There’s no stopping Duxbury

What matters is not how many times you’ve been knocked down.  What matters is how many times you’ve gotten back up after being knocked down by life.  That seems to be the story line of Carter Duxbury’s football career.

Growing up in Chatfield, Carter played football, basketball, and baseball.  He said one of his favorite memories was as a sophomore in 2013, when the football team won the state championship.  After high school, Duxbury went on to Winona State University, and was a redshirt freshman in 2017.  He recalled, “My goal was just to make the bus, and I did that.  And at the end of the season, I found out I was playing with a broken foot, so I had to get that repaired.”

In 2018, Carter explained, “I played with a torn labrum.  So I just found another obstacle to overcome.”  The labrum is the cup-shaped rim of cartilage that lines a ball-and-socket joint; in this case, the shoulder joint. 

Carter continued, “In 2019, the first drill, I planted on my foot, and my knee just exploded… And I didn’t think anything of it, so I kind of pushed through that day of running, just to realize I had actual bone fragments and cartilage floating around in my knee.  I had a chunk of femur break off the bone, so it was a pretty big injury.” 

He explained that when he went in for a medical examination, the doctor explained that this type of injury is usually career-ending, but Carter chose to have the surgery to remove the fragments and pursue rehabilitation for a potential return to football.  He said, “I did all the rehab and I wore the braces, and six weeks later, I tried running, and I just couldn’t do it.”  Carter said the knee had a “pothole” in it where the fragments had broken off from, and when he ran, the knee would “catch” in that spot.  At this point, Carter recalled, “My doctor said it might be time to hang up the cleats.”

But giving up was never an option for Carter.  He said the surgical option was to drill a cone-shaped hole in his femur, and then to pound a chunk of cadaver femur into that empty spot.  The surgery was performed in August 2019.  Through countless hours of therapy, Carter was able to start running a bit in 2020.  And then another obstacle popped up: the COVID-19 pandemic.  Because of the pandemic, the 2020 season was canceled, but this turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Carter, as it gave him additional time to rehabilitate the knee.

Carter remembered this as a turning point, as he said, “I started thinking… do I want to risk my knee that’s finally repaired, and wait around another year to play football, or should I just move on with my life.  I decided to give it a go, and that’s when I started training out at ETS (Elite Training Systems) in Rochester, and they were a really big help.” 

He said he was ready for spring football practices in 2021, but realized, “I haven’t played football in a long time, almost two and a half years.  So I was pretty rusty, didn’t know if I’d be a starter, didn’t know how much I would play.”  But he again pushed through and worked out all summer, and it paid off.  “Come fall camp, I was in the best shape of my life,” Carter recalled, “My knees were holding up, my labrum, my foot, everything.  I was completely healthy.  And in hindsight, I think COVID actually helped me out, giving me that extra year.” 

Carter said he didn’t set lofty goals for himself the 2021 season, but simply wanted to play as much as possible and help the team.  He had calculated that there had been 1,026 days since his last football game, so just being back on the field was a major accomplishment.

But simply playing linebacker was not what happened.  Carter was not only a leader on his team, but was recognized as one of the best players in the entire Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, as he was named the NSIC’s Defensive Player of the Year.  Carter said he is particularly proud of this award, since it was voted on by the coaches of all the teams in the conference.  And his achievements in the classroom are equally impressive.  Carter was one of 18 Winona State student-athletes to earn the Myles Brand Award,  Carter’s cumulative Grade Point Average of 3.93 was comfortably above the 3.75 requirement to qualify.  He was also honored as one of two Winona State athletes selected as NSIC Honor Student Athletes for the year.  Carter is majoring in Education, aiming to be a middle level math teacher. 

Carter tallied 11 sacks this season, which led the conference and is the second highest total ever by a WSU player.  Two of those sacks came at crucial moments in the game against Mankato on November 13.  Early in the game, Carter sacked the quarterback and caused a fumble that resulted in a safety.  Then in the waning moments of the game, he made another quarterback sack to seal the 18-16 win for Winona State.

In looking back at the obstacles he has overcome, Carter said, “I’ve had really good support and people in my corner.  My mom and dad, with all the injuries and everything, they could have easily said it’s time to hang it up.  But they were willing to sacrifice all their time and effort into helping me get back out there, and it definitely paid off.”  Carter also gave thanks to his coaching staff, teammates, and therapy personnel who helped him return to the game he loves. 

Carter’s father, Tom Duxbury, stated that “dedication, commitment, and determination” are the keys to Carter’s success on the gridiron and in the classroom.  He recalled that when the family first met with Winona State head coach Tom Sawyer, the coach told Tom that, “I’ll take care of your son.  He’ll come here a boy, and he’ll leave a man.”  Tom said when Carter walked off the field at the end of this season, he was clearly a young man ready to tackle life.  Tom also fondly recalled the various friendships that Carter (and his parents) have made throughout Carter’s years on the Winona State team.  Tom added that attending Winona State is a family tradition, as Sarah and their three children have all gone to college there,

With understatement and humility, the 23-year-old Carter summarized his season, saying, “It was a really good year.  I just was finally able to get out there and show what I could do, for once… I didn’t want an injury to define my career.  I wanted to go out on my own terms.”  Clearly, Carter finally had a well-earned season to remember.