How Vincennes QB Xander Hunt overcame a broken collarbone to win SIAC player of the year
VINCENNES, Ind. — Xander Hunt sat on his living room couch and texted coach Levi Salters. The Vincennes Lincoln quarterback had a standout season — 1,464 passing yards on 58% accuracy and 12 touchdowns with a further 916 yards and 13 scores on the ground — and the All-Southern Indiana Athletic Conference awards were coming in.
Hunt, his eyes fixated on the five-or-so-inch screen, was with his parents Jill and Travis as they learned his placement. Seated firmly; watching attentively. The message came across: All-SIAC First Team At-Large.
At-Large.
Xander wasn’t the league’s first-team QB.
His eyes remained fixated on his phone as a call came. The first message was reaffirmed: At-large all-conference first team. The conversation progressed, and Xander’s parents heard the celebratory tone on the other line — “We could hear the excitement in his voice,” Jill said.
The news was clear. Xander Hunt: SIAC Player of the Year. The kid who’d always loved the New Orleans Saints and watched Indianapolis Colts combines — yes, combines — since he was three years old was declared the best player in the league. The guy no one knew prior to the year made his name known.
Xander Hunt: SIAC Player of the Year.
“I was like, couldn’t believe it,” Xander said. “It was crazy. It was pretty cool to hear it from them.”
“We knew it was a big deal, but by then, football season’s over so it was out of peoples’ minds,” Jill said. “Now that it’s ramped back up again, everything is so exciting because of it.”
Last season was the Alices’ best since joining the SIAC, due in no small part to Xander’s contributions. That succes has made Vincennes one of the most intriguing stories in the league with its penman under center. On the ground, through the air, he’s the ideal modern quarterback for the Alices’ system.
“He exceeded all expectations. We knew he was going to play really well,” Salters said. “He’s making all the workouts, he’s pushing the other guys and I think that’s one of those things that’s helped him get back and raise his play level, too.”
The road to the unforgettable phone call and feelings of elation is one littered with McDonald’s French fries, community support and work that came after Xander recovered from a season-ending injury suffered in his sophomore year.
Inside his first start: ‘The highest of highs’ and ‘lowest of lows’
Xander, then a “150 pounds soaking wet” sophomore, Jill said, lined up as the Alices’ starting quarterback for the first time in a home game against Central. Salters and company wanted to ease him into the position and picked a matchup they felt was winnable for his pass-slinging varsity debut. He played corner throughout the early season and out of the wildcat, but he was starting under center for the first time that September night at Inman Field.
He threw a touchdown as the clock ticked into halftime to endear himself to the crowd populating the New Deal-era stadium — “That was the highest of highs,” Xander said. Disaster struck a few drives into the second half.
Xander threw an interception in the third quarter and his corner instinct kicked in. He made the tackle but seared in pain. The trainer said he was done as soon as they touched it — “Lowest of lows,” Xander said.
He wanted to stay and watch but that wasn’t an option. Xander needed to go to the emergency room to check if it was a punctured lung.
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“I thought we were in the clear until my phone rang and it was the trainer calling me down from the bleachers,” Jill said. “Immediately I went from Football Mom to just Mom.”
Having the game on the radio was non-negotiable. As the Alices celebrated their first win of the season, Xander learned of his broken collarbone. Barring a late postseason run, his debut quarterback campaign ended as swiftly as it started.
“I think as long as he got good news from the doctor that he could continue to play after he healed, he was OK,” Travis said.
How the team and Vincennes community rallied around Xander
The Hunts have a loveseat and a couch in their living room. Over a year before those chairs were celebration scene setters, they served as mourning spots. Xander slept on one with Jill on the other the night of the injury.
Travis and Jill checked in on him and made sure to keep his head up. The coaching staff kept him involved by having him keep stats and doing little things during practices.
“I’m sure (sitting out) just drove him nuts,” Salters said. “I think he took that frustration and kinda took it into, ‘I’m gonna work on my game and come back the best player I can be.’”
The Alices went out of their way to support their clipped leader, as did the Vincennes community as a whole. The players, many of whom Xander has played with since flag football in elementary school, put together a care package for him. A local private school made him a prayer blanket. A massive ‘Get Well Soon Xander’ sign appeared in their front yard.
That shows what Vincennes is and how central the Alices are to the city.
“There was a lot of disappointment in the community when that happened,” Jill said. “They all pulled together and messaged him and us and it was a very humbling experience.”
“And I think it would go either way for any of the kids that are playing. That’s just how close they all are and how much they believe in each other,” Travis added. “Their families got them, got their backs just the same.”
Xander helped keep the energy up at practice despite his injury. As the warmth of the early season faded for a brisk fall, he and some other players hunched under covers but remained steadfast in their attendance. They sometimes DoorDash’d McDonald’s — “We had our fries under our blankets. We were being sneaky,” Xander said.
“I wouldn’t say (Salters was) ‘fine’ (with the McDonald’s), but I don’t know if he knew,” he said. “But I don’t know if he knew, so he’s gonna find out now.”
About a month passed between the injury and when Xander was cleared to throw again. From there, he was active in the gym and making sure he was healed. Though he didn’t play again in his sophomore season, he was sure to be ready for junior year.
“It was time for him to do what he was chosen by the coach to do and what he loves to do,” Travis said.
Xander grew stronger, faster, smarter. He became a better leader from his time on the sidelines. The work he put in during the offseason was evident to those in Vincennes and soon passed over the whole of the SIAC. The league was about to know Xander Hunt.
“I think a big part of it was teams didn’t know what I could do,” he said. “I think it was a surprise factor on them. We worked hard and I knew what I could do, so I think a lot of it was we came out, surprised some teams, punched ‘em in the mouth early and they had to adjust based off that.”
'We've been waiting a long time'
The surprise factor of Xander Hunt is gone. Each team knows what he does and what he can do. Everyone knows him and they know he can play. He turned heads in his first game back — a 40-0 road win over Bosse last season.
“It’s been tough,” he said after that win, referencing the team’s struggles in years gone by. “Leaves a bad taste in our mouth. We’ve been waiting a long time.”
While he was speaking about the Alices, those words could have represented his own journey. Xander went 343 days between games and many looked away, forgetting the promise he showed that September night in Vincennes.
Now a senior, no one forgets about Xander Hunt. Doing so would be a fatal flaw.
“It shows that he’s a hard worker. It shows that he wants to compete against the best and be playing at a really high level,” Salters said. “It just shows that he’s a really high-character kid, he’s a great high school athlete and he’s a good leader for our football team.”
Xander’s high school days are dwindling. The once football-mad 3-year-old will be a high school graduate, with the potential for a career in college — “he would definitely love to play,” Jill said — but his focus remains in Vincennes and in that New Deal-era stadium during the final months that he’s still clad in Alice green.
“We’re enjoying it at this moment, but I have to say, it makes my heart feel a little sad and big,” Jill said. “It’s just a lot to take in.”
Anything after the long days and dramatic nights at Inman Field will have to wait, though. There’s plenty of work still to be done. Xander wants a sectional title and further success. But now the reigning SIAC Player of the Year is in the open. No one is forgetting him now, everyone knows his name.
But that’s no matter. The individual titles, as nice as they are, don’t compare to what bringing a crown to the community that supported him from his first appearance and through the pain would be.
“It’s pretty cool, but I would rather win a sectional than get player of the year,” Xander said. “The year I had last year reflects on our team more than me.”
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: How Vincennes Lincoln's Xander Hunt became SIAC player of the year
