Many athletes cower in the face of adversity, but over the last couple of seasons, it was adversity that cowered in the face of Mikhail Benner.

The senior cornerback from Broomfield spent his entire junior season fighting a torn labrum and repeated shoulder subluxations, or partial dislocations, every time he suited up for a game. He didn’t let that stop him from coming back stronger for his curtain call with the Eagles.

“It hurt. Oh, it hurt so bad,” Benner said. “Every game, it would come out. I wore a brace and eventually, the brace stopped working. I think if we won in the semifinals (against Palmer Ridge), I was not going to be able to play the next week, so I kind of just tried to push through as much as I could.”

His light at the end of the tunnel came much sooner than expected, only five months after surgery. He couldn’t lie down, instead sleeping in a chair at night, but pushed himself toward the finish line with relentless work at physical therapy.

“I got cleared on May 13th, I think,” he said. “I remember the day. I hugged my physical therapist. I got home and I hugged both my parents, because I was so excited. I really never thought that it was going to get better.”

His opponents, perhaps, wish that he didn’t. Just look at what he did during the Eagles’ Class 4A state championship game against Montrose, which they won with a thrilling, 35-28 comeback. Benner boosted the offense with 112 receiving yards and a touchdown, then picked up 16 tackles and caused two fumbles on the defensive side.

He finished his senior season with 46 tackles and three interceptions, which paled in comparison to the 11 pick-offs he got away with in 2022, during the Eagles’ last state championship run. On offense, he contributed 710 yards on 31 receptions with 10 touchdowns.

For that, and his immeasurable value to Broomfield football, he earned the Daily Camera defensive player of the year honors. His father, Deante Brooks, always knew he had it in him, from the time he was in about second grade.

“I saw the talent, man,” Brooks said. “He was playing for the Bobcats in Lafayette and he played with kids that were a year or two older than him. He excelled at the sport. He was dominant. I could always see the dawg. He always had that mentality, that he could do it. He’s great and he never held back.

“I was active duty Air Force at the time, and the first jersey that boy threw on was, no kidding — his mom found an Air Force Falcons jersey. And ever since then, we never thought that he would go this route, to the Air Force Academy, but I’ll be damned, he did it.”

Next year, Benner will honor Brooks when he joins the AFA prep school ahead of his college football career. He plans to improve his grades, strength and speed before shedding the proverbial red shirt and soaring with the Falcons.

If his time with the Eagles has proven anything, it’s that he can achieve whatever he sets his mind to — no matter how painful.

“I picked the Academy because my dad enlisted in the Air Force, and he’s been a role model in my life, a leader in my life,” Benner said. “I think that him being a role model and the leader stepping into my life for my little brother and myself kind of set a tone of what I wanted to do. I haven’t really known what I wanted to do after high school, so getting an opportunity to go here and play football opened up an opportunity and journey, in my mind, that I think I wanted to pursue. I’m excited to do it, kind of following in his footsteps, but also going on my own.”