From the Sidelines: Support for Nelson should help with recovery
Sports reporter
In an instant quicker than any sprint or faster than any pitch, a life can be changed.
In fact, lives can be changed.
It happens everyday across the world. We live our normal lives, knowing something could go wrong, but hoping it does not.
When someone who has been sick dies, it hurts, but also can be comforting knowing they are no longer in pain.
When an accident no one is expecting occurs, it changes the whole situation.
Especially when that accident is as inconceivable as Marion High School student Casey Nelson's was.
The former state qualifying pole-vaulter sustained a serious head injury from a fall April 3 while practicing a sport he loved.
The multi-talented athlete had just placed second two days before in his weight class at the 3A state powerlifting competition in his own gym. In the fall he completed a wrestling season that saw him qualifying for the state tournament for the first time. His final high school football season ended with a stat line of 1,153 rushing yards and 21 total touchdowns.
Oh yeah, forgot to mention his 4.0 grade point average in the classroom. The most important, but sometimes forgotten, statistic.
Nelson, as they say, had it all going for him.
And despite the injury he still does.
Whether he can compete in sports again is unknown to anyone outside his close circle of family and friends. But without talking to anyone in his family, it is still obvious he has people all over the community, all over the state, rooting for him. Not to score a touchdown or record a pin, but to prevail from this injury.
Anyone who has seen him on the football field or the wrestling mat knows he is a fighter. He probably is during a math test as well.
Hang around him for just a few minutes, and it may seem like the senior is a little aloof. But really he's just calm and collective, seeing what the world will bring next.
He has many reasons to be cocky, and while everybody is entitled to be at some point, for the most part he shrugs off his accomplishments with a wry smile.
A smile that seems to ever so slightly say, "Yeah I know I'm good," without making a scene.
It's what makes people like Nelson so special. They let their actions, and others, do the talking.
Right now people who know Nelson aren't talking about the touchdowns, the pins, or even the GPA. Instead they are talking about him recovering, and returning to the life he and his family once knew.
And that proves Nelson has everything going for him.
