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09/15/2023 04:37 PMAdversity hits us all at different points of time in our lives. We can choose two paths: one more productive, and another that can leave one spiraling into negativity and stuck in neutral. For Avery Atkinson, he chose the former, with rousing results and a new outlook and lease on life.
The Branford Class of 2023 graduate grew up with football throughout his life, and entered his freshman year with the Hornets as a quarterback/slot receiver/linebacker. He took a sack early in the season and did not think much of it before going to the doctor for X-rays. It was there that he was diagnosed with Bilateral L4 Spondulolysis, which is a fracture of the L4 and L5 vertebrae, on both sides.
Despite his football career concluding, he persisted on through rehab and went on to become a senior captain for the boys’ hoops squad, as well as a standout hurdler and vaulter for the boys’ outdoor track squad. Even more so for his efforts, Avery was recognized on an even grander scale by being named the 2023 Southern Connecticut Conference (SCC) Comeback Player of the Year.
“After the diagnosis, I was in a brace for six months, which was super uncomfortable, and then I did physical therapy for four months after that. I also taught myself piano and guitar because I wanted to put my mind on other things,” says Avery. “The award was such a confidence booster; it was an honor and I could not be happier. All the time I spent doing nothing and essentially changing sports, they were not easy things to do. I cannot thank the SCC and [Branford High School Athletic Director] Tom Ermini enough. It helped show my way of getting through things by adapting and overcoming.”
Avery recalls that the thought of never being on the gridiron was so haunting that he found it challenging to simply verbalize it. During a grueling rehab process that gave him an added level of gratitude to accomplish what were the simplest things to him, he garnered a greater mental durability for handling hurdles.
“My first thought after the diagnosis was if I could play football again, and I was even afraid to ask the question to my parents; I could not get the words out. It was hard to get over the idea that I could not play again,” Avery says. “It was also a tough physical rehab process because I had always been in shape. It was hard not being able to do more than five sit ups. It was hard on my heart emotionally, too, because I was so used to doing things like that normally. But I just put my head straight to it, and my parents could not have been prouder. The hardest part was the mental aspect of not being able to play football again and being out of shape, though I stayed level headed and kept a positive attitude.”
No matter what squad or season Avery participated on and how many wins or losses they accumulated, he walked away from each club with a greater sense of pride, satisfaction, accomplishment and, arguably most importantly above all else, a greater sense of community between himself and his peers and mentors.
“The people of Branford football were great, and I could not ask for better people to be around. The coaches were great and positive people, and the program was run by such good people,” says Avery. “The track coaches were great, and Coach Kevin Connell helped me a lot with hurdles and school. The people I was around with basketball were also great. It was a great atmosphere and I loved my teammates. They were outstanding people and I had such a good time. Branford sports overall were fun for me. There were a lot of ups and downs, but that is a part of both sports and life.”
While being a selfless and well-respected leader for the boys’ outdoor track team this past spring, Hornets’ Head Coach Kent Jackson saw even further evidence of Avery’s persistence through perceived peril and adversity.
“Avery is a wonderful person, and he is very respectful of his coaches and is a leader on the team,” says Jackson. “Despite injury limiting his participation in several meets and the championship season last season for track, he did qualify for the Class MM State Championship in the javelin.”
Now moving beyond Branford, Avery is attending Coastal Carolina this fall and will major in sports management. Yet as he moves onto a new collegiate campus, he steps his first feet on it with a superior sense of perspective on life and how to embrace all the gifts it gives through its moments of agony and ecstasy.
“I have learned a lot, whether it is about how to handle adversity with my back injury, or just in general,” says Avery. “My senior basketball season was not the best season for our team with our record, but we all handled it well. Yet that is part of life; you can be the person who takes it in the face and moves through it, or you can take it the wrong way. I mentioned about adapting and overcoming before, and it is tattooed on me now, because it is something I really live by. The injury was both a gift and a curse, because it showed me how to handle things.”