{"id":8122,"date":"2016-11-08T16:29:33","date_gmt":"2016-11-08T21:29:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/?p=8122"},"modified":"2016-11-08T23:02:31","modified_gmt":"2016-11-09T04:02:31","slug":"niles-finds-rehabilitation-through-support-from-friends-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/archives\/8122","title":{"rendered":"Niles finds rehabilitation through support from friends, family"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CNiles\"<\/a>By Blake Meacham–<\/strong>In the first quarter of the first football game of the season, standout wide receiver Connor Niles broke his ankle after a reception. The crowd on Morningside\u2019s half of the field went from buzzing cheers due to the excitement of the opening weekend to a worried hush in less than a couple of seconds.<\/p>\n

Connor knew something was very wrong immediately.<\/p>\n

“I flipped over and saw my ankle. It was limp and it looked like my foot and my leg met at a 45 degree angle,\u201d described Niles in painful detail.<\/p>\n

Before he could even begin to muster screams of pain and shock, the training staff was over him, checking out his broken ankle and asking about the amount of pain he was in. They put him in a type of inflated brace and carried him off the field. Niles was loaded into a car and taken to the hospital for x-rays that confirmed the break.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was obviously very upset and even more disappointed. It sucks knowing that you won\u2019t be able to go out there to help your guys win and there\u2019s nothing I could do about it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Niles was in and out of surgery before the game was over that Saturday afternoon.\u00a0\u201cI woke up and found out that the guys were still playing. Within the next hour or two, a bunch of teammates came to my hospital room and were there to support me,\u201d said Niles after recalling how his Saturday played out.<\/p>\n

Connor\u00a0has only broken one bone in his life before that day. In eighth\u00a0grade, he broke his hip. He didn\u2019t remember the pain very well, but he can\u2019t imagine it hurt any worse than the broken ankle felt.<\/p>\n

Even though he hasn\u2019t started his rehab yet, he\u2019s been off his crutches for a little while. Niles starts his physical rehabilitation this week when he travels to CNOS a handful of times to start his exercises.<\/p>\n

Gaining Strength<\/strong>
\nHowever, just because he hasn\u2019t started gaining strength in his ankle doesn\u2019t mean he hasn\u2019t gained strength in other ways. A thick wall of support from his closest friends and family has surrounded Niles, but his teammates have provided the most encouragement through the past couple of months.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re constantly asking about when rehab starts and asking about how it feels. They get excited when I tell them about any kind of progress, small or big.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the field, one of his best friends and fellow wide receiver Tanner Ver Steeg shows support for Niles by wearing a decal of the number one on the back of his helmet for every game\u2014Niles\u2019s number. Ver Steeg also talks to Niles constantly on the field, as if Niles was about to go back onto the field with him for the next possession.<\/p>\n

Niles admits that the worst part about not being able to play is the fact that he can\u2019t be on the field\u00a0fighting with his teammates, who he considers his brothers and best friends. Even though he can\u2019t physically provide the team with his usual play-making speed and athleticism. Head Coach Steve Ryan lets Niles do everything that he\u2019d normally do with the team if he were able to play.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach Ryan has been there for me as much as any teammate. He\u2019s allowed me to be with the team as much as I physically can and there\u2019s nothing I\u2019d rather do,\u201d said Niles with a grin.<\/p>\n

Niles plans on taking his time to recover so that he can come back in the fall of 2017 as fresh and as strong as ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Blake Meacham–In the first quarter of the first football game of the season, standout wide receiver Connor Niles broke his ankle after a reception. The crowd on Morningside\u2019s half of the field went from buzzing cheers due to the excitement of the opening weekend to a worried hush in less than a couple of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":8131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[170],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8122"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8132,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8122\/revisions\/8132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}