All he could think about was the news he was soon to receive. The room was ominous, the air cold. It was so quiet you could hear the clock ticking on the wall. Sitting there was junior Adam Dalrymple, all he could hope for was a chance, a chance that he would be able to make his return to the sport he loves.
As the doctor entered the room, Dalrymple, shifting to the edge of the seat, listened carefully. He was waiting for the doctor to deliver the news. The news that would completely alter the course of his high school athletic career.
During Dalrymple’s freshman season as a part of the Lions football team, an unfortunate turn of events led him suffering two subluxed shoulders as well as two torn labrums. At first, the injury was only a minor setback, sidelining Dalrymple for half the season, but quickly the situation became much worse.
“After half the season went by they put me back in, but during wrestling, both my shoulders subluxed and they took me out again,” Dalrymple said.
Upon revisiting the doctor, Dalrymple was told he wasn’t going to be allowed to play football again, forcing him to choose what to do. Ultimately, Dalrymple decided he was going to join the crew team, to compensate for being sidelined.
“I chose crew because my brother did it,” Dalrymple said. “The plan was to stick to crew throughout high school just to have a sport , but I never enjoyed crew as much as I did football.”
After a long sophomore year of sitting in the student section, Dalrymple, more motivated than ever to make his comeback to the gridiron, decided he was going to do whatever he could to make that happen.
“I started having the idea of coming back during last year’s football season,” Dalrymple said. “It was definitely a spur of the moment thing. All it took was watching everyone else play for me to realize just how much I missed it.”
After a long, hard year, filled with countless hours of physical therapy, Dalrymple was given the green light to get back out onto the football field.
“I did 10 to 15 minutes of physical therapy per day,” Dalrymple said. “I got reevaluated in February of last year and the doctor said I was good to go for junior year.”
Although Dalrymple was given the okay to play football again, the road to once again playing underneath the Friday night lights was far from over.
“After I told the trainers I got cleared, I went into coach Flaherty’s office and met with him about goals for the upcoming season,” Dalrymple said.

Throughout the offseason Dalrymple trained harder than ever, determined to earn himself a starting spot on the football team.
“I had to complete a lot of lifts during the offseason along with eating more so I could put on some weight,” Dalrymple said.
Finally, after an entire year away from the game he loved, Dalrymple was able to take the field for the Lions in their first game of the season against Fort Worth Country Day.
“It felt nice to step back onto the field, but I definitely felt a little nervous about the situation because it felt relatively new after taking last year off,” Dalrymple said.
The countless hours of grueling offseason training and physical therapy had finally come to fruition when Dalrymple earned himself a starting position on the team.
“I’m a starting defensive tackle along with Wyatt Loehr and I’m on kickoff, extra point and punt coverage,” Dalrymple said. “I felt accomplished because I worked hard throughout training camp to be the best player I could be.”
Although his debut ended in a 34-35 loss, Dalrymple looks to build on the recent success that the Lions have seen.
“We started out with a game that was a little rough, but I think it was for the better, it taught us to block out all the narratives as coach Flaherty has said before,” Dalrymple said.
As the season goes on and the biggest games remain to be played, the hope for not only Dalrymple, but the Lions as a team is the build off of the positives they’ve seen throughout the past five games.
“We’ve been consistent with competing with other teams, no matter how good people think they are,” Dalrymple said.