WHEATLAND – It was the end of a very long tunnel for Maxx Meyer Thursday night and from the adversity of a sports injury, he made his initial comeback at Wheatland’s only home wrestling event this year against Laramie High School.
It was 125 days almost to the moment that Meyer had his high school football career cut short on a kickoff return. Meyer sustained a brutal hit that broke both his tibia and his fibula in his leg. After months of painful rehab and still feeling a bit of pain in the leg, he stepped on to the field of battle again, this time for the WHS wrestling team. This would be his first competition since the break sidelined him and he had surgery to put the bones back together.
He wrestled in the 220-weight classification and he was going up against Jamison Bade from LHS. It was at a point in the third period that Meyer got the advantage, rolled and pinned Bade for the victory.
It was four months. 125 days almost to the moment that he had his leg broken in a “third period” of that fateful football game. As the official held up Maxx’s arm signifying the victor, it started to sink in that almost to the moment four months prior that the brutal damage was done.
Here at the end of Meyer’s rehabilitation tunnel he came back a victor. Meyer said that during his downtime, there was a lot of hard work and even more reflection internally.
“I learned that you never know when the last time is your last,” Meyer said. “And you need to make everything worth it. Watching football and wrestling from the side isn't as fun as doing it but I'm lucky enough to be back out here doing this sport.”
At somewhere after 7 p.m. on a dark football field Meyer heard the snapping of his bones and thought his competing was over. Last night at somewhere after 7 p.m. across the high school campus from where he went down, a referee lifted his arm and Meyer knew, it was just beginning.
Bulldog Nation is proud of what was accomplished after only four months in a young man who doesn’t have the word “quit” in his vocabulary.
The Bulldogs defeated Laramie High School last night 40-36 and would have lost the match without Meyer’s pin. It makes you think.
