Doctors told Travis Oliver that he was lucky to be alive.
But he told himself he would play football again, and he made others believe it.
Now a senior at Edmondson/Westside, Oliver was once a rising star.
“Coming into his 10th grade year, when he was the starting quarterback, he was excelling,” said coach and athletic director Dante Jones.
But while playing a pickup game with friends one Sunday in January 2005, Oliver took a major hit when he suffered a life-threatening injury.
“Just before I wanted to quit and go home, I caught one last pass. I kind of jumped and [the defender] hit me in my stomach,” said Oliver, who passed it off as a stomach ache and kept playing.
“After a while my stomach kept hurting, and I was walking on all fours,” he said. “I couldn?t move.”
After a friend carried Oliver home, his grandmother took him to a hospital, where he was diagnosed with a ruptured spleen, pancreas and liver.
“They told me I had a 50-50 chance,” Oliver said. “The doctors said they?d never seen anything like it.”
Despite the dangerous injury, the poisons from his pancreas had not spread.
“They said it was kind of a miracle,” Oliver said. “I had 32 staples in my stomach, and the doctors told me I wasn?t going to play again, that I was lucky to just be alive.”
Oliver made it no secret that he wanted to get back on the field.
“In the back of my mind, I was like ?I don?t think so,? ” Jones said of Oliver?s comeback chances.
“Even when he was home-schooled, he still came up to school for study hall,” Jones said. “He came into the weight room. He couldn?t lift weights, but he was there.”
After taking a decreased role in the offense this past season, the 5-feet-10, 165-pound receiver was recently honored for his dedication at the 66th annual McCormick Unsung Heroes Awards with a $30,000 scholarship award that will go towards his college choice for Oliver.
“I feel lucky a little bit, but I think I deserve it,” Oliver said.
TAKING THE NEXT STEP
» Oliver is deciding between Frostburg, Salisbury, Glenville State (West Va.) and St. Paul?s (Virginia). He would like to continue his football career.
» Oliver also had to overcome a hip injury earlier in his high school career, and Jones said the team was 5-0 with him at quarterback before the injury.
» Fellow senior LaShae Russell of the Edmonson/Westside girls? basketball team was the school?s female award nominee.
» Oliver said his parents and his love for football drove him to recover. “My mom, she really wanted it, and I just thought if I don?t do it for nobody, just do it for her,” he said.
