3rd Knock on Wood podcast #3 Knock on Wood “When the Game Changes: Leadership Lessons from Injury and Resilience” Show Transcript welcome back to the knuckle would podcast episode number 3 I hope you folks are enjoying the episode so far in this episode is actually a little unique you know the other ones you know we covered you know clubs in first 1 and we covered you know the mascot event you know down at Carroll this 1 is actually a real life you know situation that happened where sometimes you know unforeseen stuff happens you then wish it to happen but you know nonetheless it does happen and it's important you know how you respond to that and how you pick yourself up you know when when things don't go your way so uh with me today I have Noah melluish so Noah here Noah is actually on the the soccer team at Archbishop Wood and approximately about 3 weeks ago you know there he was on the field you know it was a big game at night and all of a sudden he's out there playing doing this thing and you know something happened so you know know why don't you kind of take through you know what you were doing you know how how the injury occurred and kind of some behind the scenes stuff that happened afterwards um yeah so we were playing Conwell Egan at Brent Athen and it was a little the second half and I got tackled from behind broke 2 bones in my leg and was carted off the field in an ambulance um I was taking an Abington Hospital where I got x-rays and stuff and then later that night I got transported to chop for surgery where they put a rod in a couple screws in my leg to hold everything together well now the I guess my first question did did did you see it coming and we blindsided you was a cheap shot or just part of the game or it was it really wasn't a cheap shot I turned my back to Shield the ball and he was sliding and just came through the back of my leg well that was that the first time in your soccer career that you had like a significant injury like that um yeah I've never had something so bad I mean I've broken my foot but other than that this is the first like significant injury I've had well so so take me through you know kind of like mentally when something like that happens like what do can you know what are some of the things are going through your head you know what are you focused on as far as you know managing the pain you know picking yourself back up you know talk to us about like the the view behind the scenes like trying to deal with something like that yeah well right away I didn't realize anything happened until like I saw it um and it was a lot of shock at first but once everything's settled down all the ambulance people and the trainer were great after surgery and everything uh there's I've been on a pain med schedule that's been going down as I go I've been able to start walking without the crutches and just in the boot but I mean it's just getting better day by day and being patient with it because rushing it won't do anything to help me even if I want to get back on the field rushing It 2 weeks in and trying to walk on it yeah isn't going to help me at all just being patient with it and doing what I need to do to keep the swelling down and here as much as I can yeah yeah and if sometimes you just gotta you know kind of take it as a calm as do with the doctor say you know try to start rehabbing a little bit at a time and before you know it you know you're you're back on the field you know if you were a leader on to feel as a player but when someone like this happens you know how are you still trying to contribute to the soccer team and demonstrate leadership even though you don't have the opportunity to actually go on the field and perform at this point yeah I mean I still got every practice in game I watch film on the games and try and help my teammates see something they couldn't um just like being there and giving my insight from what I see from a bench perspective now just helps a lot yeah yeah that that's great I I've been very impressed with how you're handling this you know I talked to your mom as well your mom's kind of you know you know cheerleading for you you know and supporting you to get you back on the field as well and and I know your teammates they love you they love you still be part of things and that's you know 1 of the things you get when you you know participate in a sport or a club you know even though you may have a setback you know that that club in your teammates you know kind of pick you up and Brace you and you're still a team you know going forward so it's great to to see how everybody collectively yourself you know your parents you know the teammates everybody's responding to this unfortunate incident and how you're learning from it and moving forward so so great job yeah I commend all you for that so at this point we're going to pass it over to uh to Jeff Miller here so so Jeff is going to take us through Jeffy you play football right yes yeah so Jeff's on a football team so he's actually gonna take us through an injury that he had previously it happened on the yes it did yeah so he's going to take us through you know some similar on the football field what he did what was it and how he responded and how he tried to show leadership you know in in the football program you know with bad things happen to you so take it away so my sophomore year during uh a scrimmage about 5 plays in I felt the worst pain to date of my life physically um I felt on a pain level between 1 and 10 it was like 8 and like it was horrible pain and I knew right away something was off because I couldn't keep going and I tried to and I immediately went to the hospital I did not get caught it off but I got driven to the hospital right after the game and it was a little it was a little difficult to find the real answer at first but if they're X-rays and MRIs like about 2 weeks later I officially found out like the season's over for me I have to it'll be a long process to get back I will have a surgery on my on list Frank from my right foot well I'd have like somewhere to know I had to get some screws and a couple months later I think I had some of the uh screws taken out so I wouldn't have them in for the rest of my life and uh biggest advice I give to Noah is stay strong mentally this is like a mental test for you at the same time physically the physical aspect will come together after a couple months when you're recovering and you're making sure it's not swelling as bad and you're lowering pain it'll take a couple months but you will feel a little drained mentally like it's a lot of stress on you you're going to feel very impatient sometimes when you're not out there and your friends and teammates are but it's nothing personal they're out there they're they're excited for you to come back and you do have a little bit of time plenty of time for your junior year at least you're not a senior I hope it doesn't happen again your senior year uh and uh I do recommend if if it works out that you do physical therapy worked very much for me uh and I had physical therapists down at Petroski physio in Northeast Philadelphia shout out they kept me very positive as I was going for a while and uh yeah yeah no that's a another great example of you know an injury you know on the on the sports field in this case you know the football field and hopefully you kind of see a common theme here you know between these 2 and you know they it was unforeseen what happened you know that's the way life is sometimes you know you get a setback but how you respond to it is the most important thing and good leaders you know except the setback figure out what they can do you know in the interim and then going forward and then pick themselves up literally off the ground to get back into the game and start doing you know great things from there so no I wish you all the best of luck with your rehab and getting back on the and Jeff you know Jeff's a senior he's been through it so wish you the best of luck you know finishing out the football season you know let's let's run the the gamut on the the wins here make the playoffs and uh you know be be cheering you every every week for you guys all right so that concludes you know podcast episode number 3 okay so uh a Prelude to episode number 4 today we actually have the 67th and eighth grader the whole school that Nativity at our school for the day so I don't know how many students in total but they're about to show up in like a half hour or so come through the door and they're going to have a fun day of of spending time with the Viking family and 1 day in the near future we're going to see them here as future Vikings so we're going to take you through what that day looks like you know all the fun stuff they did on podcast number 4 so that concludes podcast number 3 you know thank you for joining and look forward to seeing you on the next podcast
