Nick Sostak, starting 6’1” center on the varsity football team, had a turn of events his senior year after back-to-back injuries in April and August, resulting in him sitting out his final year of high school football. His first injury was a meniscus tear, which occurred in April.

“… we had this thing called 7-on-7 and I decided to play wide receiver that day, and it probably wasn’t a good decision because I play center. Center shouldn’t probably be playing wide receiver, so I decided to take a cut, and my knee didn’t like that cut …,” Sostak said.

Since it was early in his senior season, Sostak was determined to recover, and eventually, he was able to play again. However, on the first day of school, he got injured once again, this time with a condition called bone marrow edema, which is excess fluids in the bone marrow.

“My second injury was after a scrimmage. I didn’t even feel it that whole, entire week even though it was building up. At home, I decided to lay in bed and I said ‘wow, my knee looks like a balloon right now,’ so that morning I got on crutches, and I haven’t been off crutches since then,” Sostak said.

Having this be his last year at DGS, “It’s [his injuries] taken a heavy toll on me because I’ve worked so hard since I tore my meniscus in April, that now it has had me thinking that sometimes hard work doesn’t pay off. But now thinking back at my injuries, I think that if everything goes as it should go, I should be able to play at some point,” Sostak said.  

Despite these unforeseen injuries, Sostak still tries to stay positive by attending all the football games and practices if he is able to, only missing if he has rehab.

“I’m at every game on the sideline, cheering and helping my teammates go on. I know that a lot of these juniors have never played varsity football before so I’m always there to help any of them out, and even some of the seniors that didn’t play last year. [I] just [give] them advice to take it one play at a time, it’s a long game, so I’m just a mentor this year,” Sostak said.

Throughout his recovery process, his family has been very supportive of him. They have not left his side since the injuries, and make sure Sostak can recover.

“My dad has taken off probably all of his vacation [days] this year and my mom has taken off most of her vacation [days] as well to take me to doctors appointments and rehab. [They] stay at home with me while I’m on medication that I can’t really withstand by myself and I just appreciate them so much for all they do for me,” Sostak said.

He has also received a lot of support from Matthew Quatman, the baseball and football coach, who has also been the one to impact him to play football in the first place.

“One coach that’s probably impacted me the most I would say was Coach Quatman, and the reason, it may be a little weird, but the reason he impacted me the most was when he cut me from the freshman baseball team. I feel like he didn’t think that I would go this far and take his criticism this far and we are still really good friends. I wouldn’t think he would consider it as friends but I think we are friends today, and just him cutting me from the team really helped me out in approaching everything in life and taking it to heart,” Sostak said.

Despite all these injuries, Sostak is trying to recover quickly so he could potentially play before he graduates.

“The hope is [to] be ready by [the end of the season], but the possibility is [to] probably not play this regular season,” Sostak said.