It was a low point for the Ithaca Yellowjackets in the Division 6 state championship football game.
Clinton overcame a 14-0 deficit in the first half with 15 straight points. The 15th point came after a punt return by Mathew Sexton for an 86-yard touchdown, one yard shy of a state finals record. Prior to the extra point, the game was delayed for about 20 minutes when Ithaca’s Dallas Reeser, a junior 5’11”, 210-pound running back and linebacker, lay on the field near the 10-yard line, his arm broken after he tried to make a defensive play.
Reeser was carted off the field to an ovation by Ford Field fans and taken to a local Detroit hospital. The Yellowjackets went on to win 41-22. But Reeser was on everyone’s mind after the game.
“I was very very concerned with Dallas’ injury,” said coach Terry Hessbrook. “The doctors on our sideline, who I think are just fantastic, as soon as I got out to him said it’s a broken arm and broken in a couple of places. It was a bad injury. They were able to get it set. They got him some medication and he was able to listen to the end of the championship game, so he knows we were victorious, which was fantastic.”
Reeser remembers going after the return, getting hit, and going down.
“I didn’t realize I had broken anything,” he said. But as he tried to get up, his right arm went out and would not support him.
He doesn’t recall feeling any pain. When the doctors came out to look at him, they asked if Reeser if it was his knee, as he had had a previous knee injury.
“I said, ‘No, it’s my arm,’” he said. “Right away, the guy said, ‘It’s broken.’”
He could feel some pain when the medical staff turned him over onto his back. He recalls some type of cardboard material being placed around the arm to keep it firm and isolated.
Not wanting to take a chance with the arm, medical officials put Reeser on a stretcher and onto the back of a cart and then wheeled him off the field.
“That was a crucial point in the game,” Hessbrook said ” Brad Showers, my defensive coordinator, and myself were out and concerned about Dallas’ welfare. I said, ‘Brad, either you or I have to get back to the sidelines and get this team rallied back together.’ Just then as Brad and I looked toward the sideline we could see my brother,Todd, already had the kids pulled together and was getting the boys ready which was an awesome feeling and how we do things at Ithaca, one player,one coach down another steps in to get the job done!
Reeser, in the one quarter of football that he played, had a tackle and an assist.
An ambulance took him to Children’s Hospital, about a 10-minute drive away. He eventually was given painkillers. It was his humerus bone that was broken. He wound up with a sling and said he’d be wearing it for two months and then start physical therapy for another month. The healing process will be about three months.
Reeser was able to find out how his team was doing while at the hospital. “When I was at the hospital, the guy turned on the radio for me and it was 22-21, [Clinton] leading at that point,” he said. “I listened to it from there on out.”
Considering that the Yellowjackets scored 22 unanswered points to win the game, Reeser’s spirits were obviously bolstered.
“When I had to leave the game, I was very disappointed,” he said. “I had worked all year to get there and opening quarter…When I found out they won, I was excited and was proud of them, and I texted them all that night.”
Reeser and his parents left the hospital later that night and returned to Ithaca around 3 a.m. Some of his teammates visited him at his home the following day, and others texted him.
Reeser fondly reflected on being a part of Ithaca’s fourth straight 14-0 squad. “I’m satisfied with how it turned out,” he said.
An 18-tackle performance in a 49-14 win over Carrollton during the regular season stands out as one of the major highlights of his season. He had 61 solo tackles and 43 assists for the season, including 18 tackles for loss. He also had one fumble recovery and two forced fumbles.
How about next year?
“Our goal for the summer is to win state, but we don’t focus on it right away. We focus on one game at a time,” Reeser said. “I believe we’ll still be a pretty good team. A lot of the players were sophomores this year.”