Yard after yard; stride after stride; junior running back Rhys Moreno weaves his way through the opposition’s defense to pick up as many yards as possible. Moreno, a captain of the varsity Bulldog football team, leads the team in total rushing yards, just one year after a season-ending injury.
On August 30, 2024, the first game of Moreno’s sophomore season, he ended up getting a high ankle sprain in his left ankle. This injury kept him out for eight weeks; thus, he was sidelined for the entirety of the 24-25 season.
“The injury mentally dropped my spirits down a lot,” Moreno said. “I felt like I had let them down, and they couldn’t rely on me since it was the first game of the season. It was hard getting back physically because of the mental challenge of it all.”
Even though the injury set Moreno back, that didn’t stop him from trying his hardest to return to the field. He worked for weeks to rehabilitate his major ankle sprain.
“Any exercises my personal trainers would give me, I would make sure to do them as often as they told me,” Moreno said. “A lot of people, when injured, don’t do their exercises, and it pushes their recovery time back, and I didn’t want that to happen to me.”
Getting through the recovery process is hard when an athlete is doing it alone. Luckily, according to Moreno, he had his coaches alongside him to motivate him and accompany him through his rocky recovery.
“My coaches were reminding me that it was okay to be injured and that with time, I would come back,” Moreno said. “They would tell me that when even the best of the best got injured, sometimes they would come back even better than they were before. This definitely helped motivate me to get back.”
According to the National Library of Medicine, 10.5 percent of athletes re-injure their injury after they come back from rehab. Moreno put measures into place to ensure that this won’t happen this season.
“I am making sure that I am recovering correctly every day and taking care of my small injuries,” Moreno said. “I am usually the type of person to push through any injuries I get, but I need to know when to stop and recover. Like I hurt my shoulder earlier in the year, and I work with the trainers to make sure it stays healthy.”
When Moreno went down in that first game of last season against Manor, his teammates were worried. Senior tight end Carson Ledford describes the feelings the team felt after hearing the news of Moreno’s’ injury.
“We all knew how good he was, so when he went down, we all got concerned,” Ledford said. “He was the starting running back, so we all wanted to see him have a quick recovery.”
Despite Moreno being out for the season, he did what he could to try and push his teammates to a successful season. Senior captain Rowen Well recalls how Moreno motivated the team in practice and in the games.
“Rhys brings a lot of energy to the team and was at practice every day,” Wells said. “He was at every game and pushed everybody to be the best versions of themselves.”
Having him back on the field and rushing for long drives was important to the team according to Wells. Wells is excited to have Moreno back and better than ever this year.
“He brings a completely different type of vibe and energy to the team which is good,” Wells said. “It is nice to have his mentality and drive back on the field with the rest of the team.”
Week one of this years football season, Moreno had another close call with an injury. It was a scare knowing what had happened almost exactly a year prior. Moreno recounts the injury and his thoughts in the moment.
“I got tackled and the guy that tackled me poked me in the eye and it popped a blood vessel in my eye,” Moreno said. “I wasn’t insanely worried because this was a small thing compared to my ankle. I was able to get back into the game, but I missed a drive where I was planning to score a touchdown.”
Returning from his injury was a huge accomplishment for Moreno. After the eight long weeks he was out, he was finally cleared to practice with the team again. He is ready to take this season as his own.
“I want to win and play the best football I can,” Moreno said. “I want to rush for records and lead this team to victories. My goal is a deep playoff run.”
