Anoor, Sawyer and Witherspoon missing their final football season 

By CAROL STUART
Brentwood Home Page
This is their senior season, the time to shine under the Friday night lights of high school football, the time to battle with their teammates in the trenches, a time to make memories of a lifetime, a time to shed blood, sweat and tears.

But for Brentwood Academy running back Radir Anoor, Brentwood High linebacker Will Witherspoon and Ravenwood linebacker Collin Sawyer, it was cut short all too early. A devastating injury ended their 2011 football season pretty much before it started.

BA's Radir Anoor had an outstanding junior season despite sharing time with some seniors, but had knee surgery before his senior year. (Photo by Renee Yarbrough)

For Anoor it happened in June, which means he has a small chance of making it back for the playoffs. For Witherspoon, it was a preseason jamboree. And for Sawyer, it was in the first game of the season. Instead of practicing and playing, they have been hurting and rehabbing.

“As a coach, it's really the only part of football that I don't like,” Raptors Coach Joe Rietveld said. “All the other stuff, you're going to have some good things and obviously you're going to have some bad, and you're going to have to deal with all those. And I can handle all those.

“But to try to look a 17-year-old kid in the eye and give him some type of an explanation, it's next to impossible. Because he's worked for years and in particular for this season since November and to have it all end with an injury and not be able to play, it's definitely not fair. But you can give all the clichés about life not being fair you want to, but that doesn't help ease the pain.

“Most of the time, it's not about going out there and getting 100 yards and 10 tackles, it's about being able to spend time with your friends and get out there and work hard for a common purposes, and that's what's difficult because it just changes.”

Ravenwood's Sawyer: 'I missed the Brentwood game, that's when it really hit me'

It was opening night, a new coach, a new season, a new start for Collin Sawyer, whose older brother played on Ravenwood’s 2005 state championship team. Last year Sawyer tore the AC-joint in his shoulder and only played in the last two games.

And in the first game at Battle Ground Academy, he broke his leg and store ankle ligaments.

 “I heard it pop and I just looked down and I saw it – it was at a right-degree angle and I knew immediately that was probably the last play.”

Collin Sawyer (29), right, lines up on defense during Ravenwood's season-opener at BGA.

Sawyer spent overnight at the emergency room and went back a week later for another hospital stay for surgery after the swelling went down. He got seven screws, a plate and some wiring between the bones. He was in a wheelchair for a week and has been on crutches for four weeks with two to go, then will need to rehab the ankle.

“The biggest game I missed was the Brentwood game, that's when it really kind of hit me. That was the saddest game for me,” Sawyer said.

“I've played with the guys from Brentwood. I'm friendly with almost half their team, since I was 4 or 5 years old. So we always looked forward to the senior game, and it was kind of tough missing that.”

Sawyer was able to appear in the seniors’ football video and ride on the float for homecoming. But he had to miss two weeks of school: “It's been kind hard catching up on school work, and I'm not exempt from exams now too.”

Rietveld said Sawyer has been “trying to stay involved any way he can,” despite limited mobility.

Sawyer left the game by ambulance. (Photos by Rebecca Smeltzer)

“I haven't been as much of a leader since I've been hurt. I go to practice every now and then, and I go to every game on the sideline, and at halftime I'll talk to them,” Collin said. “I'll tell the other linebackers what I see, and maybe what they're doing, just trying to help however I can.”

He wasn’t counting on a college career, although he thought about walking on somewhere. And he plays lacrosse, “so I have that to look forward to hopefully” when the official spring season rolls around.

“It's not enough to say it was a bummer,” Sawyer said of missing football. “It's like a job all summer, you put in so many hours, and it kind of sucks that first game to be taken out so early. … It kind of threw things off.”

Bruins' Witherspoon: 'I had a starting position and everything'

Brentwood’s Will Witherspoon was coming around a corner, ready to make the tackle during the preseason jamboree, and felt someone grab his ankle and hit him in the side of the knee.

“At first when I got hit, it didn't really hurt,” he recalls. “But, when I hit the ground, it started hurting really bad and I knew when I got up I wasn't able to walk real well. So I knew I probably wasn't going to be able to play.”

Will Witherspoon already had to sit out a year due to transfer rules, then tore his ACL in the preseason.

It was a torn ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) in the knee – one of the biggest fears of athletes – and he had surgery about two weeks later.  He is in physical therapy now and has about three more months to go.

“It's been pretty hard. I was looking forward to playing this year, and I had a starting position and everything,” Witherspoon said.

It was his first significant injury, but not unlike Sawyer this was his first year to get varsity playing time and make a big contribution. A transfer from Hillwood, Witherspoon had sat out a year

“You really hate it when that situation occurs,” BHS Coach Ron Crawford said. “Here's a guy who worked out great in the weight room and showed in the offseason he was all in. He worked hard to get himself on the field. He had a great spring practice, and we left the spring thinking he could be a starter.

“He entered the fall with that opportunity and he did a great job. We think this guy is really going to help us, and he’s having fun, and something like this happens. We don't know why, but those type things happen. It's part of the game unfortunately.”

Will has gone to practice a couple of times but his physical therapy often interferes, and he’s been to most of the games.

“It's pretty hard to watch from the sidelines, because you're supposed to be in that spot and know you could make that play where the person playing your position couldn't have made it,” he said.

Witherspoon, who shares the same name as a Titans linebacker, has made up his schoolwork and doesn’t need crutches anymore. He can’t run or lift weights yet, but may be able to start benching in a couple of weeks.

“The team is doing really well, and my injury's getting better,” Will said. “I was down at first, but I'm not that down any more. It took time to get over it.”

Brentwood Academy's Anoor: 'I’d do anything to be playing right now'

Radir Anoor was coming off an outstanding junior year for the powerful Brentwood Academy football team, was on the college recruiting radar, and ran on a state championship relay team in helping BA to the team title in late May.

“I had some pain in my knee,” he remembers. “I made it through the first week of football. And I thought it would go away if I just rest up. I took a few days off. But to be sure, my coach said you should go to the doctor and get it checked it.”

BA's Radir Anoor was honored after the Great American Rivalry with MBA.

The doctor told him to rest, but took an X-ray just as a precaution. “He X-rayed me and he’s like ‘Aw, we definitely didn’t see that coming.’ ” A serious chronic knee injury was discovered and led to surgery in June.

“I want to be out there so bad, I’d do anything to be playing right now,” Anoor said.

Eagles Coach Ralph Potter said there was no guarantee surgery would be 100% successful, and Radir said he asked the doctor “for an alternate plan.” But the doctor says his recovery is going as expected, and Anoor is hoping to find out soon about whether coming back for the playoffs in November “is out of the question or if it’s possible.”

“He was looking at missing his senior year with all buddies, looking at hurting his college recruiting chances, and his little brother is a freshman on the team and he's gotten a lot of playing time as freshman,” Potter said. “He's happy for him, but sad for himself. It's been a hard time.”

Radir went to camp with the team and even attended two-a-days, “but it's hard when you're not out here going through what everybody else is going through, not feeling a part of it and staying connected as much as you would.”

But Potter said “throughout this ordeal Radir has had really good spirits and been an encourager to the guys out there.”

Anoor, still rehabbing, said he is still hearing from the same colleges that were recruiting him, based on his junior year. But Potter says he’s likely missing a chance to move up in the ranks of top recruits.

While BA is hoping he’ll be able to return this season, “we're not going to jeopardize him having a healthy knee for getting him in a few games this year,” Potter said.

“I’m not a negative person, I always think of the positive,” Anoor said. “I think I’ll be better in the end, feel a lot better and be a lot better athlete when I get back – just there’ll be a better outcome in the end.”