Sport can so often bring out the best in people, and drive them on to achieve the seemingly impossible.
This is the inspirational story of American Football player Koni Dole, who suffered a horrific broken leg while lining out for his high school in October last year. Dole snapped his leg below the knee in a regular season game for Huntley Projects against Shepard. Six operations later, the unfortunate youngster's lower leg became infected and with no chance of it healing, Dole was offered a stark choice: Keep the lower leg attached but never play sport again or amputate on the slim chance he could make it back onto the field.
Dole bravely took the second option, and never looked back. He immediately set his sights on returning to the fold at Huntley.
In an interview with the Missoulian newspaper, he spoke about his difficult decision.
“I told them to take it,” Dole said. I couldn’t be left with the option to never play again.”
“I had never seen my dad cry until that day.”
via: missoulian.com
Through sheer perseverance and determination, Dole was back running in the time it took most amputees to walk without an aid. He spent two weeks in hospital after the amputation and just one day after his release, he met with his strength and conditioning coach and hit the gym. Hard. He was lifting weights twice a day by the time school rolled around again in January.
At the tender age of 16, Dole has gone through an arduous and painstaking ordeal that most of us will never face. But he is still standing, still smiling and most importantly he is back on the field where he belongs.
Last week the Montana High School Association cleared him to play with a prosthetic leg. Dole's recovery is almost complete. Less than a year after his amputation, Koni Dole has defied all the odds. His refusal to give up is a lesson to us all.
Hat tip: Bleacher Report
