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The self-described 'goofiest-looking kid' in high school, Michael Heldman learned to channel his anger and become a force at defensive end for the CMU football team.
Photo by: Lauren Verellen '26 - @laurenverellen_photography
Football, Family, Faith: Michael Heldman Becomes a Star, and a Man
12/24/2025 7:00:00 AM | Football, Our Stories
Standout defensive end comes out on the other side, and thrives
MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – Tough times make tough people.
We can't control our circumstances, only how we deal with them.
Michael Heldman has been through some stuff. A lot of stuff. Some of it beyond his control, some not.
The 6-foot-4, 260-pound redshirt senior defensive end on the Central Michigan football team grew up without his father in his life; as a kid, he struggled to contain his anger; he was bullied and mocked in high school; he lived with his mother and two siblings in a mobile home and, at times, food was scarce.
He is far from the first person to have endured such circumstances and come out on the other end, and thrived. One deals with it, one grows, one moves on. Sometimes it works as a motivator. Other times, one swallows it.
An outlet helps, and for Michael Heldman, that outlet came on the football field, first at Romeo High School in suburban Detroit and now at Central Michigan.
In just a few short days – Dec. 26 – he will play his final collegiate football game when the Chippewas take on Northwestern at Ford Field in Detroit in the GameAbove Sports Bowl (1 p.m., ESPN).
After that? Perhaps the NFL. It's not a pipe dream. He is among CMU's career sack leaders and is most certainly one of the best in recent memory to have played on the defensive line at Kelly/Shorts Stadium.
He's got the size, the strength, the drive, and the athleticism to do it. He also has some battle scars.
And he has something else. A strong constitution and faith and a support team around him that helped him persevere.
The Beginning
Michael John Heldman was born in Atlanta and moved with his family to Michigan when he was 2.
His father was gone shortly thereafter, leaving Heldman's mother, Timara Regnerus, to care and provide for her three children, Victoria, Dakota and Michael.
"My dad hasn't been around, you know, for a long time," said the normally loquacious Heldman, who takes on a rare-for-him serious, guarded posture when the subject of his father is broached. "That was his decision. I don't know where he is. When we were younger, he like showed up here or there just to say hi, but I never really got to know him."
Michael, his mother, and his siblings moved in with Timara's parents, Tim and Martha Jo until Tim found a place in a mobile home park in Romeo.
"I would say there were a lot of hard things that we went through, but we were blessed to just be in a place," Heldman said. "You know, it's not like we were on the streets living in like the slums.
"I really credit my mom so much with all the work she had to go through."
Timara worked in a daycare center which meant free daycare for Michael and his siblings. That was a bonus. Money, however, could be tight.
Michael recalled the mother of one of his Romeo football teammates providing for Timara and her three children.
"Like, once every week, they'd drop off a huge trunk full of groceries," Heldman says, eyes widening as he breaks into a wide grin. "And I'm just like, 'What is this?' Like, we had food to eat, actually, you know, instead of just eating spaghetti and meatballs every night. I gained weight.
"They did so much taking care of me; not just me, but my family too."
They say it takes a village. Food from family friends was just a small piece of that pie.
Childhood Anger
"As a kid, I was just angry," Heldman said. "I was angry all the time. And there are times I didn't know how to control that anger."
Anger as a child? Not unusual. For Heldman, he had to learn to control it, channel it, make it a positive. But that didn't come easily and it didn't come over night.
"I'm not going to lie, I'm surprised our house was still standing," Heldman said. "There are so many times I punched holes in the wall, kicked down doors, broke doors. There are times like I hit my brother or my sister when, you know, it got so built up that I reacted and I didn't realize, like, I just hurt someone. I was just an angry, angry kid.
"There are times I even hurt myself -- just like punching our shed. Like there's just so many things going wrong. And I had to learn how to get that fixed fast or else I won't be able to have a life, I won't be able to have a wife. I'd be behind bars or dead. Like there's so many different things that could go wrong.
"And especially the neighborhood we lived in, we had so many cops in and out every day. I got in trouble for the stupidest things."
The "stupidest things" that fade into the mist of memory, the things you laugh off, minimize as an adult. But to a kid, in the moment, it's all you know.
Age, maturity, experience all contribute to putting it behind you and moving on.
And football eventually became the pressure-release valve. Save it for the field, the saying goes.
"My mom and my grandfather helped me understand how to be controlling, but letting me play football," Heldman said. "Pack the powder down even more every time until you get to practice."
Role Models
Heldman's grandfather Tim, as any good, caring paternal figure would do, took him under his wing.
"He's probably one of the biggest influences in my life," Heldman said. "Because he was always there when my dad wasn't.
"He always took care of us. You want to talk about an unsung hero. He drove me a lot of places. He's helped me take care of my car when I didn't have money.
"And he's really put me in a very good position as a young man. He disciplined me when I needed to be disciplined, helped me grow in my spirit, you know, as a man. How do I just not react (but) just be calm in situations. Just taught me a lot of things. So many things I can thank him for."
Adult male members of Michael's church, First Baptist Church of Rochester, also took an interest in helping him grow, tossing a football with him, attending his football games at Romeo High School.
"Pastor Wes Crawford," Heldman said. "He really impacted me a lot when he transferred to the church and he's also supported my football career even when I was just a really bad, dinky little freshman player.
"He went to games and he just watched me grow spiritually and as an athlete."
Growing Into It
To watch Heldman on the football field today, wreaking havoc and living in the opposing team's backfield, one would never guess that he once struggled to find his way.
But he did, and it didn't come easily.
"I was like a bobblehead," Heldman said. "I was super skinny with a huge head. My neck was like so long. I was actually the goofiest looking kid in the high school and middle school. There were a lot of like things in high school and stuff that really made me mad with people.
"Kids were not nice. I was a super weird kid, but you know, you don't have to be mean. Right?"
A little mean streak helps if you're a football player. In fact, it's almost a prerequisite to be a good football player.
"I focused everything on football," Heldman said. "I worked out, I went from a skinny kid to a pretty strong one; I gained like 10 to 15 pounds of muscle over from like between freshman year and sophomore year."
He made a prediction to schoolmates that he one day would have his picture on the wall of the Romeo High School Athletics Hall of Fame as an All-State honoree, the ultimate goal for any prep player.
"They made fun of me for saying, 'I'm going to be on that All-State wall; I'm going to be there one day,'" Heldman said. "They all started laughing at me.
"I actually did it."
Not All About Football
Heldman took a liking to theater. Not an unheard-of combination, athletics and acting. Plenty of athletes have gone on to star in movies and television.
But in high school? Going from the football practice field or the weight room to the stage for play practice? It was something Heldman kept from his football buddies.
"Guys thought I might've been a little different," he said, reliving for a moment the sheepishness he once experienced in clandestinely tip-toeing from the post-practice locker room to the school theater. "I just like to act and sing in front of people. I wanted to do it, but I didn't want anyone to know."
He got a small part in the school play. Not the lead, just as an extra, a member of the team, and new friendships were forming. And Michael Heldman was growing, both physically into a force on the football field, and finding himself.
Some call that maturing.
"Then after that, I really fell in love with (theater)," he said, adding that as his confidence and the bashfulness faded, he gain more prominent roles in school theater. "It was just cool to be on stage and just really act out because I love acting. I might joke around too much, but it was just a cool experience.
"Once I got into it, I got into it, and guys found out, and that's when some of the guys were making fun of me for it, but I just went out and did it. Like I couldn't care less what people thought about me to the point that I just wanted to have fun with my friends."
So highly was Heldman respected for his stage presence and talent that he was called upon to sing the Star Spangled Banner before the Romeo-Utica Eisenhower football game, the rivalry game for both teams – in his senior year.
"We had just run out of the tunnel," Heldman said. "My pads are tight. I'm like, I can't breathe, so how am I supposed to sing? I sang. It was kind of rough at first, and then it got better. And then I ended up getting like three sacks and had one of the best games, and we beat our rivals."
The one-time gangly looking kid who was an easy mark, mocked for what seemed an unreachable goal on the football field, feeling shame for wanting to expand his horizons and get up on stage, had become a football stud with colleges calling, and the kid who could bring the applause with his voice and his ever burgeoning confidence.
Moving On
Michael Heldman remained connected to his family and his faith, even after leaving home for Mount Pleasant. He found his wife, former CMU gymnast Ariana Light.
They were married on July 25, 2025, two days before fall camp started for the Chippewas. A brief two-day trip to Nashville – the official honeymoon will come later – followed by two-a-days and the start to what has unfolded as a magical final collegiate season, including selection to the All-Mid-American Conference First Team.
Heldman is a regular at the First Baptist Church of Mount Pleasant and he leads his Chippewa teammates in their daily faith builder sessions.
"He's as talented of a football player as there is," CMU coach Matt Drinkall said, "because his talent matches his work ethic, his maturity, and his desire and passion for everything.
"The thing that stands out, maybe the most, about Michael is that I don't know if I've ever met someone that spends every second of their day truly giving themselves away to every one else. I mean, helping everyone around him. … Everything he does, he makes it for someone else and about someone else."
The once seemingly omnipresent anger has been channeled exclusively into football, and Heldman looks back at those who were there for him, gave to him, helped to make him the man he is today. His mother, his grandfather, his youth pastor, fellow church members who saw beyond the self-described bobblehead and the simmering anger.
He is today a man devoted to his faith, his wife, his family and football.
"I mean, without them, I'd either be dead physically or I'd just be dead mentally," he said. "I went through a lot of struggles back when I was young and; you know, living that life just like for me sucks."
We can't control our circumstances, only how we deal with them.
Michael Heldman has been through some stuff. A lot of stuff. Some of it beyond his control, some not.
The 6-foot-4, 260-pound redshirt senior defensive end on the Central Michigan football team grew up without his father in his life; as a kid, he struggled to contain his anger; he was bullied and mocked in high school; he lived with his mother and two siblings in a mobile home and, at times, food was scarce.
He is far from the first person to have endured such circumstances and come out on the other end, and thrived. One deals with it, one grows, one moves on. Sometimes it works as a motivator. Other times, one swallows it.
An outlet helps, and for Michael Heldman, that outlet came on the football field, first at Romeo High School in suburban Detroit and now at Central Michigan.
In just a few short days – Dec. 26 – he will play his final collegiate football game when the Chippewas take on Northwestern at Ford Field in Detroit in the GameAbove Sports Bowl (1 p.m., ESPN).
After that? Perhaps the NFL. It's not a pipe dream. He is among CMU's career sack leaders and is most certainly one of the best in recent memory to have played on the defensive line at Kelly/Shorts Stadium.
He's got the size, the strength, the drive, and the athleticism to do it. He also has some battle scars.
And he has something else. A strong constitution and faith and a support team around him that helped him persevere.
The Beginning
Michael John Heldman was born in Atlanta and moved with his family to Michigan when he was 2.
His father was gone shortly thereafter, leaving Heldman's mother, Timara Regnerus, to care and provide for her three children, Victoria, Dakota and Michael.
"My dad hasn't been around, you know, for a long time," said the normally loquacious Heldman, who takes on a rare-for-him serious, guarded posture when the subject of his father is broached. "That was his decision. I don't know where he is. When we were younger, he like showed up here or there just to say hi, but I never really got to know him."
Michael, his mother, and his siblings moved in with Timara's parents, Tim and Martha Jo until Tim found a place in a mobile home park in Romeo.
"I would say there were a lot of hard things that we went through, but we were blessed to just be in a place," Heldman said. "You know, it's not like we were on the streets living in like the slums.
"I really credit my mom so much with all the work she had to go through."
Timara worked in a daycare center which meant free daycare for Michael and his siblings. That was a bonus. Money, however, could be tight.
Michael recalled the mother of one of his Romeo football teammates providing for Timara and her three children.
"Like, once every week, they'd drop off a huge trunk full of groceries," Heldman says, eyes widening as he breaks into a wide grin. "And I'm just like, 'What is this?' Like, we had food to eat, actually, you know, instead of just eating spaghetti and meatballs every night. I gained weight.
"They did so much taking care of me; not just me, but my family too."
They say it takes a village. Food from family friends was just a small piece of that pie.
Childhood Anger
"As a kid, I was just angry," Heldman said. "I was angry all the time. And there are times I didn't know how to control that anger."
Anger as a child? Not unusual. For Heldman, he had to learn to control it, channel it, make it a positive. But that didn't come easily and it didn't come over night.
"I'm not going to lie, I'm surprised our house was still standing," Heldman said. "There are so many times I punched holes in the wall, kicked down doors, broke doors. There are times like I hit my brother or my sister when, you know, it got so built up that I reacted and I didn't realize, like, I just hurt someone. I was just an angry, angry kid.
"There are times I even hurt myself -- just like punching our shed. Like there's just so many things going wrong. And I had to learn how to get that fixed fast or else I won't be able to have a life, I won't be able to have a wife. I'd be behind bars or dead. Like there's so many different things that could go wrong.
"And especially the neighborhood we lived in, we had so many cops in and out every day. I got in trouble for the stupidest things."
The "stupidest things" that fade into the mist of memory, the things you laugh off, minimize as an adult. But to a kid, in the moment, it's all you know.
Age, maturity, experience all contribute to putting it behind you and moving on.
And football eventually became the pressure-release valve. Save it for the field, the saying goes.
"My mom and my grandfather helped me understand how to be controlling, but letting me play football," Heldman said. "Pack the powder down even more every time until you get to practice."
Role Models
Heldman's grandfather Tim, as any good, caring paternal figure would do, took him under his wing.
"He's probably one of the biggest influences in my life," Heldman said. "Because he was always there when my dad wasn't.
"He always took care of us. You want to talk about an unsung hero. He drove me a lot of places. He's helped me take care of my car when I didn't have money.
"And he's really put me in a very good position as a young man. He disciplined me when I needed to be disciplined, helped me grow in my spirit, you know, as a man. How do I just not react (but) just be calm in situations. Just taught me a lot of things. So many things I can thank him for."
Adult male members of Michael's church, First Baptist Church of Rochester, also took an interest in helping him grow, tossing a football with him, attending his football games at Romeo High School.
"Pastor Wes Crawford," Heldman said. "He really impacted me a lot when he transferred to the church and he's also supported my football career even when I was just a really bad, dinky little freshman player.
"He went to games and he just watched me grow spiritually and as an athlete."
Growing Into It
To watch Heldman on the football field today, wreaking havoc and living in the opposing team's backfield, one would never guess that he once struggled to find his way.
But he did, and it didn't come easily.
"I was like a bobblehead," Heldman said. "I was super skinny with a huge head. My neck was like so long. I was actually the goofiest looking kid in the high school and middle school. There were a lot of like things in high school and stuff that really made me mad with people.
"Kids were not nice. I was a super weird kid, but you know, you don't have to be mean. Right?"
A little mean streak helps if you're a football player. In fact, it's almost a prerequisite to be a good football player.
"I focused everything on football," Heldman said. "I worked out, I went from a skinny kid to a pretty strong one; I gained like 10 to 15 pounds of muscle over from like between freshman year and sophomore year."
He made a prediction to schoolmates that he one day would have his picture on the wall of the Romeo High School Athletics Hall of Fame as an All-State honoree, the ultimate goal for any prep player.
"They made fun of me for saying, 'I'm going to be on that All-State wall; I'm going to be there one day,'" Heldman said. "They all started laughing at me.
"I actually did it."
Not All About Football
Heldman took a liking to theater. Not an unheard-of combination, athletics and acting. Plenty of athletes have gone on to star in movies and television.
But in high school? Going from the football practice field or the weight room to the stage for play practice? It was something Heldman kept from his football buddies.
"Guys thought I might've been a little different," he said, reliving for a moment the sheepishness he once experienced in clandestinely tip-toeing from the post-practice locker room to the school theater. "I just like to act and sing in front of people. I wanted to do it, but I didn't want anyone to know."
He got a small part in the school play. Not the lead, just as an extra, a member of the team, and new friendships were forming. And Michael Heldman was growing, both physically into a force on the football field, and finding himself.
Some call that maturing.
"Then after that, I really fell in love with (theater)," he said, adding that as his confidence and the bashfulness faded, he gain more prominent roles in school theater. "It was just cool to be on stage and just really act out because I love acting. I might joke around too much, but it was just a cool experience.
"Once I got into it, I got into it, and guys found out, and that's when some of the guys were making fun of me for it, but I just went out and did it. Like I couldn't care less what people thought about me to the point that I just wanted to have fun with my friends."
So highly was Heldman respected for his stage presence and talent that he was called upon to sing the Star Spangled Banner before the Romeo-Utica Eisenhower football game, the rivalry game for both teams – in his senior year.
"We had just run out of the tunnel," Heldman said. "My pads are tight. I'm like, I can't breathe, so how am I supposed to sing? I sang. It was kind of rough at first, and then it got better. And then I ended up getting like three sacks and had one of the best games, and we beat our rivals."
The one-time gangly looking kid who was an easy mark, mocked for what seemed an unreachable goal on the football field, feeling shame for wanting to expand his horizons and get up on stage, had become a football stud with colleges calling, and the kid who could bring the applause with his voice and his ever burgeoning confidence.
Moving On
Michael Heldman remained connected to his family and his faith, even after leaving home for Mount Pleasant. He found his wife, former CMU gymnast Ariana Light.
They were married on July 25, 2025, two days before fall camp started for the Chippewas. A brief two-day trip to Nashville – the official honeymoon will come later – followed by two-a-days and the start to what has unfolded as a magical final collegiate season, including selection to the All-Mid-American Conference First Team.
Heldman is a regular at the First Baptist Church of Mount Pleasant and he leads his Chippewa teammates in their daily faith builder sessions.
"He's as talented of a football player as there is," CMU coach Matt Drinkall said, "because his talent matches his work ethic, his maturity, and his desire and passion for everything.
"The thing that stands out, maybe the most, about Michael is that I don't know if I've ever met someone that spends every second of their day truly giving themselves away to every one else. I mean, helping everyone around him. … Everything he does, he makes it for someone else and about someone else."
The once seemingly omnipresent anger has been channeled exclusively into football, and Heldman looks back at those who were there for him, gave to him, helped to make him the man he is today. His mother, his grandfather, his youth pastor, fellow church members who saw beyond the self-described bobblehead and the simmering anger.
He is today a man devoted to his faith, his wife, his family and football.
"I mean, without them, I'd either be dead physically or I'd just be dead mentally," he said. "I went through a lot of struggles back when I was young and; you know, living that life just like for me sucks."
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