Kathy Watt may be one of the few moms in history who can't tell her son he can be anything he wants to be when he grows up.
That's because the promising junior varsity freshman football player was brushing his teeth a few weeks ago when she noticed one shoulder was quite a bit higher than the other.
"I said, 'relax your shoulders,'" says Watt, waiting for the start of the big game between Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton against Breckenridge on a windy Friday evening. "And I thought it might be scoliosis."
It was. Eric's condition was checked out and surgery to repair his spine was recommended. Without it, the condition could worsen, creating chronic pain and eventually potentially impairing his breathing as his spine continued to curve. Fusing it would work nicely, according to doctors, says Kathy. Except for one thing.
"He won't ever be able to play football again."
The surgery that will fuse Eric's spine will also make it that much more likely that a collision on the ball field will break his spine or paralyze him. It's the start of a straighter spine, but the end of what could have been a run in high school football, or maybe even college.
Except for Friday night -- as Kathy and a crowd of family, friends and DGF supporters waited in the cold for about a half hour. Then, a roar went up, as the announcer called out, "Running back... freshman. Number 42... Eric Watt!"
Watt was starting in the first and last varsity football game of his life, as senior Taylor Beyer had volunteered to give up his spot. In spite of the pressure to beat Breckenridge, Beyer said it wasn't a big deal for him to make the sacrifice.
"He's a tank!" he said of the freshman standing in the spotlight for the opening play. "He's really good. He'll be back here with us next year, for sure. That is, if he was coming back next year."
Eric Watt scored the first touchdown of the game for the DGF Rebels, and with Taylor Beyer coming in to the relieve him later in the game, DGF won, 44 to 20.
I asked Kathy Watt if a hard knock like losing a football career almost as soon as he's gained it is too tough a lesson for a kid as young as Eric to learn.
"It could be," she said. "It's hard, as a parent, because you don't get to see what could come out of it."
Kathy Watt might not get to see what kind of football star her son might have been, it's true. But the life lesson he's learned, years before most adults have to, about overcoming adversity, taking your knocks and making the best of it, is something that goes into making the real stars of life.
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