By now, everyone who follows local high school football knows that Nazareth’s Peyton Falzone had his senior season cut short by a fractured collarbone sustained in a game against Freedom on Sept. 12.

Falzone is progressing well through his recovery and should be able to report to Auburn as soon as he can after his final semester at Nazareth.

But Falzone isn’t the only one who suffered a heartbreaking injury this season.

On Aug. 29, in Nazareth’s second game of the season against Whitehall, defensive back Jayden Wolf suffered a torn ACL in his left knee as well as the patella tendon in the ACL.

The injury came almost exactly a year after Wolf suffered a torn ACL and meniscus in his right knee while playing against Wilson West Lawn in the 2024 season.

It was a devastating, cruel twist of fate for someone who had worked so hard for a year to get back on the field, only to be sidelined again.

But Wolf is an incredibly resilient young man who has been dealt some tough blows, but can stay positive and gain a unique perspective from the double dose of adversity that came his way.

As Nazareth begins play in the District 11 Class 6A tournament Friday night against Northampton, Wolf will be on he sidelines and doing whatever he can to encourage and inspire a young football team that has struggled with several injuries.

Wolf, who is a close friend of Falzone, will be there for his team as he has been every day that it was physically possible to be present.

He has made his family, which includes his dad, Bryan, Nazareth’s baseball coach and the football team’s public address announcer, and his grandfather, legendary baseball coach Mike Grasso, and his mom, Maria, and four younger siblings, quite proud. The same goes for the entire Blue Eagles’ athletic family and community, who see a bright young man who refuses to allow misfortune to keep him down.

“You’ve just got to keep moving forward,” he said. “It’s the most important thing you can do. Obviously, I am human, too, and there are a lot of small things that will get to me. But when it comes to the bigger things, I just try to keep a positive mindset and realize that there’s going to be good that comes from these situations. You just kind of have to live life that way. There’s something called the burnt toast theory.

“You could be ticked off from a minor inconvenience that happened in the morning, like burning your toast,” Wolf said. “And then you have to remake the toast that you wanted to have for breakfast. And sometimes that extra time you spend making the toast again could save you from being in a car accident.

“The minor inconveniences we encounter can play a huge role in our lives. Sometimes we don’t appreciate that. When it’s a bigger inconvenience, like these injuries, it’s easier to find what life is trying to teach us. What I learned is that I had a lot of support. I mean, from the moment it happened, all of my teammates were over on the Whitehall sidelines, and so were our athletic trainers and Dr. [Hamad] Saleemi from St. Luke’s Orthopedic Care was over there before I could even open my eyes.”

Wolf said someone took a picture of all his teammates and friends walking him off the field, a moment he treasured, a moment that brought a bright light to what most would have considered a scene of doom and gloom.

“It was a freak thing, too, because I was just running out of bounds … it wasn’t like I got hit or anything,” Wolf said of the injury that ended his Nazareth football career earlier this season. “I knew right away my ACL was torn, and I figured my patella tendon was also torn because it was the same feeling I had when I had a patella sleeve fracture in third grade. But I also felt the same pop I felt when I tore the ACL in my other knee last season.”

He said his family came to the medical tent before he arrived, and all of his friends who were student section leaders came out of the bleachers to offer their support.

“Even when I see people in the community, they will come up to me and say they were at the game I was hurt and they’ll say they are so sorry for me,” Wolf said. “That also means a lot.”

Wolf is set to have one more surgery, something he pushed back so he could be with his team.

His team has had its ups and downs this season, and Wolf’s calming presence is important, especially for the younger players who have had to step up and fill roles.

“We have a lot of young kids on the team, but the younger group is amazing and I think we still have a lot of leaders out there and we’re proving we have a lot of depth … I think that’s going to be the story of our season,” he said. “I just try to go to practice and show my support. I’m obviously not as involved physically as I was, and I’m not in tune with the film work we’re doing, but I just try to make sure everyone knows that I am there because just being there for someone can be an inspiring thing. I want to let them know I believe in them.”

Nazareth coach Tom Falzone certainly believes in Wolf.

“It’s just unbelievable that he has had to go through this twice now because he has worked so hard and done everything that we asked him to do,” Falzone said. “Tearing the ACL last year was a heartbreak because he was our leading tackler at the time he went down. It broke him, but he worked like crazy to get himself back in shape, and we made him captain because of how hard he worked in the offseason and in the weight room. He led the guys while he was recovering from his own injury. He was back at 100% and cleared to play and ready to go, and then in the second game, he suffered another tragic injury.

“It’s sad that he could never get his football career going like it could have been. He was a great player for us and was getting a ton of interest from college coaches. He’s also a super smart kid. A lot of hearts broke when he went down again. It was so deflating, but he has such a great attitude.”

Nazareth’s Jayden Wolf tackles St. Joseph’s Prep’s Erik Sanchez during a PIAA 6A quarterfinal game Nov. 25, 2023, at Northeast Super Site in Philadelphia. (David Garrett/Special to The Morning Call)

Wolf, who had played basketball and lacrosse in the past and was going to go out for baseball this spring to play for his father, may not ever compete for Nazareth again.

But he will continue to inspire all around by being a great student. He is a member of the National Honor Society and has a 99.58 GPA.

He wants to pursue a career in medicine — Duke is his dream school, he said — and he certainly has had a close-up view of he medical field after all he has been through.

Most of all, though, his ability to stay positive and encouraging when most would have cursed their fate has been an inspiration. His family has a deep faith that has helped him stay strong.

“There’s a Bible verse that Jalen Hurts made pretty popular last year, and it’s John 13:7 and the point is that you may not know now what has happened, but later you’ll understand,” Wolf said. “I am carrying that philosophy with me. I don’t know why I have to go through this, but eventually it will all make sense to me.”