Captain of the Varsity Football team, Joe Hill has been plagued since his freshman year with injuries, and over the summer, he got the most season-killing injury an athlete can get: a torn ACL. This is only the most recent problem of a long list of injuries starting three years ago.

One fateful August afternoon, Hill was at football practice scrimmaging the defensive squad. The quarterback threw a pass to him, which he caught, and he started running towards the end zone. As he tried to evade the defender, he planted his foot and tried to cut in another direction. This would prove detrimental for Hill, as he tore his ACL. Mark Lewis, a father of one of the players, heard the pop in Hill’s knee from the stands in the stadium.

“As soon as I heard the pop I knew he had tore it,” Mark Lewis said.

Hill had to see a doctor before he finally found out he had torn his ACL and wouldn’t get to play in any of the football games. He couldn’t help but feel discouraged after realizing his senior football career had ended before it even started. It would take two and a half weeks before he could get surgery on his knee and now he is dedicated to getting better, in fact, he is expected to recover two months sooner than his doctor’s anticipated.

After only playing three games, Hill’s sophomore season was squelched by a shoulder dislocation. Similar to his injury senior year, he dislocated his right shoulder during a scrimmage in practice. He knew immediately that he dislocated his shoulder, because this was a familiar feeling to him as he dislocated the same shoulder his freshman year. He remembers his coaches trying to put his shoulder back into its socket the same way his doctors did, but it just couldn’t be done. He recalls wanting to pass out from the pain of his shoulder.

“I went to the hospital with my shoulder out of my socket,” Hill said.

On top of having his shoulder come out, he had to have surgery on it to fix the problem. It would take around four months for his shoulder to completely heal.

Hill’s injuries have not only made him a stronger and better person, but he’s an inspiration to everyone to never give up. Another captain of the team, Brian Lizama, saw how Hill’s injury affected the rest of the team.

“He raised morale, because we felt we had to play harder for Joe’s sake.”

Even though the dark cloud of injuries looms over Hill, he shines down on his team everyday.