For each of the past five years, Joey Valdivia has held a different title with the Lake Forest College football team.
In 2012, he was a backup running back for the Foresters. In 2013, he served as a volunteer assistant tailbacks coach, sidelined with an injury.
In 2014, Valdivia disappeared from the team’s roster altogether, spending the entire fall at home in Grayslake, Illinois, nursing a foot injury on his own. In 2015, he was named the Foresters’ starting running back halfway through the season, after finally recovering from the injury he sustained the year prior.
Now, in 2016, Valdivia holds his most prestigious title: statistically the best running back in Division III football.