By: Gabe Kamins, Opinions Editor<\/p>\n
\u201cI heard a pop.\u00a0 As I was falling to the ground, I remember looking up into the stadium lights, thinking, \u2018oh no\u2019.\u00a0 I was rolling around on the ground in pain and was biting down as hard as I could on my mouthguard.\u00a0 And then at that point, it all hit me that I\u2019m not going to be able to play for a long time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Grayson Vintz has been playing sports for practically his entire life.\u00a0 At age 5, he started playing baseball.\u00a0 2 years later, he picked up his first football.\u00a0 He also was a great wrestler.\u00a0 Thankfully for Grayson, while sports were a large part of his childhood, injuries were not.\u00a0 \u201cI never got injured playing baseball, and didn\u2019t get hurt at all playing football before high school,\u201d he explained.\u00a0 He continued excelling in sports up until high school, where he made both the JV baseball and JV football teams as a freshman.\u00a0 As a sophomore, Grayson made the Varsity football team, where he was expected to be a significant contributor on offense and defense for the Hawks.\u00a0 But that was all put on hold when he \u201ctore [his] bicep during a tire pull drill\u201d, forcing him to miss 6 weeks and \u201cbasically all of training camp and the preseason.\u201d\u00a0 This was very difficult for Grayson, as training camp is where players compete for playing time.\u00a0 And, as a sophomore in his first year of Varsity football, Grayson believed he \u201clost the opportunity to prove [himself].\u201d\u00a0 Simply put, it was devastating for Grayson.\u00a0 But it wouldn\u2019t be the last time he had to deal with an injury.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n It was a wet, rainy evening at Marriotts Ridge High School.\u00a0 The message was clear for the Hawks – \u201cwin, and you\u2019re in.\u201d\u00a0 If heavily favored River Hill took down the Mustangs, they would be heading to the playoffs.\u00a0 By this time, Grayson had fully recovered from his bicep tear, and had proved himself.\u00a0 He was now one of the team\u2019s starting linebackers, contributing to one of the best defenses in the county.\u00a0 River Hill was cruising early on, and built a huge lead heading into the 4th quarter.\u00a0 Grayson was having a great game.\u00a0 \u201cI had 4 or 5 tackles for loss,\u201d he recalled.\u00a0 Then, it happened.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI cut through the offensive line and was two yards in the backfield,\u201d he explained.\u00a0 \u201cThe running back saw me and cut the opposite way.\u201d\u00a0 Grayson fell to the ground, pain rushing in his knee.\u00a0 He remembers \u201ctrying to put pressure on [his] leg and thinking that [his] knee was going to dislocate.\u201d\u00a0 The pain would soon subside, but the damage was done.\u00a0 \u201cThey brought me over to the sidelines and did the ACL tests.\u00a0 They did the tests on my regular leg, and I felt a hard stop.\u00a0 Then they did it on my hurt leg, and I felt nothing,\u201d he remembered.\u00a0 Then, it hit him.\u00a0 \u201cI started crying on the sidelines.\u00a0 Not because of the pain, but because I [would] not be able to play football for a long time.\u201d\u00a0 The game was eventually stopped early due to tornado warnings, and River Hill was victorious.\u00a0 It was a bittersweet victory for the Hawks, who by this time knew that they would likely be without one of their best players for a long time.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The results came in the next day.\u00a0 Grayson tore his ACL and his lateral and medial meniscus, as well as his ALL, and sprained his MCL and PCL.\u00a0 Two weeks later, Grayson got surgery on his injured knee.\u00a0 He remembers feeling \u201cnervous, but also calm and collected\u201d the day of the surgery.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n After 8 months of long, intensive rehab, Grayson was finally cleared to play football again.\u00a0 But shortly after he was cleared, it happened again.\u00a0 One day at practice, Grayson\u00a0 was guarding an out and up route, and placed [his] hips and feet in opposite directions.\u201d\u00a0 He \u201cheard a loud crunch and limped off the field.\u201d\u00a0 Initially, Grayson was confused about what just happened, as he \u201cthought it was [his] ACL again\u201d, but the injury was \u201cnothing like the first time [he tore his ACL].” \u00a0He went to get an MRI and found out that there was damage to the ACL, but there was nothing conclusive.\u00a0 Thus, he was allowed to continue to practice, but if his knee started to show swelling, he would have to get surgery.\u00a0 Sure enough, 4 days later, the knee started to swell.\u00a0 Grayson kept trying to play through the swollen knee, but when he failed to make a cut on the field, \u201c[he] knew [he] was done.\u201d\u00a0 Once again, he had severe damage to his knee – a torn ACL, torn ALL, torn lateral meniscus, and a PCL strain.\u00a0 Grayson would end up missing his entire season of football, and, for the second straight year, his entire season of baseball.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI was heartbroken,\u201d Grayson explained.\u00a0 \u201cI was ready to give up on football.\u201d\u00a0 But, he \u201cdecided that [he] made it this far\u201d, and was not done with the sport he\u2019s played for nine years.\u00a0 Currently, Grayson is still rehabbing in hopes of getting back to 100% soon.\u00a0 He is very motivated throughout the process, stating that he \u201cwants to play the game [he loves] one more time, and [is] looking to win a state championship.\u201d\u00a0 And for that to happen for River Hill, they\u2019ll need a healthy Grayson Vintz.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By: Gabe Kamins, Opinions Editor \u201cI heard a pop.\u00a0 As I was falling to the ground, I remember looking up into the stadium lights, thinking, \u2018oh no\u2019.\u00a0 I was rolling around on the ground in pain and was biting down as hard as I could on my mouthguard.\u00a0 And then at that point, it all…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":1220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","category-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/IMG_2761.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1219"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1256,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1219\/revisions\/1256"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}