Broken hip in 2021 didn't stop Whitman's Will Stafford from a breakout college debut
For Will Stafford, one particular memory of playing varsity football sticks out from the rest.
Midway through the third quarter of last year's season-opener against Hanover, “I was running up the middle. A defensive end got a hold of me (and I) got taken down," the running back recalled his first game as a senior captain for the Whitman-Hanson Regional High football team, what turned out to be a 33-20 loss on the road.
"And I didn’t know my hip was broken at the time, so I kept playing a little bit more," Stafford said, estimating he stayed in for five or 10 extra plays. "I went to the hospital after the game and they told me I was out for the season.”
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So last fall, Stafford logged about two-and-a-half quarters in uniform before being sidelined. Keeping in mind that COVID-19 sliced his junior year schedule down to four games, multiple untimely setbacks made his high school career a true question mark of what could've been.
Now ask him how his first college football game went. That, on the other hand, was truly an exclamation point.
“That was one of the best feelings ever," Stafford said.
In a 33-28 loss to Fitchburg State on Sept. 2, the freshman Stafford led the Dean College Bulldogs with team-highs in carries (19) and rushing yards (74) en route to a two-touchdown breakout in his collegiate debut.
"It was (product of) a lot of the work showing, a lot of the recovery and stuff I’ve been putting in to fix my hip,” said Stafford, who has amassed 121 rushing yards with 36 touches through three games. “I still have a lot more work to do, but it gave me a little glimpse of what my potential really is.”
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He punched in short-yard red zone chances for Dean in his premiere, scores from four and three yards out, respectively, to cap the team's first pair of scoring drives of the season.
Was such an opportunity expected so early in your freshman season?
“I’ve worked very hard so I think I was just going to get what I’ve earned. I think that how it goes with everything in life,” Stafford said. “I was definitely shocked in the first game when they put me in and I kept going in. … I’m going to keep showing them every single day that that is not a mistake.”
Whitman-Hanson head football coach Zack Botelho wishes Stafford was available for similar red zone chances in the high school ranks last fall.
“It was such a knockout punch for him as a person and for us as a team. I mean, we kind of based our offensive game plan on his abilities, which – as we’ve seen at Dean – are substantial as a (running back),” said Botelho. “Your heart breaks (for) him.”
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Shortly after he suffered the injury, there was an early belief that Stafford fractured his femur but a closer examination at the X-rays revealed a broken hip. A timetable for his return was still uncertain days afterwards and Stafford held out hope for a comeback on Thanksgiving, but keeping him out all season was determined to be for the best.
“(I was) very emotional. It definitely took a big toll on me," Stafford said. "Mentally, it took a while to really accept the injury and turn it into a good thing, instead of dwelling on it. But it definitely hit hard.”
The good news is, he's as spry and healthy now as ever before. It was to the point Dean College teammates thought he was kidding when he told them the broken hip tale: "I just like to play free and every moment I have on the field, I’m just grateful for," Stafford said. "Obviously last year showed me that.”
Prior to his senior year of high school, it was strongly suggested to Botelho, a first-year coach at the time, by administration to appoint Stafford – who also served as a student representative on the hiring board that decided the coach was the right hire – as his first captain because "people at Whitman-Hanson thought so highly of him as a leader."
“And they were 100% right on," added Botelho. "He was leading charge in the weight room, bringing kids to and from workouts and 7-on-7. He was all about everything we were trying to do in setting the tone: being physical, tough and high-character on and off the field. I don’t think we could’ve got it started whatsoever without the work he did.”
Stafford, hobbled and all, continued that support deep into the season. He was present at every practice and game for a Whitman-Hanson team that won just twice last fall, showing the younger running backs some techniques and finding a new stake within the team.
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“He didn't bat an eye," Botelho said. "I was watching some old film – you see him on the sideline in his crutches jumping up and down and sprinting faster than kids in pads because he’s so excited. It was so awesome.”
Stafford's leadership earned him the Bob Bancroft award as a senior – one of Whitman-Hanson's highest honors named after the longtime football coach who claimed 16 league titles and 10 postseason appearances in 26 years.
That award, paired with a Patriot League All-Star showing as a junior in the shortened Fall II season and the preseason scrimmage tape from Stafford's senior year, was enough for Dean's first-year head coach Andrae Murphy and wide receivers coach Adam Robinson, also a Whitman-Hanson alum, to give Stafford a chance post-injury – something other once-interested schools pulled back on as time went along.
“Dean was one of the only schools to stick around and say, ‘Hey, we’re still here for you,’” said Stafford. “So I stuck with them. It took me a little bit, a couple weeks, going into preseason camp to really show them who I was.”
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“The Dean coaches, to their credit ... they knew there was something there," Botelho said. "And when you meet Will, you know that the talent is half of the character of the kid – and you’ve got one heck of a football player.”
Stafford's debut earned him Eastern Collegiate Football Conference (ECFC) Rookie of the Week honors.
“To see it all just come together for him like that, it made me so happy for him because no one deserves it more," said Botelho.
“It was awesome," Stafford said of the award. "It just gives me even more confidence that I can prove myself – and I still have something to prove. I still have potential that people haven’t seen yet."
This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Whitman's Will Stafford starred in his first game of college football
