ADAMS TWP — In many ways, last season was a nightmarish one for Garrett Reinke.

Big things were forecast for the Mars junior fullback/wingback last season.

The 5-foot-8, 170-pound bowling ball of a runner with quick feet and excellent balance and vision was coming off a sophomore campaign in which he was Robin to Isaiah Johnson's Batman, rushing for 964 yards on only 131 carries and scoring nine touchdowns.

But Reinke's junior season started out auspiciously with a sprained ankle suffered during camp.

Then four weeks into the season, he badly sprained his other ankle.

The injuries hobbled and hindered Reinke and he only managed 533 yards on the ground on 117 painful carries.

It also didn't help that the Planets also limped to a 6-5 record and a first-round exit from the WPIAL playoffs.

“I didn't have the explosiveness,” Reinke said.

This summer, Reinke has set out to accomplish two goals.

Put the memories of last season's disappointment behind him by getting stronger and making his body — from his ankles all the way up — more durable, but also to get noticed by college scouts.

Both missions appear to be an early success.

“This summer, there's two workouts I'm doing,” Reinke said. “I do one for six weeks. It's more muscle gain. The other one is for explosion.”

Reinke is hoping to have both this season for Mars, which appears to have a loaded backfield with Reinke, Chuck Green and Teddy Ruffner, who rushed for 512 yards as a freshman.

Reinke is also showing off his wares at any camp he can.

Last week, he attended one at Yale and turned some heads.

He moved well, caught the ball well out of the backfield and showed off the explosiveness he lacked last season because of injury.

“One of the running back coaches liked how I moved,” Reinke said. “I ran a 4.05-second shuttle and he liked that time. Other colleges all came up to me and wanted a lot of info.”

Reinke, who is also a standout lacrosse player for the Planets, who reached the Class AA state title game this spring, said he will attend several other camps this summer.

He has his sights set on an Ivy League school like Yale.

“That's definitely a place I'd like to go,” Reinke said.

To get there, he's using the bad memories of last year as fuel.

“Those injuries last year, that's what made me realize how important it is to me,” Reinke said. “It made me realize it could happen on any play and any play could be my last play. It made me work hard, especially because it's my senior year.”

Many of the college coaches who talked with Reinke said they were taking a wait-and-see approach with him.

They want to see what he can do this fall.

Reinke is taking that in stride as well.

“I don't really look at it as pressure,” Reinke said. “I have to believe in myself, work hard and trust myself. I just have to go out and see what I can do and play as hard as I can with no regrets.”