“It’s Just a Broken Collarbone:” Injured Football Players
By: Sador Dagim
Football at Jenks is everything.
When Jenks students go to football games, what do we see? We see a bunch of sweaty, muscular boys tackle each other and try to get a win. We see boys with their jerseys tucked up, black paint all over their faces; we try to get them to glance at us from the sidelines. But we don’t see the hardships a high school football player goes through to win the games. We don’t see the physical toll the game takes on their bodies. When a high school football player is injured, it can be scary. How do Injured players feel when their future is left on the field?
Boston Carrasco, 10, who is currently playing in the varsity team, has been playing football since the age of four with the encouragement of his father. His positions are running back and slot. Carrasco’s first injury in the sport happened back in 8th grade when he broke his ankle.
“[My] first injury was in 8th grade, against Bixby,” said Carrasco. “It was the middle of the season and the last play of the game. It was a run for about 30 yards and then someone horse collard me. I fell back and one of the other players landed on it which led it to completely snap.”
Boston Carrasco at practice on the field.
The on-field was just the beginning of Carrasco’s medical journey.
“I was already put in a cast from the game,” said Carrasco, “[I] went to the ER and got an x-ray. It was broken on both sides and the back so then I waited two or three days before going in for surgery. My family was there for me but, overall, it was pretty depressing. My two sisters, Brooklyn Carrasco and Savannah Carrasco, were mentally there for me, but they were both scared and sad for me.”
As an 8th grader, such a bizarre experience would be hard to recover from, but Carrasco had a goal and that goal was to get back on the field no matter what. Rehab, vitamins, and stretching were also very important for Carrasco to get back on the field. That was until his second injury in his freshman year of high school where he broke his collarbone.
“I broke my collarbone Freshman year against Broken Arrow, second to last game. Basically, I was running the ball and was trying to score, I got tackled and landed on it and it completely snapped. I had to go through surgery for that too.”
Boston Carrasco on the sidelines during the Jenks VS Owasso game.
Carrasco was out of school for only a week, as he wanted to get back on track with his school work.
“Rest was very important to me but I also needed to get my school work done. [I] Can’t be a student athlete without school. Grades matter and they’re very important.” said Carrasco.
As someone who has been through a lot, Carrasco never looked at his injury, but looked at how he could prosper in the sport and never gave an ear for people that didn’t support him in the things he does.
“See,'' said Carrasco, “I really don’t care who supports me and who doesn’t ‘cause I’m just trying to do my own thing, if I support myself, that’s all that matters.”
Having been through this particular struggle, his advice for players that are going through the same thing he’s gone through is,
“Things happen for a reason and just do recovery and rehab, do whatever it takes to get back on the field. Family support is everything and seeing that love around you gives that student athlete a positive outlook to get back on the field,” said Carrasco.
Boston Carrasco on the field during the Jenks vs Union Game.
As we close up on Carrasco, we move on to Jenks’ sophomore varsity safety player. Sam Stone, 10, has been playing the sport since 4th grade, as his friends were the ones who had encouraged him to get into the sport. Until 7th grade, Stone’s positions were tight end and defensive end. Stone’s first injury occurred in his freshman year of high school where he broke his wrist, until he started playing with a cast on.
Sam Stone on the field during the Jenks vs Union Game.
“I remember I was blocking this dude,” said Stone, “and the play was coming towards me and the running back went behind me and someone chasing him ran into me. I remember falling and some other dude fell on top of me. I got up and looked down and my wrist just didn’t look right, you could tell it was broken.” said Stone.
As Stone didn’t give much focus to his injured wrist, his trainer had looked at it from afar and had forced him to get off the field.
“It was during the first scrimmage of my freshman year,” said Stone, “and it was on the very first play. I was on the bench, and the trainer came to look at it, he wrapped it up and then my mom came to pick me up and we went to the closest urgent care.”
As Stone came back to school the next day, he was completely benched for about 6 weeks.
Sam Stone at practice on the field.
“It had an impact on me,” said Stone, “I felt like I was getting behind because everyone else was able to practice and get better and I’m just kind of there, helping. It’s not the best feeling but you get over it. Once you start playing again, it makes you love it a little bit more.”
Even if Stone didn’t feel absolutely terrible over the experience, he still wanted to get back on the field. As he saw the love and support his parents and two little brothers had provided him, he didn’t feel alone in this experience. His mom, Amy Stone, showed her experience over what she felt as his mother,
"When he broke his wrist,”' Amy Stone said, “ it was hard for me because it was his first injury playing a sport. It made me scared and nervous to watch in case he got hurt again. But now he recovered fast and is doing better than ever.”
Delmar Gray on the sidelines during the Jenks VS Owasso game.
And finally, we look at our final varsity player, we all know and love him as Delly or Delmar Gray. Delmar Gray, 12, has been playing football for about 4 years. Gray was encouraged by one of his friends to join the team in his freshman year, he also felt left out cause all his friends played. Later on, Gray learned to love the sport.
Gray had actually injured himself during his track season where he was running a 200 and popped his hamstring, but that injury resulted in him being benched during the start of the off season.
“When I first heard it,” said Gray, “the first thing was like ‘I just have to cheer on my teammates [and] let them know that I’m always going to be there to cheer them on and support them’ but other than that it was, obviously, a bit depressing,”
His thoughts were only positive and he looked for the bright side of his injury instead of sulking and depressing more over the experience.
Gray had pulled his hamstring multiple times after his first time pulling it, but every time, he knew he would never stop playing football because of the love he had for it. His parents had the same outlook as well. Even if they had seen their son get injured a bit too many times, they always did have faith that he would get back up.
“Delmar has grown a lot in football from my perspective because he started out not knowing anything about the sport and it’s just amazing seeing how much he grew in just a span of 4 years from being just a kid to being a young adult already learning about discipline and other things a young adult needs to learn. Can't wait to see how much he grows later on in life” said Delmar Sr.
Gray is currently playing for the varsity football team with high hopes and expectations of doing great as this is his final year playing for jenks high school. The advice he has to offer for new, prospering athletes is:
“Life is a cycle,” Gray said, “bad things are always going to happen but there’s also a lot of good things that’ll happen, you’ll be happy one day and sad the next but that’s just how life goes, you can’t have it without bad things occurring, you just have to get back up, and that’ll determine your future of success.”
Delmar Gray at practice on the field.