By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
When area high school football teams were in the postseason in November, several players sustained notable injuries as their seasons came to a close.
The impacts of those spread beyond the fall seasons.
Williams had two players suffer collarbone injuries that put them in slings after a Class 6-A playoff loss to Union Pines.
That cost senior William Overby, who played as a receiver, time in the basketball season. The Bulldogs didn’t have basketball games scheduled for November, but he sat out all of December games before he was cleared to play Friday night against Southeast Guilford.
Despite what was determined to be a fractured right collarbone, Overby finished the football game. He said he might have initially sustained the injury three weeks earlier in the regular-season finale at Roxboro Person.
Overby came off the bench in his first basketball game of the season for a brief first-half stint and extended time in the second half when Williams topped visiting Southeast Guilford 71-61.
Williams football teammate Braeden Vetter’s displaced collarbone came on the left side. Losing Vetter, a junior tight end, was another blow in what became the team’s final game.
Vetter had been in the Williams basketball program, but he’s not playing this season. Last year, he was the starting goalie for the lacrosse team as a sophomore.
The injuries to the Williams players came in the third round of the playoffs, which marked the Bulldogs’ second extra game because they received a first-round bye.
Southeast Alamance sophomore lineman Pedro Cabello suffered a serious foot injury in a first-round football playoff game at home against Orange, so he missed the following week’s game when the Stallions were eliminated at Southern Nash.
Southeast football coach Tony Aguilar said in November losing depth along the line wasn’t ideal, but he also hated to see an injury that would cause an athlete to miss time in another sport.
Cabello would have been in the mix in the upper weights for Southeast’s wrestling team. It appears that he might miss all of the wrestling season, though he could be back for spring football workouts.
Southeast wrestling coach Grant Gibson said Cabello has attended some practices and meets so he has stayed involved with the team.
