It’s been an interesting couple of weeks getting newsletters sent out with a second encounter with Covid, but it seems as if I’m pretty much good to go as the winter sports season gets in full gear this week.
So, doing a bit of catching up….
Following the Section 3AA football championship game vs. Redwood Valley in Marshall I talked with Rod, Rudy and Roman Voss with the intent of writing a story on their journey the past year.
At that time, it had been exactly a year since Rod was hospitalized after a heart episode that kept him away from JCC’s appearance in the 2022 state football tournament.
At that time ad well, Rudy had established himself as the No. 2 quarterback at South Dakota State while dealing with some lingering back issues.
He saw action in seven games in 2021 and scored a touchdown vs. Youngstown State.
To open that redshirt junior season in 2022, Rudy played some QB for the Jackrabbits in a 7-3 loss to Iowa at Kinnick Stadium.
However, the pain persisted throughout the season.
He was in uniform for SDSU’s win over Missouri Valley Football Conference rival North Dakota State for the national Football Championship Subdivision title in Frisco, Texas in January of this year but not long after that Rudy announced that his playing days were over.
While continuing to pursue his degree, Rudy served as a volunteer assistant coach with the Huskies this fall, getting an opportunity to work with his brother as he entered his third season as a starting quarterback while still only a sophomore.
Roman went through some challenges of his own during the season. He missed time early due to a bowhunting mishap and an illness kept him away from a game late in the regular season.
Long story short, it seemed like it was still going to work out to put those conversations with the Vosses into a story because (admittedly a little selfishly on my part as a writer) there was a lot of good material there.
And then came the first play of the second half of the state semifinal game vs. Barnesville.
On a play that didn’t look much different than any of the other 100-plus plays in a game, Roman sustained a concussion and laid on the field of a silent U.S. Bank Stadium for more than 15 minutes.
It’s been documented since then on a local basis in the Jackson County Pilot and statewide on WCCO-TV and other outlets that Roman is recovering remarkably well.
He’ll miss some time this basketball season, but that was the least of anyone’s concern during that time he was on that football field in Minneapolis.
It’s great to hear that Roman is doing well and certainly everyone is hoping for a timely recovery.
Roman’s situation was a reminder of the great work done by a number of individuals in those difficult situations, including (but certainly not limited to) the medical personnel to coaches who had to console teammates and still try to play a football game while also keeping in mind that it’s only a football game.
It sounds like those coaches and also some other school administrators continued to do a great job with the players into the afternoon until medical staff determined that everything was going as well as could be hoped for Roman and he went home with his parents later in the day.
As coach Tom Schuller said in the postgame news conference:
“The football game is secondary. The great news is he's cleared, I think. His neck is completely good. So, you know we're thankful for that. That's more important than the football game. We're really disappointed to lose that football game but we're really happy he's going to be OK. At the end of the day, if I’ve got to take one or the other, I'll take him being OK.”
You may recall a situation during the regular season involving a Redwood Valley player during a game in Jackson.
Senior Brode Lydick suffered a back injury and while he was being attended to on the field near the JCC sideline, there was a medical situation involving a spectator on the walkway between the home bleachers and concession stand.
Athletic Trainer Caitlin Place and Jackson Ambulance Service members who were on duty that night did a great job, and there were some medical people who were at the game as spectators who responded as well.
If you follow me on Twitter (I still call it Twitter), you might have seen a photo I shared a few weeks later as Caitlin and Brode met up after JCC and Redwood played for the section title in Marshall:
So, kudos again to everyone involved for doing an outstanding job in difficult circumstances and keep in mind that these are teenagers and that for all the importance that is placed on these situations, these are only games.