Work pays off: Senior piling up big rushing yardage totals for Woodmen

The 5-foot-9 fireplug known to bench-press 300 pounds and squat 430 inside the Greenwood Community High School weight room is averaging 177.5 yards rushing per game this season.

Woodmen senior Kole Stogner hasn’t an inkling what his numbers would look like had he actually taken part in the season-opener at Anderson.

He just knows he wishes he had.

A violation of team policy forced Greenwood coach Mike Campbell to sideline Stogner and five of his teammates for one game, the team’s 52-6 defeat of the Indians on Aug. 17. Stogner has been a man on a mission ever since, the Woodmen’s go-to back for a program sitting pretty at 7-0 and ranked No. 4 in Class 4A.

“Everybody makes mistakes. I made a mistake, and I have to learn from it,” Stogner said. “It was really tough to sit out the game, but I was really happy we won.

“I feel like I need to step it up every week for my team, try to make it up to them the best I can.”

You know, by doing the little things. Such as running for a season-high 218 yards and two touchdowns in a Week 2 romp against Indian Creek. Or accumulating 154 more yards the following week against Mid-State Conference rival Martinsville.

Even more impressive is that Stogner is averaging 180 yards the past three outings, defeats of Plainfield, Guerin Catholic and Decatur Central.

What this means is that the player who, because of injuries, played in only six of Greenwood’s 12 games in 2011 hasn’t yet hit a brick wall. Chances are the 185-pound Stogner would just storm through it, anyway, bits of mortar flying everywhere.

This story appears in the print edition of Daily Journal. Subscribers can read the entire story online by signing in here or in our e-Edition by clicking here.