Posted: Thu, 2 Dec 2010 08:25 PM - 14,575 Readers
By: Rick Cantu
On Saturday, Lake Travis wide receiver Conner Floyd returns to the site where his right leg buckled and snapped in the season-opening game against Westlake.
He was blocking on a play that resulted in a Cavaliers touchdown in the south end zone at Royal-Memorial Stadium. While his teammates celebrated the score, Floyd lay flat on his back, gazing at the night sky, knowing something was terribly wrong with his right leg.
"I tried to get up, saw that my leg was hanging to the right and just lied down," Floyd, a senior, said Tuesday during a practice break . "At first I thought I just had a dead leg, like it was just numb. Then my teammates came over, looked at me, and it was like, 'Oh, my gosh.'"
When Floyd steps onto the field for the Cavaliers' Class 4A regional championship game against Cedar Park, it will be 98 days after he sustained that horrific injury.
Just hours after Lake Travis' 32-21 victory over the Chaparrals on Aug. 28, Floyd had a rod and pins inserted into his right tibia during surgery. He also was fitted with a temporary boot. Within a week, he was riding a stationary bicycle with hopes of returning to the field by the end of the regular season.
Floyd, a University of Tulsa recruit, missed the Cavaliers' final regular-season game against Cedar Park — won impressively by the Timberwolves, 35-21 — but he returned last week and caught an 18-yard pass from quarterback and longtime friend Michael Brewer in a playoff victory over Victoria East. Floyd received a standing ovation at the Alamodome in San Antonio, heart felt applause from Cavaliers fans whose last image of him was his being strapped onto a stretcher during the Westlake game.
Perhaps no one was happier to see that catch than Ashley Bernard, a Lake Travis trainer for six years. Bernard was by Floyd's side from the beginning, encouraging him throughout his rehabilitation.
"What I saw on his face was exhilaration and relief," Bernard said . "You could tell he was thinking how hard he worked to reach this point. ... He showed up for rehab every day, two hours a day, and worked hard.
"Never did I hear him say he was too tired, he didn't feel like working, he was too sore."
Floyd's rehab included jogging in a pool, balancing on his injured leg, lifting weights, running on a treadmill, walking on stairs, massage.
As a junior, the 6-foot-1-inch, 190-pound Floyd led Lake Travis with 66 receptions for 1,287 yards and 11 touchdowns. In the Cavaliers' 24-17 state championship victory against Longview last December , he caught four passes for 61 yards and a touchdown. So when Floyd went down in August, the Cavaliers had to adjust their plans for this season.
The three-time defending state champion s adopted the motto "One More Makes Four," and Floyd figured he would help that effort.
As he watched from the sideline, though, Lake Travis lost to Aledo, 14-10, on Sept. 10, a defeat that snapped the Cavaliers' 48-game winning streak. Then, in early November, Cedar Park's 14-point victory gave the Timberwolves the District 25-4A football championship.
On Saturday, the stakes will be much higher when Lake Travis and Cedar Park meet in the rematch . This time, Floyd, who played sparingly against Victoria East, will be on the field. His presence will benefit the Cavaliers, his coach said.
"Conner returning to the lineup makes us more consistent and helps create mismatches for defenses," coach Hank Carter said. " It can only make us better."
Floyd said he was "surprised" to feel no pain after the game against Victoria East, figuring the three-month layoff would rob him of strength and flexibility. He also said he isn't concerned about re-injuring his leg, and Bernard said it's impossible to break a leg stabilized by a titanium rod.
"I'm pumped up," Floyd said, anticipating the rematch against Cedar Park. "The atmosphere should be the same as the Westlake game (which drew about 30,000 fans). I'll be more jacked up than normal because it's the high school playoffs."
