Athlete of the Week: Ayden Helder, Stewartville Tigers

STEWARTVILLE, Minn. (KTTC) – “You look up and one of their corners is kind of limping off kind of weak. And Mueller looks up, and I look up and we kind of look at each other, like, might have a mismatch over there. And so we got into a nice set where we kind of got Parker. one-on-one, got a little bump off. But as soon as he created separation, it was all -- It was over from there. Kind of put a little loft on it. Let Parker go run under it like we’ve done all year, and he made a great play on the ball,” described, Ayden Helder.

He threw touchdowns thirty-nine and forty in the Tigers’ 28-7 semifinal win versus Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton.

“If you had told me 40 before the start of the year, I told you were crazy. It’s still crazy to think about now,” smiled Helder.

Helder calls protections, reads coverages and defenses, while efficiently reading his progressions.

“You know when you have guys like Ayden, it allows myself and the rest of our coaching staff to be as creative as we want to be,” said coach Garrett Mueller. “and he’s got a great mind and great vision for things too.”

The Tigers’ senior quarterback is having a historic season. Including being a finalist for Minnesota’s Mr. Football Finalist.

“Mueller had called me down to his office to come tell me about it, and it was shocking,” recalled Helder. “I walked in the door, and I thought he was joking at first. It was like that was a crazy experience. Just me and him in the office, like talking about that. That was insane.”

Now there’s one game left for the Tigers to complete a perfect, championship season.

“He’s got great teammates to help him do that. So yeah, lucky for us that he’s on our side of the ball and we’ll be a big part of our you know, success here in the state championship game,” mentioned Coach Mueller.

Helder is all football from August through November.

“It’s something I’m really passionate about, and to be able to find this in this position to this part of the year is definitely super huge, but I’ve tried to put in as much work for myself and for my teammates to try to be able to put us in this position for sure,” ended Helder.

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