Punter injured on field late in season, hopes to play next year

Number 61, Gerardo Diaz, Central’s varsity punter, sustained an injury to the knee in a game against Lincoln Pius High School. After punting the ball, Diaz’ ball was received by Lincoln Pius’ returner and Diaz realized that the opponent’s returner was heading down the sideline. “I hesitated if I should go and make the tackle or not. I decided I should and saw a guy coming at me and I thought ‘I’m gonna plant and hit this guy then go get the ball,’ but when I hit this guy he ended up hitting me harder than I was prepared for,” Diaz discloses, “I felt my knee pop twice and it was just instant pain.” 

After his knee popped, Diaz reported a burning sensation in his knee. The medics on the field at the time told him to ice it, wait until the swelling went down and stay off it. After getting his knee checked out by doctors following this event, Diaz discovered that he had bucket–torn his meniscus, completely torn his ACL and he also injured his MCL. His recovery time is estimated to be nine to twelve months; he has completed surgery on his meniscus tear but still needs to get surgery for his ACL. Diaz tells himself, “With time, things will get better and you just have to keep staying positive and moving forward.” 

With three weeks left in the football season, the team could not allow this injury to become a major setback for the entire team. Sam Levy, the starting varsity kicker, was chosen to fill Diaz’ position as punter on the team. “I had to work a lot harder in practice to take over for Gerardo,” Levy discloses, “before he was injured, I knew how to punt but I never really worked on it. It was tough on the team because he was one of our best players in that position.” 

With everything going on, Diaz has noticed the help he has received from peers and others. Many students posted on social media drawing attention to his injury and giving Diaz their best wishes in his recovery. Diaz’ expresses the impression of his peers: “It’s weird because people I don’t even know will offer to help me when they see that I’m hurt, that’s kinda cool though.” 

Through his recovery process so far, Diaz says that his mom and brother have been extremely supportive. Diaz recently started physical therapy and is hoping to be ready for next year’s football and soccer seasons. Despite his hopeful attitude, he admits, “It sucks, it’s very irritating. Little things like walking to get clothes and even just putting on my socks I can’t do and honestly that’s really annoying.”  

Diaz is nervous to return to his athletics after his recovery process is over because of the amount of time he will be spending away from sports. In addition to being a punter for the varsity football team, Diaz plays defense for the varsity soccer team. Diaz comments, “With soccer, I’m afraid I won’t have my touch [with the ball] and I’ll be really rusty. Kicking wise, I feel like I won’t have much power and it’ll feel weird and maybe I won’t want to do it… only time will tell.”