Lee,

I don't believe we have ever met, but I have seen your son wrestle in both kids club and high school and admired his work ethic. My son is Luke Wassel and I appreciate you noting his accomplishments as well at 6A 152. I would like to share his story for if it helps one person who has had to overcome injury or saves one kids life, then it is worth sharing. He has had a long, painful road back to the high school sports of football and wrestling that he loves to compete in. In February of 2012, on the Thursday before the EKL League Championships, my then sophomore son was driving home from varsity wrestling practice, he wrestled 132 that year. He was stopped at a light and one of his teammates in his car and he in his car decided to mess around and drive faster than they should have been. The problem was, Luke was a new driver and when he decided to take his foot off the gas pedal to slow down, the car mat had wedged it and kept it down so he could not reduce his speed. So, he panics and reaches down for the pedal, takes his eyes off the road, drifts from the left lane to the center island and then over corrects to the right on a two lane road going Northbound on Antioch. He then crosses the road, axle sinks into the grass prior to impact with a 4 foot concrete retaining wall and he flips his Explorer end over end, while the roof hits on the edge of the wall and he proceeds to flip and roll multiple times on the grass grade that the retaining wall was holding and then comes off the wall and lands down on the road about 250 feet on all four wheels. I was in Atlanta on business at the time when I got the call from my oldest son who coaches at Blue Valley West that evening. All he said was Dad it is bad. I got the last flight out of Atlanta that night and arrived at Overland Park Trauma Center at 12:30 a.m. By the time I had arrived, there were 100's of parents and high school classmates there. He had just finished getting out of a 5 hour surgery to begin to repair his left leg. He had a broken femur in his thigh and they inserted a rod. He had a compound fracture of the Tibia and Fibula which came out of the skin, which they temporarily set with rods outside of his leg as they kept the wound open for a week as he had 4 other surgeries to clean the wound and the bone for fear of infection. Ultimately, they plated the Tibia with a plate and screws. If he had NOT had his SEATBELT on, he would not be here today. The extent of the damage to the car was massive as it was crushed and twisted. When I actually saw it I at the salvage yard a week later, I actually got sick. The only thing that Luke remembered was reaching down for the gas pedal to free it and looking at his left leg sticking up through were the windshield should have been and as he states, bent in half with blood coming down on me. The doctors originally said it would be 50/50 if he would retain his leg, they said they had big concerns about infection for up to as long as six months because of the amount of dirt and debris in the open wound and on the bone itself. They literally had to cut away some bone to try to prevent infection due to the dirt. The doctor believed that as the vehicle was rolling that his bone must have spiked at some point in the dirt and grass. Then they said that if he did keep his leg he would probably forever walk with a limp or possibly not regain full movement of his foot and ankle. They told him he may never get back to playing competitive sports as they had to cut some muscle that had died out of his calf area and he had some nerve sensation issues in his foot from nerves which were crushed. They told him if he ever did, he could expect up to at least two years of rehab to recover, and that was only if the bones ever even actually healed. The second day he was so out of it due to pain and pain medication, that he did not even realize the extent of his injuries. He said to me, Dad, I have to get out of here. I said why? He said cause I got to get to wrestling practice, we have the league tournament tomorrow. I told him Luke you will not be able to participate in that tomorrow and it was at that time that he first saw the damage to his leg. I told him I loved him and told him that out of all the kids I know, he has the heart and mental toughness to overcome this setback. His body was working so hard to heal himself that even though he was eating fine, he was just burning calories and his weight dropped to 113 pounds. I brought him out of the hospital 8 days later and as I was driving him home, I told him I am sorry for his accident and the pain he is now going to have to endure for the upcoming months. I told him if I could take it all on myself I would but I can't. I told him that I did not know if it was because he was named after a saint, or if it was because the accident occurred in front of a church.......but I told him that by the looks of that car that if it were not for his seat belt being on and the grace of God's will that he should be dead. I told him that God must have bigger plans for him. I then told him that although I feel terrible about what happened to him and the pain he was in, that as his father, I was struggling with my anger and disappointment for the poor choice he made and how this did not need to happen. We talked about that and cleared the air. I told him that the pain meds he was taking were heavy duty and addictive and I knew that the rehab would be long, grueling and painful. I told him that I know he has a very high pain tolerance and that I don't want him to suffer but that he should look to wean down on the amount he takes as time goes by and take them only as needed. He started doing that immediately and I made a chart by day and week which showed the decline. By the 5th week, he had himself off all medications. They started rehab to keep the muscles moving which was challenging as the bones were not healed. There was talk and concern about possibly needing knee reconstruction as well as we were told the MRI showed ligament damage. His sole goal was to get on the football field for his senior year. He endured a year of rehab and I told them that he is tough and will be motivated to push himself, but when you get him to that point, push him harder. He made amazing progress and rehabbed three days a week and would go to football practice the other two during his junior year. He was cleared to do light running drills as the doctor thought that would help his muscle memory to return. She said he would be in pain, but not to do more than the pain would allow. He limped while running through sprints and as his father it killed me to see him go through that. He asked me if he could get cleared to play football in his junior year, seven months after the accident. I told him it was not worth it, that he was not strong enough or ready, but I took him for a leg strength comparison test. The doctor would not clear him unless he demonstrated at least 80% to his good leg. He did not pass, so they suggested a strength coach who would work with him specifically to rebuild his muscles back for sports. He finally was cleared to play sports during the last regular week of his junior wrestling season as he just got to 80%. He practiced one week and I had concern about his knee as one doctor said he needed ACL and MCL surgery and I was not comfortable with that diagnosis so I went to Children Mercy South Sports Orthopedic group. They looked at the same MRI and did not feel there was any torn ligaments. They stated the instability in his knee was due to muscle atrophy. Not knowing what to do, I went with my gut and Luke's belief that his knee was fine. After returning for one week of practice, he wrestled in a varsity tournament as a light 152 and went 2-3. I told him that the mental hurdle would be just as big as the physical one to overcome. He worked out everyday after that wrestling season ended and all summer and made it back to the football field as a defensive back and wrestling mat for his senior year. He was a six seed in his region and his bracket had seven kids with winning records and 20 or more wins on the season, so I knew it was going to be tough and that any kid could beat the other depending on how they wrestled. He lost to the 3rd seed in the first round who he had beaten twice during the year. Then won a close decision in the last seconds and on the backside elimination match against a kid he lost to three times this year, twice in overtime, he falls behind early and is down 5-1 in the third period, but he is pushing the pace and his opponent is tiring. He gets a stall point is down 5-2 and several times in the third almost had takedowns but they were on the edge of the mat and not awarded. With 26 seconds left he gets a takedown and puts the kid to his back and wins 7-5 to earn a place at the state tourney. His team, parents, coaches all went crazy. Many had tears of joy for him. He proceeded to take third by winning his third straight match by he score of 3-0. He is not the best technical wrestler out there, but what he has and what the sport develops is heart, determination, and work ethic to overcome obstacles. As he jumped into my arms and hugged me after qualifying for state, I told him that he showed the biggest heart I ever saw and he said thanks Dad, I couldn't have done it without you and Mom. He knows what he lost, by making the choice he did that day two years ago and I am sure on some level he will always regret it. But, he has had the opportunity to talk to middle school kids, classmates, and friends about obeying traffic laws and always wearing your seat belt while driving. So I thought I would share this rather long story in the hopes that it may inspire someone if they run into an injury to know that no matter what the prognosis for recovery is, that hard work can help you overcome it and hopefully reminds all of our kids and teenage wrestlers to always wear their seatbelts. Because the only right thing which he was taught that he did that day was to put on that seat belt. For if he did not, this story would have had a totally different ending.

Jerry Wassel