When Jason Weaver tore his ACL during one of his football games, the recovery period afterward allowed him to regain his interest in making music. Now, four years after graduating from SHS, he shows promise in the music industry with his collection of pop music.

“After the surgery I was down for a couple of months, and I was really bored,” Weaver said. “I was like, ‘I’ll learn to play guitar.’”

At the age of 5, Weaver began piano lessons. However, according to Weaver, he never described himself as a “music guy” even after his success releasing songs.

Since releasing original music during his sophomore year at Purdue University, Weaver has gained several thousand streams on his music. Now, a senior at Purdue, Weaver receives more fame every day.

Social studies teacher Daniel Jones was a basketball coach to Weaver in middle school and stayed connected with him throughout middle and high school.

Jones also had Weaver as a student in classes he taught. Weaver was in Jones’s AP Human Geography class in his junior year and AP Psychology his senior year.

When Weaver was a sophomore at SHS, he tore his ACL for a second time. During this time, Weaver taught himself to play the electric guitar. After this, Weaver decided not to play sports again and, rather, he chose to focus more on music.

“His ability level, he could have easily been in that final four team or one of those teams who had tremendous amounts of success,” Jones said. “He just decided he wasn’t going to put his body through what he did.”

Since then, Weaver has tried to write songs consistently.

“I’d try to write a song a day,” Weaver said. “I did that for years.”

Even though music is a large part of Weaver’s life, he was very quiet about it. He never sang in high school and didn’t record his songs.

“In fact, no one knew I wrote songs in high school,” Weaver said. “I hid that I wrote songs. I didn’t release a song until the very end of my sophomore year of college.”

Despite his initial hesitance, Weaver continued releasing his music and consistently shares his music via music platforms and social media. He releases his songs through platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music.

Before releasing his music, Weaver had low expectations for the audience streaming it.

“I told one of my friends that it would be cool if 17 people had listened,” Weaver said.

Weaver’s music surpassed 17, much to his surprise. Currently, Weaver estimates that he has around 60,000 to 70,000 streams on his songs overall.

Weaver has never performed any of his songs live. Instead, he releases songs strictly over streaming platforms.

“My thing is, my songs do decently on Spotify and Apple Music, but as far as streaming on Instagram, I feel like if I do it, only two people would show up,” Weaver said. “But it is something I would potentially do in the future.”

In the future months of 2021, Weaver is hoping to release a new pop song every month. He has 13 songs he has finished but hasn’t had the chance to release. Weaver’s music and actions have continued to inspire countless people.

“Oftentimes as teachers, or as coaches, we want to inspire our players, and we want to inspire our students,” Jones said. “Jason Weaver inspires me.”