A reminder of life's blessings: Player’s football injury brings Catholic schools and faith community together
A frightening football injury to Nick Schnell, center, led many people in the Indianapolis Catholic community to pray for him after the Oct. 17 incident. Following his recovery, he posed for a photo with his mother, Angie Schnell, and Kevin Watson, his fifth-grade teacher at St. Roch School in Indianapolis. (Photo by John Shaughnessy)
By John Shaughnessy
As the ambulance rushed to the football field where their 10-year-old son laid motionless, Angie and Jay Schnell both knelt beside him, making their silent prayers and pleas to God.
Just minutes before, they had watched the youngest of their three children, Nick, drop back to pass as the quarterback of the fifth- and sixth-grade football team of St. Roch Parish in Indianapolis. Just as Nick let go of the ball, he was crunched on both sides of his body by two players on the team from St. Pius X Parish in Indianapolis.
When the play ended, one of a parent’s worst nightmares began for the Schnells.
An assistant coach for the St. Roch team, Jay Schnell ran toward Nick when he saw that his son wasn’t getting up from the ground after the tackle.
Jay asked his son, “Are you OK?”
Nick answered, “I can’t move.”
Moments later on that Sunday afternoon on Oct. 17, Angie was on the field, too. Noticing the concern on her husband’s face, she tried to stay calm. She didn’t want to scare Nick more, even when he told her, “I can’t move my arms or my legs.”
What happened in the next hours and days would be part of one of the most frightening times ever for the Schnell family. It would also remind them of one of the great blessings in their life.
From competition to concern
As Nick was placed in the ambulance, he kept thinking, “I hope my neck’s not broken.”
When the ambulance left the football field, Angie rode with her son. One last scene on the field caught her attention. As she looked out the window of the ambulance, she saw the players and coaches from both teams kneeling in prayer.
“That was very moving,” she says.
On the ride to the hospital, Nick regained some of the movement in his arms and his toes, but he still couldn’t move his legs. At the hospital, another complication developed.
“He was getting his strength back, but every time we moved him, he was getting sick,” Angie recalls. “He was tired, and noises were bothering him.”
During that time, the Schnell family received a phone call from one of the Catholic Youth Organization football referees who officiated at the St. Roch and St. Pius game. He called to check on Nick.
There were also phone calls from members of St. Roch Parish. Several of those callers told Angie and Jay that members of St. Pius Parish had called them, concerned about Nick.
Later that evening, Father James Wilmoth, the pastor of St. Roch Parish, came to Nick’s hospital room.
“He asked if he could do a blessing on Nick,” Angie says. “We said, ‘Of course.’ Within three or four minutes of Father blessing him, Nick said, ‘Father, I think it worked. I feel better now.’ We all smiled and laughed.”
Nick could move his legs. The color in his face also returned to its natural tone.
“Father [Wilmoth] was just wonderful,” Angie says. “It was about 9:30 that night that he came. I don’t know how many priests would do that for a student. But Father doesn’t think of the school kids as students. He thinks of them as family.”
A short while later, the doctors at Community Hospital South in Indianapolis decided to transfer Nick to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis as a precaution. At Riley, doctors told Angie and Jay that they determined that Nick had a concussion. At 2 a.m. on Oct. 18, Nick was released from the hospital to go home with his parents.
Rediscovering the blessing
Nick stayed at home for the next two days, recovering under his mom’s care. During that time, Bill Herman, the principal at St. Pius School, called Joseph Hansen, the principal at St. Roch School, to ask about Nick, and to tell him that he was in the prayers of the St. Pius School community.
When Nick returned to school and his fifth-grade classroom that Wednesday, his friends and classmates were thrilled to have him back. He also received a surprise that day when a parent from St. Pius School brought a “Get Well” poster to St. Roch School for him. The poster was signed by the players and coaches of the St. Pius fifth- and sixth-grade football team.
“I was kind of happy they did it,” Nick says.
The concern from the St. Pius School community also left an impact on Nick’s fifth-grade teacher, Kevin Watson.
“Here you have a north side [Indianapolis] Catholic school and a south side Catholic school, and they come together when they let their shields down,” Watson says. “It sums up what CYO sports are all about—from the competition to the concern and love and care.”
Angie Schnell had a similar reaction as she looked back at all the moments that unfolded after Nick crumpled to the ground: The two teams kneeling in prayer on the field. The phone call from the CYO official. The visit at the hospital by Father Wilmoth. The phone calls from friends and strangers in the Catholic community. The prayers of the St. Pius School community. The “Get Well” poster.
For the Schnell family, all those elements were almost as uplifting as seeing Nick healthy and active again as he geared up for his CYO basketball season.
“Having gone through something like this, we realized how blessed we are to have our kids in Catholic schools, where they learn to care for each other and show concern for each other,” Angie says. “I don’t know if you get that everywhere. I just know it was very moving to witness something like that.” †
