Olvera never gave up on the Gravette Lions

Photo by Randy Moll 
Michael Olvera visits with another player on the sidelines during play in Gravette’s Lion Stadium on Nov. 8, in the game against Prairie Grove.
Photo by Randy Moll Michael Olvera visits with another player on the sidelines during play in Gravette’s Lion Stadium on Nov. 8, in the game against Prairie Grove.

— Michael Olvera laid in a hospital bed in the early morning hours of July 21. He was suffering from a broken neck, and cuts and abrasions over most of his upper body.

But even in immense pain following an All-Terrain Vehicle accident and learning the extent of the injuries, Olvera quietly set a goal of returning to the Gravette football team by the time the Lions celebrated homecoming on Oct. 11.

Not many thought the goal was realistic, including Duke Mobley, the Lions’ defensive coordinator. Mobley arrived in the emergency room at Mercy Northwest Arkansas Hospital in Rogers several hours after learning of the accident from Gravette coach Bill Harrelson.

Mobley was stunned by what he saw.

“They were trying to pick all the rock out of his face,” he said. “It was bad. You could see his skull.”

And then Mobley found out Olvera had suffered a fractured vertebrae in his neck.

“I thought then he didn’t have a chance to ever play again,” Mobley said. “I was wondering what the rest of his life was going to be like.”

But as the clock ticked toward halftime of Gravette’s homecoming game against Ozark on Oct. 11, Mobley turned to Olvera and said, ‘It’s your turn. It’s your time.’”

A little more than 11 weeks after being seriously injured in the ATV accident, Olveramade his first hit of the season. But his biggest hit came later that night as the Lions’ junior stopped Hillbillies quarterback Jake Simpson for no gain on fourth-andone at the 1 in overtime and Gravette held on for a 27-21 victory.

“We didn’t know if he would ever play football again,” Harrelson said. “Then it got down to maybe next year. Then we found out he could come back for the Ozark game.”

That win helped propel Gravette to a seventh straight Class 4A playoff appearance.

“That stop was huge, and his teammates were there with him,” Harrelson said. “But for him to step up and make that play, that was huge. If we had lost that game, we wouldn’t still be playing.

“Football is a team sport, but that was a great play.” Summer crash

The summer was winding down with about two weeks left before the start of football practices. Olvera was out riding ATVs with friends when his world was literally turned upside down.

He was a passenger on the ATV when it failed to negotiate a turn and fl ipped. Olvera landed underneath the ATV, the roll bar pinned against his neck. It took several friends to lift the vehicle off his crumpled body.

Olvera, who was perhaps shocked by the accident, knew he was injured but resisted immediate pleas to go to the hospital. That was until he looked at himself in a mirror at a friend’s house.

“I got up and tasted blood, but I thought I had cut my lip or something,” Olvera said. “Everybody was freaking out after the accident. When I looked at my face, it was pure red. Then I looked down and saw that my jeans and shoes were covered in blood.”

Olvera was then driven to the Gravette Medical Clinic before being transferred to Mercy in Rogers. He complained of neck pain and wore a neck brace on the trip to Rogers.

The ride was a long one.

“I didn’t know what was going to happen,” Olvera said. “Was I going to die? Was I going to play this season? Would I ever play again?”

Once in Rogers, Olvera, and his parents, Jennifi er and Adan, were told that he had suffered a fracture of his C-1 vertebrae.

“They described it as where the ligament is torn away from the bone,” Olvera said. “They call it a hangman’s fracture. It wasn’t as serious as everyone fi rst thought. But it was still serious because I was close to being paralyzed from the neck down.”

Harrelson found out about the accident early the next day.

“It’s one of those calls you dread as a coach,” he said.

Olvera still had dreams of putting his football uniform back on sooner rather than later.

“I set a goal for myself, and it was homecoming against Ozark,” Olvera said. “I would tell our trainer every day that I would play in the Ozark game. The environment at homecoming is really incredible, and that is the game I wanted to come back on.”

Mobley thinks Olvera’s conditioning helped avoid a more serious or permanent injury.

Olvera was indeed lucky and the 5-foot-8, 195-pounder was discharged from the hospital less than 24 hours after being admitted. But he left with a neck brace.

He would wear that neck brace for the next seven weeks. He went to school in it, he ate in it and he even had to sleep in it. The only time it came off was when he showered.

“It felt like seven years,” Olvera said. “It was the worst thing you can possibly wear.”

“I couldn’t sleep at night, and it took me forever to get to sleep,” Olvera said. “I could not find a comfortable place to sleep. I had to sleep in a recliner. It was a bad, bad experience.”

Almost two months after the accident, Olvera was told the fracture was healed and that the brace could come off .

“I took it over to my buddy’s house and shot it up with a shotgun,” Olvera said.

Throughout the rehab process, Olvera was at every practice, every team meeting. That is something that Harrelson said he will always remember.

“Michael’s always been like a coach on the field and was always there,” Harrelson said. “You could tell he wanted to get back.”

But watching practice, and the fi rst five games, was diffi cult.

“When my teammates ran through the banner that fi rstgame, tears came down my face,” he said. “I didn’t know what was going to happen.”

But as September turned to October, Olvera sensed that his goal of returning for homecoming was a realistic one. His brace was off and the news from his doctors kept getting better and better.

Then, just four days from the Oct. 11 game with Ozark, Olvera got the news he was waiting on.

“I got cleared from the neck doctor, and I was at practice that Tuesday,” Olvera said.

Olvera was placed with the scout defense that fi rst practice and he said he was a little anxious about delivering his first hit of the season.

“I stepped up in the hole, hesitated, and Cedric (Duarte) ran me over,” Olvera said. “But it all quickly came back to me. I think I am just like I was.”

That Friday, Olvera entered the game in the second quarter. He then made the game-winning stop on the final play of the game.

“Those types of plays are what football is all about,” Olvera said. “Who is going to fight to the last play, the last second? We knew if they scored, Ozark would win. Coach Mobley blitzed us on that play, and where he blitzed me is right where the ball went.”

Olvera doesn’t take all the credit.

“I don’t think it was just because of me,” he said. “There are 11 people on the field, and it takes all of us. That was just one play out of a lot of plays that night. Coach Harrelson and Coach Mobley never gave up on me, that is what I remember most.”

And Olvera never gave up on the Lions.

Sports, Pages 10 on 11/20/2013