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SALT LAKE CITY — When Chad Judd of the Payson Lions was rushed to the hospital the night of his homecoming dance, the doctors originally just wanted to do an X-ray. After telling them he sustained an injury during his football game the night before, the doctors quickly changed paths.
An ultrasound showed Judd had ruptured his spleen the night before in the Lions' game against Maple Mountain when he made a diving tackle. It didn’t hurt that night so he continued to play.
Instead of celebrating his senior homecoming, though, Judd quickly found himself with the possibility of needing surgery. His body began to heal itself, which meant no surgery, but he still remained in the hospital to be monitored by doctors.
Maple Mountain head football coach Brad Burtenshaw heard about the injury and let the players on his team know. His team immediately wanted to step in and see what they could do to help Judd. A couple of phone calls later and Burtenshaw and some of his guys were on their way to visit Judd in the hospital.
None of the guys knew who Judd was other than playing against him the night before. But for these athletes, life was bigger than the playing field.
“Just knowing that they cared,” Judd said. “Just knowing that everything isn’t always about winning or losing, sometimes it’s about the relationships you gain from playing football, not just the score of the game. It was just cool to know that they cared about me being there and being healthy.”
The guys thought it might be awkward visiting an opposing player, but the high school athletes quickly turned into friends. They laughed with each other and helped lift the spirits in the room. Football brought opponents together as friends and helped to heal, even in hard circumstances.
“They have an influence,” Spencer Marchant, one of the Maple Mountain players, said. “Once you join the football team or any sports team, you got a bunch of people around you, influencing you to share your life with them. It’s just a different bond and a different family.”
While his spleen heals, Judd, a three-sport athlete for the Lions, will miss the remainder of his senior season. His injury will keep him out for three to six months depending on how it heals.
For Maple Mountain senior running back Colton Archibald, the lesson he learned from that hospital room is something to apply in daily life.
“I feel like just making people know that they’re wanted,” Archibald said. “I know people think they have a small group or whatnot, but I feel if other people know that other people know that they’re there and have other people to reach out to, it makes them more comfortable around everyone and share more about themselves.”
Life isn’t about the wins and the losses. They do play an important part on the football field, but for these high school football players, it was simply about reaching out to someone they didn’t know to make sure he was okay.
“It’s what you always hope for,” Burtenshaw said. “You hope that when they go through high school and they go through the program they come out better people, good adults, responsible citizens, they care about others, and you’ll see that come through fruition here and there.”
Carra McManamon is a native of Washington State and is attending the University of Utah. Contact her at cmcmanamon@deseretdigital.com or follow her on Twitter: @curramac22
