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It was the hardest call Matt Wells has ever had to make. And he had to make it four different times.
When the Utah State football coach called the parents of players who were seriously injured in a car collision on Friday afternoon, he didn't have much more information than they did. He didn't know if they were going to be OK — he could only hope.
By Saturday afternoon, Wells had visited with each of his four players who were hospitalized: Adewale Adeoye, Edmund Faimalo, John Taylor and Travis Seefeldt. He was secure in the knowledge that all four, as well as former USU softball player Sarah Vasquez, were alert and in stable condition a day after their car was struck by a semi-truck on a Cache County highway.
"The fact that they're in stable condition is a miracle," Wells said. "We're thankful that they're in stable condition, although experiencing a tremendous amount of pain and discomfort. It'll be a tough process to recover, but those are tough-minded individuals."
The Utah State community feared the worst when news broke that they were injured in a collision at an intersection in Trenton on Friday afternoon. The Utah High Patrol said Friday that the five were driving back from Newton Dam together in a Chevy Tahoe when they crossed into the path of an oncoming truck hauling 26 tons of milk.
Seefeldt and Vasquez were initially flown to McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden, and Vasquez later went to the Intermountain Medical Center in Murray. Taylor, Faimalo and Adeoye went to Logan-area hospitals.
Utah State officials learned Saturday afternoon that all five were in stable condition and improving. Wells said all four of his players were alert and talking when he visited Saturday, and Utah State softball coach Steve Johnson tweeted that Vasquez, who exhausted her athletic eligibility this spring, was alert and with her family. All five athletes will remain hospitalized at least into Sunday.
The hospitals were packed with visiting teammates, Wells said.
"The biggest thing for those kids is just being able to actually see your teammate is OK," he said. "The absence [of a teammate] is a really difficult stress on a young man's mind. To be able to see those guys helped easy a lot of hearts and minds."
None of the injured athletes hail from Utah. Wells said four of the five families had arrived in the state by Saturday afternoon, with the fifth on the way. Adeoye, 19, posted on Instagram a photo of himself with visiting teammates in his hospital room Friday evening.
NCAA guidelines limit coaches' access to players during the summer, but Wells said his defensive line — one of the units rocked the hardest by the incident — was coming to his house for dinner on Saturday night. The Aggie football team is planning a meeting for Sunday.
"We're going to rally together," Wells said. "I'm meeting again tonight with all four of our players, and we're going to lend our support and wrap our arms around them."
Twitter: @kylegoon