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NCAA men Purdy returns to American midfield after paralysis scare.
SoccerTimes WASHINGTON, D.C. (Thursday, October 27, 2005) -- Phil Purdy is the type of player coaches love. A determined ball-winner, the defensive midfielder has the skills and vision to distribute properly once he gains possession. And the freshman's promising collegiate career at American University nearly ended before it started, when a mid-air collision in his second game left him paralyzed from the shoulders down for more than 14 hours. Fortunately, this story comes with a happy ending. After missing five games, Purdy returned to the American lineup, but not without sharing with his teammates, coaches and school administrators a sobering reminder of the risks, however minimal, that college athletes face. The men's college season traditionally opens in Washington with the D.C. College Cup where the city's four Division I schools -- American, Georgetown, George Washington and Howard -- meet in a pair of doubleheaders to establish local bragging rights. AU opened with a 1-1 draw with GW September 2, but two days later trailed host Georgetown 1-0 at halftime. Five minutes after intermission, Purdy went up for a header in the attacking zone, but was leveled by a GU defender, apparently by a forearm to the chest, according to AU athletic department officials. Purdy hit the ground and was left unable to move. Fortunately, Kehoe Field is in close proximity to Georgetown University Hospital where he was taken after being treated on the field for 45 minutes.
"I'm usually used to playing with bumps and bruises, but something like that is scary. It's kind of given me new perspective on things, what could happen. (Soccer) could be over any day for some guys." What followed were more than 14 hours of extreme concern. After a series of tests, doctors told Purdy they were confident he would regain motion, but they could not promise him to what extent he would recover. He was diagnosed with "spinal cord injury without radiographic abnormality." "We treated it as a catastrophic event," said Mike Kotelnicki, AU athletic trainer for soccer. "Any time an athlete goes down without function, it's a catastrophic situation. I was very concerned about him walking again." "When it happened, it was more shock. Was he alright?" Eagles defender and senior captain Nate Baker said. "I saw the guy go into him pretty recklessly. . . When I saw him shaking on the ground, it was pretty devastating mentally. It was tough. We sat down as a team, we collected ourselves and said 'Do we really want to go on and play?' But we thought it would be out of character if we didn't allow ourselves to play the rest of that game. That's what Phil would have wanted us to do. "We were all ready for the worst, scared. This kid had stepped in as a freshman and was the heart of the middle of the midfield. And we expect big things for the next four years. Very scary and very surreal. We were just hoping for the best." Purdy comes from Woodbridge, Va., maybe 25 miles south of the AU campus in Northwest Washington. His parents Phil and Andrea were in Atlanta at younger brother Michael's Labor Day youth tournament, but he did have a grandmother, aunt and uncle at the Georgetown game. They accompanied him to the hospital. Eagles coach Todd West and assistants Jeff Kinney and Josh Shapiro also stayed with Purdy until his parents arrived at about 7:30 p.m., approximately six hours after the accident. "The biggest thing was it gave us some perspective," West said. "You're definitely trying to win games, but when you saw him paralyzed on the field, you realize that it's a lot more about people. The game was secondary. Just seeing him get his fingers back and his feet back slowly, but surely, we were just thrilled because we weren't sure it was coming back. The neurosurgeon said he thought it looked good, but the kid's paralyzed. "You don't know if it's going to be a day, a week, a month, so I was pretty nervous. Now, he seems like he's fine and we're getting back the guy we had before the injury." The breakthrough came at about 4 a.m. when a nurse came in for an examination. "When the nurse came in four o'clock in the morning to check on me, she started moving my arms," Purdy said. "As she started moving them, I started getting a little bit of movement back and, not full range, a little bit, gradually, here and there. It started with my hands and then started working down to my feet, working down to my feet through my legs. "At one point, I was crying. I wasn't really sure how long it would last, not being able to move. When I started getting movement, things started feeling real good. When I started getting movement back and the tests were negative, the (doctors) said I could come back and play full speed again." The night after the injury, Purdy walked out of the hospital. "I had to wear a neck brace for a couple of weeks after being out of the hospital and, another week after that, without the neck brace, I could start doing jogging and things like that." Purdy returned as a reserve in a 2-0 loss at Navy September 28. Three days later, he started in a 3-2 overtime defeat at Loyola of Baltimore. He has been in the opening 11 for the Eagles' four games since then. "The first thing I wanted to do was get into a tackle," he said. "The practice before -- I had a couple of practices before the (Navy) game -- it was the first time I could actually hit somebody. Getting into the first tackle of the game was huge. And that kind of put everything behind me. And when that was all said and done, it sort of felt like nothing had happened. A serious injury "could happen again. I just try not to think about it when I'm playing. When I play the game, I really don't think of anything else except the game. I don't even remember the injury or anything." Purdy scored his first career goal in his third game back, but could not enjoy it because AU suffered a 4-1 setback at Holy Cross. "It was more important to focus on the game because we were down 3-0 at the time," he said. "I thought it might boost team morale. I was just thinking about the team and trying to win the game." If Saturday's 3-1 Patriot League victory over Colgate was any indication, Purdy is playing at full speed, showing no fear and is one of the most effective Eagles. He scored the first goal against the Raiders -- taking a corner kick out of the air and volleying it 20 yards into the right corner of the net -- putting AU ahead for good in a crucial league triumph. Though 4-8-1 overall, AU is 2-2 in its last four outings and entertaining realistic hopes of a second-half resurgence carrying it into the NCAA tournament. The Eagles are 3-2 in conference, in a five-way tie for first place with two matches remaining, beginning with Saturday's visit to Bucknell. The first-place finisher hosts the Patriot League tournament in which the top four teams participate with the winner earning an NCAA bid. Purdy's contribution is essential to AU's aspirations. "He's a ball-winner and he distributes very well," West said. "So when we didn't have that, we didn't have a presence in the middle of the midfield. So now that he's back, hopefully we have that."
Gary Davidson is SoccerTimes managing editor. E-mail Gary Davidson. |
