Former quarterback now leader on offensive line for Olympians

When Noah Hilderbrand was in elementary school, he played quarterback for the Bartholomew County Bears.

That may seem like a shock to some who now watch the 6-foot-2, 250-pound senior play offensive tackle for Columbus East. But after playing tight end, linebacker and defensive end in middle school, it wasn’t until after he hit a growth spurt going into high school that he became an offensive lineman.

“I grew two inches and got bigger,” Hilderbrand said. “Coach (and now athletics director David) Miller, who was our O-line coach freshman year, talked to me and told me that I should probably move and that I could be starting sometime in the future.”

Noah Hilderbrand

That starting call came midway through Hilderbrand’s sophomore year. He stepped in at right tackle and has been there ever since.

“I like O-line,” Hilderbrand said. “I get to show what I can do and use my size. I miss quarterback and touching the ball and making the plays. But I’ll to what I need to do to improve the team and make us better, and quarterback is not where we need to get better at because we have Kyson (Villarreal). He’s shown that he can play football and throw the ball.”

A big key to that has been the time Villarreal has been given to throw. Hilderbrand, the only senior starter on the offensive line, and his younger linemates have made huge improvements since the beginning of the season.

“He’s played as many varsity games around here as any guy we have,” East coach Eddie Vogel said. “So going into this year, we were trying to lean on his experience, knowing that we were going to be kind of young up front, and I think he’s done a good job of doing his best at trying to lead and setting a example for our younger lineman. He’s had to kind of set the example and teach those younger guys how to be varsity football players. I really think he’s done a good job of trying to help shape those guys, along with (offensive line) coach (Levi) Deckard.”

Columbus East’s Noah Hilderbrand (79) blocks for teammate Thomas Houpey (33) during a football game against Seymour Sept. 6 at Columbus East High School.

Mike Wolanin | The Republic

Hilderbrand also has played some defensive end this season, but has played mostly on offense the past few games.

“He played a lot of defense early on in the season, and he’ll still when we get in situations where we need to get a stop or get some bigger bodies in there on short-yardage situations, he goes in the game,” Vogel said.

The Olympians have made a big turnaround this season, going from 3-7 last year to 6-3. They went 6-0 in winning the Hoosier Hills Conference title.

“I think we turned it around,” Hilderbrand said. “A bunch of people doubted us this year and thought we were going to perform how we did last year, but we worked our butts off. We worked hard. We improved our team and just came out and played football like we knew we could and like East Olympians have.”

In fact, the turnaround has led Hilderbrand to rethink his football future. He would like to study occupational therapy and play at University of Indianapolis and hopes to take a visit there. He also has talked to coaches at Taylor.

“Once I started getting older, I didn’t know if I even wanted to play football,” Hilderbrand said. “But now recently, with us starting to be able to play good and showing how we can play, I’m starting to like football more and the passion has come back, and I want to go play college now.”

East opens its postseason in a Class 5A sectional semifinal Friday at home against Franklin. A win would put them in the sectional final, likely at two-time defending 4A champion East Central.

“I think we have a good chance against Franklin and East Central,” Hilderbrand said. “We just have to come out and play how we can play and play as a team and just do our fundamentals, take our steps on the O-line and everybody just do their job, and we can win the sectional and keep going in the playoffs.”