacing injured players.

“Our injured players are irreplaceable in terms of their leadership and unique abilities, but my teammates have done a great job filling in those spots with unique abilities and leadership of their own,” Lopez stated. “Every player on the team has embodied a ‘next man up’ attitude, realizing that the team can and will succeed regardless of changes to the depth chart due to injury.

The “next man up” attitude is more than just a saying for third-year quarterback Sam DeTillio, who has taken up Fillips’s position as the starting quarterback for the Spartans. DeTillio reflected on how support from his teammates and coaches has more than prepared him to take on his new role.

“I’ve been fortunate to learn from Aaron and the other quarterbacks who came before me—watching how they carried themselves, how they prepared, and how they led in tough moments has given me a blueprint to follow,” DeTillio said. “On top of that, the support I’ve gotten from the coaches and my teammates has made stepping into this role a lot easier. Knowing that the guys in the locker room believe in me gives me the confidence to lead this team the right way.”

The perseverance of the Spartans has been on full display for their past few games. While they did suffer narrow losses to Wabash College and Westminster College, they came back in full swing during their most recent match against Bethany College, sweeping the Bison 55-0 and marking their first shutout victory since blowing out Saint Vincent College 49-0 last October.

DeTillio himself would complete 12-of-17 passes for 248 yards with three touchdowns along with leading the team with a career-high 84 rushing yards.

While injuries, particularly the loss of the starting quarterback, created significant hurdles, the Spartans have refused to be defined by those setbacks. Players have instead stepped up to the occasion, assisted by a strong support system of teammates and coaches to showcase what makes them unique both on and off the field while helping to steer the team in a successful direction.

“I really like this group… with everything we’ve been through… they’re a pretty resilient group, and I enjoy coaching them,” Debeljak said.

With this hard-fought momentum, the Spartans look to the next games in their season and beyond and aim to continue proving their resilience and identity. Their next chance to prove themselves will come this Saturday, Oct. 4, when they hit the road to face off against Saint Vincent.