Nov 6, 2009 10:33 pm US/Central
Mahtomedi School Athlete Recovers After Close Call
(WCCO)
-
-
With 4 minutes left in the game, the Hawks put a high ball into the box. Neher went for the ball-- and landed on his head. We talked with him from his hospital bed at HCMC.
CBS
The Mahtomedi soccer team has two good reasons to celebrate. They won the boys 1-A state championship Thursday night. Also, their star goalie is going to be OK.
Goalie James Neher had a scary moment during Mehtomedi's beg game against Hermantown.
With 4 minutes left in the game, the Hawks put a high ball into the box. Neher went for the ball-- and landed on his head. We talked with him from his hospital bed at HCMC.
"When I came out for the ball I grabbed it, all of the sudden out of the right side of my vision I saw a guy coming and I kind of got hit…him trying to go for the ball, kind of flipped down and I kind of don't remember what happened after that" said Neher.
However, his fall is hard to forget -- he came down hard. You can see the horror on everyone faces as they waited to see if he would get up. His family also saw the whole thing.
"He stayed down too long, and that's when I realized he was hurt. But thankfully it worked out really well" said his mom, Mickey Neher.
Play was stopped while for 25 minutes as they worked on him. He was able to sit up briefly --but then collapsed.
People first thought that he might have broken his neck.
"The first thing that ran through my head was it looked pretty bad, looked like I came down pretty hard and hurt myself, I was lucky that I didn't get that hurt" said Neher.
He's got a slight concussion and his muscles are sore -- pain that's a little easier to take with a championship medal.
"I slept with it all night," he said. "It's the best thing that's happened all high school career."
His teammates made sure he got his medal before he left the hospital.
"They came and visited me and wished me the best of luck, gave me my medal, all tournament trophy and the ball [that he fell on]," said Neher.
Doctors told Neher to lay off contact sports for a couple of weeks.
Sonya Goins, Producer
Contact Sonya
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Mike Max's News & Notes
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Reporting
