|
KANNAPOLIS — Injured A.L. Brown running back Durand Stanback is making Monday afternoon’s practice go by a bit faster by filling out one of the Post’s “Meet the Players” forms.
The stocky senior sails along until he reaches the final question: What will you do if you become a millionaire by age 20?
As Stanback scratches his bandanna-covered head, pondering cool cars and huge houses and potential dates with Destiny’s Child, injured Wonder safety Shannon Blackmon offers friendly advice.
“Hey Durand,” he quips, “if you had a million, you could buy yourself a new ACL.”
Stanback could use a new ACL. So could quite a few of his teammates. If ACLs suddenly went on sale next to the sardines at Food Lion, Wonder trainer Kevin Taylor would drop everything and fill two shopping carts.
ACL is short for anterior cruciate ligament, that tough, yet fragile band of tissue that helps keep knees intact. Everyone in Kannapolis is talking ACLs these days. The only acronym that may be more frequently used is VCR.
Taylor is in his rookie season at A.L. Brown. He toiled for East Carolina’s football team last fall, but says he’s never encountered anything close to the wave of injury woe that’s kept him beaver-busy in K-Town.
“I’ve been a little depressed about it,” Taylor says. “Everybody looks at me for answers, but there’s nothing we could have done to prevent this. It’s not anything we’re doing wrong at practice or in pregame and there’s nothing wrong with the kids’ tackling technique.
“Sometimes things happen. We’ve just had a series of freak accidents.”
Practice is an eerie sight. There’s nearly as much bright blue — in the form of knee braces and wraps — as there is traditional Wonder green.
This is a badly banged-up team, bracing — quite literally— for Friday’s road clash with bitter rival Concord.
n
The Wonders are an uncharacteristic 1-2 in the standings and were an eyelash from 0-3. But no one has really seen what they have yet. They haven’t been close to full strength since deadlocking 4A monster Richmond County in their first scrimmage.
Maurice Edwards, a speedy junior slot, got hurt immediately against Richmond. Fullback Rock Johnson, a 246-pound bruiser who looks like he just landed from Krypton, soon joined Edwards as a spectator.
Still, all wasn’t gloom and doom. Head coach Ron Massey had raved about Stanback all summer and knew he could step in for Edwards. And sure enough, Stanback was sensational against Kings Mountain at the Cleveland County Jamboree. Stanback ripped off three quick touchdowns. Then he ripped an ACL.
“It was shocking,” said Stanback, still out indefinitely. “I worked so hard over the summer to get better. Just like that, it all falls apart.”
n
Then senior Charlie Fox, a three-year starter at free safety, went down. Fox, the Wonders’ smartest player and hardest hitter, remembers racing toward the sideline to stop an Eastern Randolph sweep in the second regular-season game.
“I had to make that tackle,” says Fox. “They told me later I made the tackle.”
But future Fox tackles are iffy. He didn’t get up from that grinding collision and there was searing pain in his wrecked right knee. If the MRI is on target, it’ll pretty much be declared a total loss: torn ACL, torn MCL, torn meniscus, you name it.
A limping Fox hauled medical photos of the wounded knee to Monday’s practice. He quietly pointed out “cracks where there aren’t supposed to be cracks.”
Fox underwent arthroscopic surgery last Friday morning and began rehab five days later. He says he’ll return wearing a protective brace. The kid whose favorite movie is “Rudy” says just give him 10 days or so. He knows he’ll miss Concord, but says South Rowan, next in line, is equally important.
Wonder fans, who line the practice hill with grim faces these days, are counting on Fox.
It’s hurt the Wonders’ defense that rugged linebacker Fernando Edwards is sidelined while he gets some academic issues in order, but the loss of Fox is the killer. When Fox went down against ER, it was like David Copperfield made the Wonders’ defense disappear. ER scored 35. Back in the day, the Wonders didn’t give up 35 in a month.
“If I’d gotten hurt the last two years, no big deal,” said Fox. “But this year all the young guys were looking to me to tell them where to be and what to do. I’ve gotta get back.”
Strong safety Blackmon also went down against ER. He’d bruised vertebrae in his lower back against Richmond County, but figured he could play through it. Eventually the pain became too great. Taylor says Blackmon will miss a couple more weeks.
And the beat goes on. Andrew King recovered a fumble against South Point, then hurt a knee. Between taping ankles on Monday, Taylor made calls about the junior linebacker’s MRI.
Senior center Josh Barrier, a 6-foot-5 tower who glued the O-line, was also lost in the South Point scrap. Someone fell on Barrier, tearing a muscle behind his right shoulder blade. Taylor expects the big guy to miss six weeks. Fox was the holder and Barrier the snapper, so Wonder PATS aren’t exactly routine anymore.
“All I can do is come to practice and try to support my teammates,” said Barrier. “What’s really tough is we keep losing seniors. When you do that, you lose leadership.”
n
Still, there’s hope for the men in green. Johnson, cleared by doctors, practiced Monday, although Taylor had to attach an ice-pack to his ailing right knee at the half-way point. Edwards is available now, although still shy of 100 percent.
Taylor happily reports that his “hands guys” are also back in the fray. That group includes linemen Chad Keller and Matt Jordan and defensive back Robert “Rocky” Clark. They’ve been hampered by dislocated fingers.
“Slowly, but surely,” says Taylor, carefully crossing his own fingers, “we’re putting things back together.
“We’re starting to look less like a M.A.S.H. unit, more like a football team.”
n
Contact Mike London at 704-797-4259 or mlondon@salisburypost.com
|
Today's News
