Nash Odenetel, a freshman player on the boys’ soccer team at JHS, was injured in a junior varsity tournament October 5, the morning of the Homecoming dance. Nash went up for a head ball and a player from the opposing team came in at an angle with his knee up, ready to tackle. “The collision looked nasty even from the sideline,” one of Nash’s teammates said. Nash immediately went down with a sharp throbbing pain in his stomach.
After being helped off the field, Nash was driven to the emergency room at Passavant Area Hospital where he waited to hear what the doctor would have to say. After several IV’s and a cat scan, Nash was informed that he had a lacerated spleen and internal bleeding. Nash would have to say in the hospital for four days waiting for the wound would heal naturally. “Four days is a long time to be stuck in a bed, especially if you know your season is over,” Nash commented on his time in the hospital.
Nash received many kind words of encouragement from friends, family, coaches, and fellow teammates and even received a shout out that night at the Homecoming dance. “It’s sad knowing that my freshman season had to end this way, but it’s good knowing that so many people have given me their support. I guess I just have to look out for next season now and work that much harder when I’m cleared to work.”
Despite having a player taken off the field, the junior varsity soccer team still managed to get third place in the home invitational tournament and beat out rival school, SHG, in sudden death penalty shoot outs.