South Border's Cole Stock helping his team go on deep run
Nov. 4—WISHEK, N.D. — South Border's Cole Stock has used his farm boy work ethic to recover from a gruesome elbow injury and become one of his team's best players.
"He is not a kid that is afraid of hard, physical labor," Mustangs head coach Evan Mellmer said. "We didn't have school today, I guarantee Cole Stock was up at six o'clock in the morning up doing chores and he'll be working ready to go when it's time to come in and practice and then after practice he's probably going right back out, he's got cows to take care of or combining to do. So, a kid like that he ain't afraid to work. He wants to be great at everything he does."
During a playoff game in Stock's freshman year against Grant County, he badly dislocated his elbow and damaged tendons in his elbow trying to make a tackle. Mellmer said Stock still wears a brace on his elbow.
"It (rehab) was slow for a while," Stock said. "It took a while but eventually it started coming back pretty good."
The fullback and linebacker came back his sophomore year to throw for two touchdowns, rushing for 543 yards and four touchdowns and have 17 receptions for 197 yards and three touchdowns. Defensively, he was able to make 33 tackles, have one interception and one forced fumble.
Stock returned for his team's season opener last year when they took on Grant County. Stock said the overwhelming emotion when he was stepping out onto the field last year was a feeling of being ready.
This season, Stock has 76 carries for 576 yards and 10 touchdowns. He also has nine receptions for 73 yards and three touchdowns. On the defensive side of the ball, he has a team-leading 117 tackles, nine tackles for loss, one interception for 40 yards, three forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries for 10 yards.
In order to have as much success as he has had, Stock said he has worked hard to continue to get better and build chemistry with his teammates. Stock said the most underrated part of his game is his defense.
"I think my defense has gotten really good lately," Stock said. "I don't think a lot of people know how good I am or realize how good I am on defense."
Mellmer said Stock's best skill on the field is his attitude and his energy. As he is only a junior, Mellmer said Stock will play a big role on the Mustangs next season.
On Saturday, Nov. 4, Stock and his teammates will take the field against New Rockford-Sheyenne at 2 p.m. in the first state semifinals appearance since at least 1974.
"He's gonna be our fullback, we're gonna ask him to make a lot of lead blocks so Berkley and Levi and Connor can do their thing," Mellmer said. "On defense, we're gonna ask him to do a lot, he's probably one of our more athletic kids and with the athletes that New Rockford has, we're gonna have to use Cole in a lot of different ways, you might see him on the line, probably playing some linebacker, might be playing some DB. We're gonna ask him of course to stop the run ... He's gonna be our Swiss Army Knife come Saturday I think."
Although this is the first time that the teams have played this season, they did play each other this past summer at the University of North Dakota's team camp. Despite it being almost six months since that camp, Mellmer said there are things that the teams can take out of those matchups and things that will be different because both teams did not have their full rosters at the camp.
"I think you can take and draw on that experience of we have played these guys and it was super competitive there," Mellmer said. "I don't think either team can leave that camp going, 'we're way better than that team.' I think we both left there going, 'yeah that was a really good team we just played and if we see them down the road, that's gonna be a fun game.' I think just knowing that we can compete with those guys and they know they can compete with us, confidence is gonna be key. I think both teams can go into this game confident from what we saw over the summer for sure."
Stock is ready to block for his teammates because he said he loves blocking. Stock said the Rockets are going to try to bring confusing coverages against he and his teammates but that they have to stay ready for it. In order to get the win, Stock said his team has to not get distracted and stay the course and grind the entire game.
"They're gonna bring a lot of guys," Stock said. "They're gonna try and switch things up, up front so we gotta talk up front and make sure we know who we're blocking and who we're leaving for me. We're gonna bring a lot of guys and a lot of pressure."
Prior to this season, the Mustangs' highest win total was eight games, which they won three times in program history. So, the team's 11 wins is a program record but Stock said he hopes they get two more.
"It would be awesome," Stock said. "We've always dreamed about being in a state championship and winning a state championship. So, a win this week would mean a lot to this whole team and community and both the schools as well."
