Bad Links?
Other glitches?
Notify Webmaster

Bobcats’ Sanchez beats the odds after serious injury

By MICHAEL BOYLAN
mboylan@TheCitizenNews.com

Matt Sanchez started playing football around the age of seven years old. He played running back and corner back for a lot of youth teams in Marietta before moving to this area and playing for the Peachtree City Packers. Sanchez, a 16 year old resident of Sharpsburg and a junior at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic High School, doesn’t play football any more. His career unfortunately came to an end last year when he suffered a severe spinal injury in the Bobcats first game of the season, a 61-0 loss to Pacelli.

“I went for a tackle on a sweep and their fullback took my legs out,” said the former free safety and backup quarterback for Mercy. “I hit the guy with my head down and the next thing I remember is being airlifted off the field.”

The airlift ride to the hospital had to be terrifying for Sanchez as he had his last rites read to him during the flight. When he arrived at the hospital, they cut his pads off and took x-rays. He was then transferred to the Shepherd Center, where he stayed in the emergency room for several days while they operated on him.

Sanchez was told he had a C-5 burst fracture and the initial prognosis from the doctors was that if he didn’t die, he would be paralyzed from the nec down for the rest of his life. The prognoses changed day to day though as Sanchez improved rapidly.

“After I was able to move my feet, I was told that I’d never be able to walk long distances or use my left hand,” Sanchez recalled. His miraculous recovery continued at its rapid pace though. He endured two two hour physical therapy sessions a day at Shepherd and went home after three weeks and was back at school a month after the incident on the football field.

Sanchez credits God for his recovery, adding, “there is no other way to explain it.”

The school was incredibly supportive of their student during his time of need. Father Paul Burke, the school’s chaplain and head of the campus ministry, visited Sanchez nearly every day, as did many of his friends. The school also raised money to help Sanchez and his family deal with the medical expenses and all of his fellow students and teachers prayed for him.

Apparently it worked because not only was Sanchez back at school within a month but by the spring he was running the 400 and 800 meter events for the school’s track team. This fall, Sanchez works out with the cross country team, though he does not compete in the races. He is also a member of the mock trial team.

Sanchez misses playing football but states firmly that his playing days are over. He does attend all of the Bobcats games and takes the statistics for the team. Sanchez also holds hope that one day he will coach football, perhaps in a youth program like the ones he grew up with.

As a junior, he is starting to think about college and would like to attend Duke, Stanford or the University of Virginia. He hasn’t decided on a major yet but would like to study something dealing with either math or science.

There is no exterior change to Matt Sanchez but he feels that he is thankful for a lot more these days and states that after the accident he doesn’t take as much for granted. He enjoys his friendships at school and also spending time with his family. Sanchez feels very blessed and fortunate to be where he is one year after an accident that many feared had killed him. No one can say if his amazing recovery was truly a miracle or not, but few would argue against that notion.