After battling back from injuries, some players need a season

Nate Cumer saw the football bounce on the ground, the result of a bad pitch from Ambridge’s quarterback to the running back.
With his eyes wide open and a quick rush of adrenaline, Cumer, a powerful defensive tackle for McGuffey, pursued the bouncing ball and had to be thinking, “If I scoop up this fumble, then it will be a great way to start the season.”
It was the final thing Cumer did as a football player last season.
In the first quarter of the Highlanders’ opening game of the season, Cumer slowed to recover the Ambridge fumble. He grabbed the ball, but as he did so Cumer’s left leg extended awkwardly in the turf. He suffered a torn ACL in his knee. It required season-ending surgery. The season was over for Cumer, almost before it started. He essentially lost his junior season.
“I knew then that something was wrong, that my season was over,” Cumer recalled.
The 2019 season for Beth-Center quarterback Colby Kuhns ended almost as quickly as Cumer’s did.
Kuhns played well as a freshman in 2018, when the Bulldogs advanced to the WPIAL Class 2A playoffs. In the opening game last season, Kuhns passed for two touchdowns but the B-C defense couldn’t hold a fourth-quarter lead and lost to California, 32-27.
The next week, in the second quarter of B-C’s game at Carmichaels, Kuhns was injured.
“The play was a quarterback power,” Kuhns recalled. “I saw a lane open up and planted my foot to make a cut. When I did that, a helmet hit me in the knee.”
Kuhns left the game at that point and Beth-Center held a double-digit lead at halftime. Kuhns’ power of persuasion must be strong because he was able to talk both the trainer and Bulldogs head coach Joe Kuhns – his father – to let him go back in the game during the second half, when Carmichaels rallied for a 34-25 win.
“I went back in for two plays,” Colby Kuhns said. “On the second, I dropped back to pass. When I planted my foot, the whole leg just popped.”
Kuhns had torn the ACL in his knee. His season was over, too.
The stories of Cumer and Kuhns are not unique. There was a football player at almost every school in the area who suffered an injury that caused him to miss most, if not all, of last season.
What is unique is the situation that players are in this year. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, there is no guarantee there will be a high school football season. Teams will be allowed to restart athletic activities once the governor’s office gives approval to the school’s respective counties, the PIAA Board of Directors decided last month. While not providing a date for when workouts can resume – there is currently a directive that no team activities canbe held before July 1 – the Board of Directors voted unanimously to give executive director Bob Lombardi the sole authority to decide when workouts can resume for the fall seasons.
Players like Cumer and Kuhns can only hope there is a season. Not playing last fall, and watching their teammates participate, was painful. The thought of not playing another season is almost unbearable. That’s why Kuhns says he doesn’t think about the possibility of there not being a 2020 season.
“I push that to the back of my mind,” he said. “I’m preparing for this like every other season.”
Cumer (6-2, 275) who will be a senior, participates in three sports at McGuffey. He was on the wrestling team as a sophomore and participated in the shot put, discus and javelin for the Highlanders’ track and field team.
“Nate doesn’t like to play football. He loves to play football,” McGuffey coach Ed Dalton said. “He was with us all last year. He filmed practices. He broke down films of the linemen. He was always there and involved.”
Cumer said he would like to play football in college. It would make it easier for college coaches to evaluate him if there is a football season in 2020. It would be tough for Cumer to stand out if the only video of him is from his sophomore season.
“I’m almost fully recovered,” Cumer said. “I’m at 95%.
“It was frustrating last year. Being left out was tough. The team had a good season and not being a part of it was heartbreaking.”
Kuhns is a different situation than Cumer. He’s entering his junior year, so no matter what happens this fall there will be a senior season on the horizon.
“As his dad, you think about him not being able to play this year. That he would get to play only in his freshman and senior years, that just wouldn’t be fair,” Joe Kuhns said. “I know they can’t open up a can of worms and get the year back, like they can in college. That just wouldn’t be feasible.”