Hunter M. McCann, Keith A. Fell Jr. and Anthony J. Mocklin
LSU Manship School News Service
BATON ROUGE “I couldn’t move my legs.”
Lance Garafola lay on the turf of a high school football field wondering what happened and where the feeling in his lower body had gone. The crowd and both sidelines fell silent as trainers rushed onto the field.
Garafola was a sophomore at St. Michael the Archangel High School in 2016 when a Loranger High player blind-sided him on an onside kick. Paramedics were brought in when Garafola said he couldn’t feel his legs, but they were hesitant to move him because of the possible severity of his injury. Silence and fear hung in the air for over an hour before they raised him onto a stretcher and Garafola threw up his thumb to let his teammates and fans know he was conscious.