PORTLAND, Texas — High school football is physical and players know that when they put on the uniform, but sometimes unfortunate injuries happen. One Gregory-Portland sophomore shows us that with motivation nothing could keep him from returning.
"Just being with them on the field you know. Practicing with them. Making plays," Ryder Harrison said. "Celebrating with them. It means everything. My journey, the support. It just means everything to be out there in that uniform again."
Wildcats dream of the day when they get to play for Gregory-Portland, but Ryder Harrison's first game of his sophomore season against Calallen was cut short on a big hit in the fourth quarter.
"I immediately lost all of my breath," Harrison said. "I knew something was wrong because I've gotten the air knocked out of me before, so I knew something was wrong so I just lay on the ground. I didn't try to get up."
An ambulance sent Harrison, who suffered a punctured lung injury, to Driscoll Children's Hospital.
"The unknown was the scariest part," Rhonda Harrison, Ryder's mother said. "How long was it going to take him? When was he going to go, and then when they turn off the machine and the lung starts collapsing again that's kind of the re-scare part."
Harrison spent eight days in the hospital.
"The day after he got in the hospital he looked at the doctor and said what do I need to do to get out," Rhonda said. "He said, 'Well you got walk.' He said, 'Well, I'm walking today.'"
The hardest part was watching the Battle of the Bridge game, G-P against Carroll, from the hospital.
"It was just one thing after another, but Ryder is a Fighter and that's kind of the way it ended up," Ryder's father Richard Harrison said.
His brother Colton snagged an interception against Carroll, almost a pick six, and Ryder made sure to let him know he should have scored.
"Football is important. I love the game too much, so I wanted to get back," Ryder Harrison said. "I saw my team out there and their moral wasn't very high, so I wanted to get back out their and make a difference," Ryder said.
"Before he was released you know he wanted to be out here all the time, and be around," Brent Davis, Gregory-Portland football head coach. "We had to kind of slow him down and stuff."
3.5 weeks later, Harrison started lifting weights, and less than a week after he was catching passes.
"We would just go run routes. We'd lift if we could. Everything we could to get back," Colton Harrison, Ryder's brother said. "In the past couple of days I've gotten in a lot better shape because of my coaches and teammates pushing me and making me better."
Six weeks after the injury Ryder the Fighter will run out of the tunnel once again ready to face Brownsville Porter. A Wildcat's dream that needed a team to accomplish.
"Thank you for all your support. It has helped a lot," Ryder Harrison said. "You don't know how much it's helped," he said.
Harrison and the Wildcats will face the Brownsville Porter Cowboys on Friday at 7 p.m. at Wildcat Stadium.
