Maresh's heart is clearly in the game.

Life decisions and football decisions blend together. Everything always traces back to the game.Maresh epitomizes the eat-sleep-breathe cliché. He's described by those who know him best as born to play football. And given what he's been through to play linebacker at Minnesota, it's hard to argue with them.
Faced with the daunting reality of open heart surgery in June 2008, Maresh made a choice with football very much in mind. When doctors discovered a benign mass in his leg in February, Maresh stiff-armed talk of surgery and readied himself for the start of Minnesota's spring drills.
"If football or sports was a hobby, you'd be looking at it differently," said Maresh's father, Bill. "But it's part of his life. It's part of who he is. He's a physical, fighter-type guy. There was never a decision that was hard. If there was a way that he could play, he was going to take that opportunity. And it's worked out." On the afternoon of March 24, Maresh, wearing a white No. 17 practice jersey, jogged onto the field with his Gophers teammates for the start of spring ball. He did so with a scar on his chest, a growth in his leg and a look of resolve in his eyes. Less than nine months after heart valve replacement surgery, Maresh was back, just as he had planned. "It wasn't a question at all," Maresh said. "I'm playing football. It's what I was born to do."But this is about more than football. A lot more. Maresh is attempting to make medical history this fall. Other athletes with his heart condition have returned to compete, including NBA players Ronny Turiaf and Etan Thomas. But no one has returned to play top-level college football.
"We've had a number of athletes that have had this kind of problem that have gone back to playing baseball and basketball," heart surgeon Dr. Hartzell Schaff said. "I don't remember anybody who's gone back to playing football like he's playing."Gophers coach Tim Brewster branded Maresh the "flag bearer" for the university when the heralded recruit signed in 2008. But Maresh transcends that role. He has become a symbol for the state, a courageous figure who has received support from Duluth to Mankato, International Falls to Rochester. Indeed, football is only part of Maresh's story.