Speaking almost with the tone of a motivational speaker, Luke Hrapchak will tell you with gusto he's "cut from a different cloth."
That, he said, was what allowed him to push himself through three injuries in two years to put together back-to-back All-America seasons at California (Pa.) University.
Three games into his sophomore year — his first as a starting linebacker for the Cal defense — Hrapchack felt his left thumb tear on the third-to-last play of the game. He finished the game with 15 tackles.
"I stayed in the game; my thumb was just hanging there," Hrapchak recalled. "I didn't know what was going on, so I just stayed in the game."
He sat out the next week, but there was no way he was missing the Slippery Rock game the week after. So he taped his hand up tight and reported for duty.
He recorded five tackles and then he felt something else tear. It was his right calf.
"It was just like my thumb; I didn't know what was going on," Hrapchak said. "I knew I couldn't walk. That's it."
And that's when the injury blues sunk in for Hrapchak. So, he hobbled outside of the training room and called back home to Fairmont, W.Va. to his father.
"Why me?" he remembered asking. "I told him I put more work in than everyone else. It was probably the most unguided time of my life."
But it was what his dad told him next that triggered the resolve he's known since the young age of 5, when he strapped on football pads for the first time.
"He said, 'Why not you, son? What has ever been easy in your life?" Hrapchak said.
In an instant, the 6-foot-2, 235-pound linebacker said he could see flashes of the last 20 years of his life, replaying all the times where he'd overcome something or worked his tail off to prove someone wrong. He replayed voices in his head from negative comments from Fairmont residents that came when he decided to transfer across town from East Fairmont High School to Fairmont Senior High for his senior year. He replayed the visual of wiping eggs off his car for two straight weeks when he scored an 80-yard touchdown run on the first drive in an eventual beatdown of that same East Fairmont team. And he recalled the doubts of some when he chose to attend Cal over Fairmont State University, where his father had played.
“In my mind, I hit a pretty low place for a week or two,” Hrapchak said. “I watched something I put so much into fall apart, and I don’t know how to fully explain that feeling. I felt like I had the option to either fall into being another guy that just got hurt and forgotten, or man up and be better than I’ve ever been in my life.”
Hrapchak said he became consumed with the idea of earning a PSAC championship and a national championship ring and with the title of All-American.
"At that point I realized that my heart and mind wanted it enough to where all I had to do was put in the physical work," he said. "But why not me? He was right. That really stuck with me."
So Hrapchak made himself another promise he would be back stronger than he was. He decided outside of the team's training room he would become an All-America player.
But it wasn't easy by any stretch of the imagination. In the midst of his rehab, the entire Cal coaching staff got a facelift. Hrapchak immediately felt panic, he said, because he was injured and didn't want to be overlooked by new coaches. But a meeting with the new defensive coordinator, Mike Craig, sparked a little bit of newfound rejuvenation.
"I had pulled myself out of everything for awhile. I was kind of on my own and thinking I didn't want to be apart of things," Hrapchak said. "Then when the new defensive coordinator came in, it excited me to just go for it."
And that's what he did. He ramped up his offseason training with Wes Brown of Gorilla Strength in Fairmont and the determination came back.
"I told him I wanted to go full tilt," Hrapchak said. "I wanted to walk away from college football knowing I gave it everything I had."
Hrapchak came back strong and healthy for his junior season. He earned Football Gazette All-America Honorable Mention honors while piling up 101 tacklees, 12.0 tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks. He was named the PSAC Championship MVP and helped Cal advance into the NCAA Playoffs.
But another wrench was thrown into his career when he tore the LCL in his left leg during the second series of an NCAA Playoff game against Shepherd. He thought back to high school, where he played an entire season after tearing his left meniscus. He wasn't coming out of the game, he decided.
"I remember we had those torpedo heaters and I kept thinking if i could keep it warm that I could pull it out for three more quarters," Hrapchak said. "I told the trainer I wasn't coming out. I told them they'd have to carry me out."
He had 15 tackles, including 2.5 for loss and a sack, in the 41-30 loss to the Rams.
This time, though, Hrapchak didn't get down on himself. He knew how to take his rehab seriously and knew what he needed to do to accomplish his goals. He bounced back to lead Cal in tackles once again to garner D2Football.com Second-Team All-America honors after posting back-to-back 100-tackle seasons with 118 his final season while starting all 12 games following the injury.
It was the mentality, he said, that his father instilled into him as a kid and restored in him after two tough injuries that kept him going.
"I was raised differently. My dad always told me I was cut from a different cloth," he said. "I've kind of just lived my life like that. I've never accepted the answer 'no.' Even if someone told me no, I made a yes out of it."
Hrapchak could have easily given up. But as his injuries got bigger, so did his drive to return and find success, he said. Most of that, he credits to the decision to come to Cal in the first place.
"Cal gave me a platform to not only grow as a football player but also as a man off the field," he said. "The program gave me an opportunity to be successful in more ways than just football. Through so many great people I learned so much stuff I will cherish for the rest of my life."
Hrapchak now plans to pursue an MBA at Cal, beginning with a move to Pittsburgh this month. He wants to stay around the game of football by helping younger athletes, teaching them the value in their work ethic, something that was instilled in him as a child.
In the meantime, Hrapchak said he's just working on becoming an overall better person, something Cal has helped with tremendously.
"My goals now are to be a successful husband, father, son and brother and business man. I've learned so many great lessons from Cal and football, and I want to use these tools in the real world," he said. "I always said if I'm only remembered as a great football player, I've failed. I want to be great at a lot of other things in my life now. And if my mind and heart are aligned right, I will be great at whatever comes my way."
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