Tuesday, June 30, 2009

With a year of varsity experience under his belt, Kearns' J.R. Finai feels more confident heading into his junior season. He has seen how fast the game is at a varsity level and being the starting quarterback as a sophomore, he knows what it takes to be a leader.
He's excited for the next two months of preparation and he feels he's ready. He just wants to start off on the right foot but in order to do that, he needed to get a couple things out of the way.
"I had two foot surgeries [in the offseason]," Finai said. "I had to sit out the last three games of basketball and it was a tough situation but it would make it possible for me to be ready in time [for football]."
Finai had the surgeries to correct hammertoe in both feet. It affected him last year but he played through the pain. Once the football season ended, the throbbing in his feet intensified. For the past five months, one foot or the other has been in a boot and he has been on crutches.
But he's close to being back at full strength and says he's "at 75 percent." He hopes to bee fully healthy by mid-July.
Read more about it in next week's edition of the West Valley City Close-Ups.

--Maggie Thach