A Victory of Body, Mind, and Spirit

Not that the severely broken right femur that the Collegiate Senior sustained in the Cougars’ 2025 football game at Woodberry Forest didn’t try.

 

In fact, considering the seriousness of the injury, the excruciating physical pain it caused, and the mind game it visited upon him in the aftermath, that unforgiving bout with adversity tried its absolute best to break not just his body but his will and spirit as well.

 

It didn’t succeed, though.

 

Instead, it provided a challenge, daunting to be sure, that revealed his innate strength, character, courage, and resolve.

 

“It’s a crazy story,” Williamson said one day recently as he reflected upon the odyssey which began without warning that late September afternoon. “I wasn’t even supposed to be at the game. My cousin was getting married in Alabama. Our family had planned months ahead of time to be at the wedding.”

 

Pre-season football camp had gone well, perhaps better than Williamson anticipated, and he’d earned a starting inside linebacker spot. Then, the Cougars opened their season 3-0, they were on a roll, and the 6-1, 190-pound first-time starter was having the time of his football life.

 

If he traveled with his team, his cousin would understand, he knew, and his family was good with his decision. It was a big game and a traditional rivalry, after all, and hey, what could possibly go wrong?  Little could he imagine.

 

“Warmup went great,” he said. “I always stretch a lot because I don’t want to be tight and get injured. When the game started, I felt very loose. I was incredibly amped up.

 

“Our offense had a pretty decent drive, but we ended up punting, and I went out on the field with the defense. First play, we had a tackle in the backfield, and we were really excited.”

 

That excitement, though, would be short lived.

 

“A couple of plays later, their quarterback handed off to the running back, who cut back and darted up the sideline,” Williamson said. “I took an angle on him to try to stop him, and he cut back again maybe five yards in front of me. I planted my right leg and was about to push off the ground to get some momentum to tackle him when, all of a sudden, I felt like my body collapsed.

 

“It was weird because for about 10 seconds, I don’t really recall anything that happened. I just know that one of my teammates had gotten hit, and he had flown into my leg in a very awkward way that caused me to break my femur. I couldn’t feel any pain whatsoever, but I knew something was wrong. I started saying to myself, No! No! No! No! No! I didn’t know what this was, but I knew it wasn’t good.”

 

Play stopped, and Kyle Hinton, Collegiate’s athletic trainer on duty, immediately sprinted onto the field.

 

“I saw my right kneecap hanging off the side of my knee,” Williamson said. “I remember thinking, Dislocated kneecap. Not good.”

 

Then, the pain kicked in.

 

“I tried to lift my leg, and basically three-fourths of the way up my quad, my whole leg raised, and then it just stopped,” Williamson said. “I couldn’t lift anything else up. Everything else dropped.”

 

By the time Williamson was helped to the sideline, his damaged right leg was throbbing badly, and Hinton secured it in a vacuum air splint to prevent further damage. In short order, his paternal grandparents, Ann and Darrell Williamson, were driving him to the University of Virginia Medical Center.

 

“That car ride was the most painful 45 minutes of my life,” Williamson said. “I was very, very upset. I was not prepared for this at all.”

 

He underwent surgery that night.

 

“Basically, they put in nine screws and a long plate on my femur,” he said. “When I woke up in the hospital bed, that’s when the mental aspect kicked in.

 

“The pain was still there, but they had me on painkillers for that. The first thing I thought was, Oh, my gosh, I made the wrong decision. I should have gone to the wedding. I would have been completely fine.

 

“Then I started thinking, I want to play baseball in college. Is this going to ruin my baseball season? Is it going to ruin my whole year? Is this the end of sports forever? Am I going to be able to walk again? All these thoughts were flooding through my head. I wasn’t in a good mental space. I was very scared. That was definitely the biggest battle after surgery.”

 

He returned home on Monday and was overwhelmed by the support and encouragement provided by the Collegiate community and the positive prognosis he received from his medical team.

 

He put on a positive face, he said, but inside he continued to struggle.

 

As the weeks passed, though, and his mobility improved, likewise did his spirit. As he processed the traumatic turn of events, he began to find meaning in the path he was walking one labored step at a time.

 

“The injury taught me not to take anything for granted because you never know when it will be taken away from you,” he said. “My whole mindset became, All right, I’m going to approach things 100 times harder than I did before because I need to make the most out of everything I do.”

 

Once he gained medical clearance, he became a regular in Collegiate’s training room and sports performance facility. He was diligent about his rehab and did all within his power to build back better.

 

He’s always been a baseball-first guy, his junior season was approaching, and he was determined to rejoin his teammates and make his mark.

 

As a righthanded pitcher whose fastball has been clocked at 87 miles per hour, the question was, Could he push off the mound with his newly reconstructed leg?

 

“I really didn’t know what to expect,” he said of his return to the mound, albeit with limitations, in January. “My arm felt good. I also realized that my leg had healed. It felt a little awkward at first, but there was no pain. I was thinking, All right, it’s time to get back in the grind mode and push myself to be the best I can be this spring.”

 

With Williamson playing a major role as a pitcher and first baseman, Collegiate’s varsity baseball team finished 18-8. Williamson earned All-Prep League honors on the strength of his pitching (3-1 record, 39 strikeouts, and just 10 walks in 39 innings, and a 1.90 earned run average) and hitting (.349 batting average).

 

“It’s been a really fun watching Emery develop over the past few years,” said Andrew Slater, who coached him in both varsity baseball and JV football. “He’s really worked hard as a student-athlete and dealt with his injury with a tremendous amount of maturity and perseverance.”

 

This summer, Williamson has participated in football open gym sessions. Pre-season practice begins Aug. 3.

 

A team captain, he’s fearlessly eager to return to live action and lead with distinction.

 

“From the get-go after his injury, Emery had this attitude that, one, he was going to stay connected to the team and, two, he was going to come back and play again,” said Collin McConaghy, Collegiate’s head football coach. “He talked about how he missed the bond of being out there and sweating with his teammates. That’s extremely mature for a kid who just had surgery and was going through a tough time. The work he put in with PT and getting his body healthy again has been extraordinary. Now, he’s stronger and faster and in the best shape of his life.”

 

Suffice it to say, then, that while the injury gave Williamson pause, it also gave him a sense of meaning and purpose.

 

“Obviously, breaking my femur wasn’t what I wanted to happen, but, looking back, it’s taught me a ton,” he said. “It’s built so much resilience in me. It’s built grit and toughness.

 

“It taught me not to dwell on the past. A huge part of my mental recovery was realizing that thinking negatively would only bring me down. In the grand scheme of things, it slowed my life down a lot, but it also allowed me to see things I don’t normally see. It was rewarding to push myself to do things I wasn’t able to do the day before.

 

“My whole approach to life is different. I’m very grateful for that. Yeah, the injury was horrible, but what I got out of it was amazing, and it will help me every single day for the rest of my life.”

~Weldon Bradshaw