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St. George • Desert Hills coach Carl Franke confirmed the Thunder's top-recruit, Nephi Sewell, suffered a broken neck on Friday — a potentially career-ending injury.
The injury occurred in the first quarter of Desert Hills' loss to Jordan, when Sewell collided with a receiver defending an incomplete pass. Sewell did not return to the game. The junior underwent surgery on Saturday, where surgeons fused together his C4 and C5, which was fractured and displaced, vertebrae. Sewell will miss the 2015 season in its entirety, and the prognoses for his return to football is questionable.
"To play football again — probably a huge risk, but we'll see," Franke said. "Every time you do some sort of fusion, your vertebrae, it actually makes it weaker. He could be risking life-alerting disability if he were to get hit again in the head. When next year comes, we'll reevaluate, and we'll go from there. Right now, I can't speculate if he'll play again or not. Not too many do."
Sewell, who started at running back, cornerback and as a returner, was expected to be next in line of collegiate athletes in his family. His brother Gabe signed with Nevada, while his cousin Lausii signed with Weber State.
"Right now he's very upbeat and positive, like he usually is. Nephi is a great kid," Franke said. "The team is taking it pretty hard. They know how special of a player Nephi is. They're not taking it hard because they're worried about their season — they knew Nephi had the opportunity to play on Saturdays, and he may not get that. That's what the kids feel the worst about."
Desert Hills, which remained in the top spot of the Class 3AA power rankings despite its loss against Class 5A's Jordan, returns to action against Diamond Ranch on Thursday.
"We've got a long season ahead of us. We know we just lost the best player on the team. When you lose your best player, especially at the 3AA level — you've got a kid who is pretty special for you on both sides of the football — that's hard to come back from those things. You hope that somebody steps up, but it's never going to be like your star player. You cope and move on and try and do what's best for the team."
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