clarence3
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 inspirational HS QB amputee | |
MaxPreps e-mailed me yesterday with a special assignment for a football game at a small school a couple of hours away. At first I told them I wasn\'t interested because I had a pretty good county rivalry scheduled between my son\'s school and the school where my co-worker\'s son plays.
But then I read the back story...
http://www2.dailyprogress.com/sports/2012/sep/06/prosthetic-leg-rainey-returns-field-woodberry-fore-ar-2184255/
dailyprogress.com wrote:
With prosthetic leg, Rainey returns to the field for Woodberry Forest
In an instant, life as we know it can change forever. For better or for worse, unexpected events often modify the path of life that each person travels.
For Woodberry Forest student Jacob Rainey, it was on one play in a football scrimmage during the 2011 preseason that changed his.
The highly touted quarterback was hit and suffered a severe knee injury in a scrimmage in Northern Virginia. Rainey\'s main artery in his right leg had been severed and his leg had to be amputated.
“We called a quarterback power to the left and I just ran,” the senior told The Daily Progress in August. “I fought off a few guys and cut back, and then right when I cut, the [defender] was there — and it just happened.”
His dreams dashed? His hopes crumbled?
Nope.
“I told myself, stop being soft,” said Rainey, who was in the hospital for a month and had nine surgeries. “Don’t [feel] sorry for yourself. Get your [behind] up and start working.”
Well, just over a year to the day, after countless hours of work and rehabilitation, he’s back.
After recovering from the horrifying injury, Rainey, with a prosthetic leg, will return to the field on Friday afternoon as the Tigers take on Benedictine at 4 p.m. The injury occurred on Sept. 3, 2011, a little more than a year ago.
“It’s finally here,” he said. “I’m excited, happy to be back. It feels good. I’m just ready to get back out there and play with all my boys again.”
Some doctors and members of the media have fueled Rainey, as many have doubted if he would ever be able to play again, saying it wasn’t possible, according to the player.
“That was extra motivation,” he said. “I didn’t have a doubt in my mind. I knew I’d be here.”
His teammates still can’t believe it.
“You don’t hear, a year later, somebody losing their leg and coming back to be starting quarterback,” said Phillip Berry, an offensive tackle. “He is definitely a hero in my eyes.”
Rainey knows that the feeling on the field won’t be the same. He isn’t too sure exactly what to expect.
“I wouldn’t say [I\'m] scared, but I haven’t been hit,” Rainey said. “I guess I will find out what will happen. I’m more anxious than anything.
“The difference between before now is the mobility...Now if the pocket breaks down, I’ve got to pull something out of my butt and make a play somehow.”
Star linebacker Doug Randolph isn’t worried a bit about his teammate and friend out on the field.
“If there is one player I’m not concerned about, it is Jacob Rainey,” he said. “He will get hit, he will get up. He will say, ‘bring it on.’ ”
Confidence is high in the quarterback. How could it not be after his stunning comeback, returning for his team’s first game of the season?
“We are all awful proud of him,” said Woodberry coach Clinton Alexander, who expects Rainey to play a few series. “He has worked so hard to get in this situation.
“No one has worked harder than he has. He is working through getting adjusted to his more athletic prosthetic. I thought he looked good. He obviously is not nearly as mobile as he was... It’s new territory. He embraced the situation. He is just relentless, driven towards the goal. He didn’t feel sorry for himself or look for pity. He accepted the situation.”
Initially, Alexander doubted whether Rainey would ever return, but one event changed his mind.
“What I was waiting to see was his physical trainers,” Alexander said. “When they started to say it was a possibility, I didn’t doubt it all.
“We had so many parents of children who had lost a limb, be it arm or leg, share their story. They would send two and three-page letters that just shared just a heart-wrenching story, but it always had a wonderful ending.”
But, for Rainey, there is no ending. It’s just the beginning.
“[The first doctors] said I couldn’t do it, they said it’s not possible,” he said. “I’m just proving people wrong.”
So after watching Oscar Pistorius run in the Olympics, then we had a kid from my son\'s high school who lost his legs in the war win a medal in the Paralympics...
http://www.loudountimes.com/index.php/news/article/lovettsville_veteran_wins_bronze_in_paralympics898/
Quite a story to have a high school quarterback returning to the field only a year after losing his leg in a game, so I agreed to cover the game.
Jacob played one series in the first quarter, a short pass and a couple of hand-offs on a touchdown drive.
CBS Sports has a link to my pictures on their home page and MaxPreps is running the photos as their main story:
http://www.maxpreps.com/news/7QY3evGG9ECgJf767J1FFw/photos--amputee-quarterback-jacob-rainey-takes-the-field.htm
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