Warren’s missed season was a true pain

  • By Brian Questel
  • November 17, 2011
  • 289
                        
On the surface, everything seemed normal. At the beginning of practice for the football season, Oliver Warren was going through the everyday routine, lifting weights, participating in drills and gearing up, banging away in the interior line with his Wooster High teammates as he competed for a spot in the starting lineup. “He was working so doggone hard,” said Wooster football coach Mike McCreary, who took notice of Warren’s performance in the early days of camp. “From the start, you could see he was so pumped up. He was healthy, we thought. He didn’t lead onto anything. Then he came in and told us – I mean, he had tears in his eyes. He’s competing to start!” And with that, the veil was off for the junior. He wasn’t healthy. Compounding the injury for the 6-foot-2, 280-pound junior was the fact that instead of being in there competing under the Friday Night Lights, all he could do was stand on the sidelines and watch classmates like Kamm Deviney and Grant Stokes, guys he had grown up and competed with, as they played through their pain. Their pain, though, didn’t come close to rivaling what Warren was going through. It stemmed back a full year to the start of the 2010 football season. “Last year before the (2010) season I obtained an injury during two-a-days that kept me out two weeks,” said Warren. “We thought it was a hip, but it was this injury. I just learned to cope with it (through football and) in track and I was about to do that in football, but I got to the point I couldn’t even walk. “There is a disc in my spine, a lower lumbar, that is completely out of place,” said Warren. “It’s pressing on the nerves that go all the way to my feet and through my left leg. It’s pretty painful and I couldn’t do much.” In fact, there was little that could be done initially because of the inflammation in his back. “If I was sitting it was an eight pretty consistently … and a 10 at night,” said Warren of the pain level. “It did come and go, but I masked it a lot. Eventually got used to it. I’m no pansy for pain – I put the mask on and pushed through.” Ultimately, the pain won out, forcing him to the doctors and the sidelines. “I had to have three surgical procedures where they injected cortisone directly into my spine so I could go through physical therapy, which would push the disc back into place,” said Warren. “The shot subsided the pain so I could do PT and the exercises would push the disc back into place. I went through a series of injections and then started PT.” The injections, which required Warren to be “knocked out to do this,” were spaced at two-week intervals. Then came physical therapy, which doctors hoped by building up the muscle groups along the spine and his abdomen would help ease the pain. Fortunately for Warren, therapy has seemingly done the job. “At first there was a 75 percent chance of surgery,” said Warren, which didn’t sound good to a 17-year-old. “(Therapy) is a mix of stretching and lifting. I have certain stretches I do at home and warm-up with, then they put me on different machines to strengthen my core and gain muscle (around the disc). If I’m hit in football I’ll be OK because of the muscle buildup, or at least that’s the aim. “If I start to hurt back to where it was, I’ll need the shots again. If it comes back sooner … and it gets worse (sooner), then I’ll need surgery.” The good news for Warren is that “After PT, usually I have no pain whatsoever.” “Therapy is going well,” added Warren. “The pain is virtually subsided. It looks like it will be positive and I’ll be healed and get back lifting for football for next year.” It was a blow for McCreary to lose Warren. “Shaquille Owens was one starter, but Ollie didn’t care. Whichever tackle spot he played, he knew he was going to be one of them and be playing,” said McCreary. “He’s big, moves well and he’s intelligent. He had every capability of being a good football player, so it was frustrating for all of us. “He says he is doing great and therapy is going great,” he added. “The last time we talked he said he wasn’t feeling any pain in his leg. You don’t want to have surgery at 17 – that’s just so serious. His next question is, ‘are they going to let him play football again, and is he done?’ That’s the next question because safety always has to be first. “Goodness sake, he’s a great kid. He’s a hard worker and he’s going to be a good football player if he has the opportunity to play his senior year. He goes to practice every day he’s not in therapy and I give credit to those guys who are injured. We make them be there, but some fight you all the way because it does get boring. Oliver always has a smile on his face, he’s pushing the kids and he wants to be part of the team. “I know he’ll do everything he can to play (next year). He doesn’t want to say, ‘I can’t play anymore,’ and hopefully he’ll be given the opportunity.” Warren hopes to come back and have an active role on the team in 2012, if nothing more than avoiding a similar conversation with McCreary. “Oh my, that was terrible,” said Warren. “It was pretty hard. I was choking on my words. I had worked hard all offseason and coach was so excited for me. It just hit me hard (telling him).” Warren is taking International Baccalaureate classes and college is very much in his plans, where he hopes to major in anthropology. Although he is looking at different schools, high on his list is William and Mary in Virginia, a campus that is neighbor to Colonial Williamsburg and just minutes from Jamestown, where extensive excavation is entering its second decade as researchers explore the first permanent English settlement in America. “William and Mary would be my reach school,” he said. “I’m look at either socio-cultural or archeology– I’m torn between one or the other.” After having his young bones explored this fall, looking at old ones seems right up Warren’s alley.


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