Note:In the October 5, 2012 edition of The Patriot-News, Michael Bullock chronicled the night that CD East football player Jarrett Tingler severely dislocated his ankle in a game against Cumberland Valley. Tingler had ankle surgery on Sept. 27, 2012. This is the story of his recovery and his comeback to play lacrosse this spring.
CLICK HERE FOR MICHAEL BULLOCK'S ARTICLE ON THE NIGHT JARRETT TINGLER WAS INJURED
CLICK HERE FOR A TIMELINE OF JARRETT TINGLER'S COMEBACK
Looking to make something happen, Jarrett Tingler saw open field in front of him and took off from his crease.
CD East was way behind against rival Central Dauphin during this mid-April boys’ lacrosse tussle under the lights at Landis Field’s Speed Ebersole Stadium.
Tingler, an imposing 6-5, 270-pound goalie, didn’t care. He was simply trying to provide a spark for his Panthers.
Even if he was explicitly breaking a promise that he would never leave his crease during the season.
“Dr. [Steven] DeLuca made Jarrett promise that if he was going to clear him to play lacrosse, he wouldn’t leave his crease,” Jarrett’s mother, Keah, said recently. “But we all know that didn’t happen.”
You can hardly blame Jarrett for his overzealousness. After all, he was just happy to be back on an athletic field again.
The same field where, seven months earlier, Jarrett’s high school career and teenage life were flipped upside down. As a lineman for CD East’s football team, he suffered a horrific ankle injury late in the first half of a game against Cumberland Valley.
While in pursuit of Eagles’ quarterback Ben Fernback, his ankle dislocated and his right foot was inverted after teammate Maurice “Lucky” Lewis fell into his planted right leg.
Jarrett’s senior football season was done, but what about his college career? He was set to play next fall for Lackawanna College, but would he be able to work his way back from such a horrible injury?
Six days later, he was in surgery with Dr. Steven DeLuca, who was given the task of repairing Jarrett’s right ankle in hopes that the Panthers’ lineman could get himself ready for his first season of college ball.
Jarrett’s road to recovery was anything but smooth. There were moments of depression and doubt, but the will to get back on the field as well as garnering inspiration from family, friends and supporters helped fuel him to a terrific lacrosse season and a positive outlook for next season.
OVERCOMING THE DOUBT
Jarrett’s mother, Keah, wasn’t sure which way her son’s recovery from surgery was going to go.
“His demeanor when it first occurred during the first month, it was a little scary,” she said.
“He reached a real level of frustration,” she continued. “One night he threw his crutches down the steps and went off and didn’t talk to anyone for a day or two.”
Jarrett admitted going through a period of self-doubt in the few weeks following his Sept. 27 surgery.
“It takes some time at first, you sort of lose who you are a little bit,” he said about working through the depression. “You go from someone who played football and then you don’t know if you’re going to have it. You start to wonder, ‘What am I going to do with myself?"
Jarrett credited the positive thoughts and encouragements from his parents, Keah and Wayne. He said they did everything they could to keep him up and did the best things they could for him.
“There were times when we fought and he didn’t want a soul there. He didn’t want anyone to come and see him, he hid,” Keah said.
“I told him that ‘I’m not going to watch you drown yourself, honey.’ He finally said, ‘I can do this,’ and one day he went upstairs with his weights and started working out again.”
Jarrett also found inspiration from afar.
He watched the Oct. 15, 2011, SEC football game between South Carolina and Mississippi State when Gamecocks’ running back Marcus Lattimore tore a ligament in his knee and missed the rest of that season.
“It was definitely hard after the surgery. I was trying to figure out whether or not I wanted to play football again and whether or not to just go to college and not play any sports,” he said.
“A week or two after, watching the game where Marcus suffered his injury, it brought tears to my eyes, watching him go through something like that right after I had my injury."
TIME TO GET TO WORK
Post surgery, Jarrett spent a month with his right foot in a cast and on crutches, then wore a walking boot for another three months. The walking boot came off in February with three to four weeks of rehab in front of him.
“The rehab was really hard, when I first got my foot out of the boot, it was like I had to remember how to walk on it again,” he said. “I had to get the range of motion back and get rear control of my ankle again.”
Through the rehab process, Jarrett put in a lot of work with CD East trainer Neil Matz.
Matz, who is employed by CPRS Physical Therapy, was the first person on the field when Tingler suffered his injury.
“He was there the night of the injury, and we became pretty close,” Jarrett said.
“That really helped a lot.”
Matz had Jarrett doing some basic strength exercises before progressing to lateral work, step-ups, calf raises and balance work.
The trainer said that Jarrett was great to work with due to his age and maturity.
“The nice thing about working with a senior is that most times they’ve done some type of rehab before,” Matz said.
“They can do their own thing and you don’t have to sit there and make sure they’re doing the work like you might have to do with a freshman. Jarrett was very self-reliant during his rehab.”
CLEARED FOR ACTION
Initially, Jarrett was set to spend the rest of the winter and spring continuing his rehab to get ready for football next fall at Lackawanna.
Lacrosse was most likely not in his plans.
“I wasn’t sure if I wanted to play and risk rushing my rehab,” he said.
“Two nights before the season started, I talked to a couple of buddies of mine on the team and then I decided I wanted to play. From then on, I was fully dedicated to it.”
CD East boys’ lacrosse coach Aaron Blanding welcomed Jarrett back to the squad with open arms, but he admitted that he was surprised that his goalie decided to give it a go.
“He worked really hard to get back, but I had pretty much written off any chance of him coming out for the team,” Blanding said.
“He would tell me how well his workouts were going, but sometimes kids are a little more optimistic than the adults, so I was pretty surprised he played.”
And despite the struggles of the Panthers’ lacrosse team [East won only one game this season], Jarrett turned in a fantastic 2013 season with 229 total saves (16.4 average per game).
“Attitude wise, you could tell he was excited to be back,” Blanding said.
“He played with a lot more intensity this season. Last year, he was just a guy in the cage and this season he was like ‘I’m out here and enjoying it.’”
LESSON LEARNED
Having just completed the best lacrosse season of his career, Jarrett will continue his preparation for his college football career.
Still, he takes time to look back and reflect on the experience of the past eight months.
“I feel like that I learned in times of adversity to keep your head up and to keep on moving forward,” he said. “You can’t dwell on the negative and let it hold you down and keep you in a funk. You have to have mental toughness and think about what’s important.”
Added Keah: “He could have gone one of two ways and one of those was to the dark side. But Jarrett opted to come back and fight.”