DENVER — Ethan Glynn was super excited to play in his first freshman football game for Bloomington Jefferson in early September.
But excitement, in an instant, changed to disbelief and heartbreaking sadness as Ethan was injured making a tackle.
“Describe the play the way what happened. What do you remember?," KARE 11's Randy Shaver asked Ethan.
“I remember all of it,” Ethan said. “I was on my blocker and I — I like to throw them off me — and then my foot, I like kind of stumbled off of him into the guy with the ball. And when I went for the tackle, I was awkward. And then I ended up on my side and I just couldn't feel anything. I was on my side and my arms and legs were like they were like floating, like up. And then when they put me and my back, my arms felt like I was raising them up and my leg felt like I was raising them up, but I was flat on the ground.”
Ethan was rushed to the hospital, and underwent three surgeries. The accident left him paralyzed from the upper bicep down.
“There really is no playbook for this, is there?," Shaver asked Tim Carlson, Jefferson varsity football coach.
“No,” he said.
Carlson was there that day. He says that one play has changed him forever.
“You ask yourself, 'Why," and there is no answer for that,” said Carlson.
“The biggest thing as a parent is you just can't fix it,” said Corey Glynn, Ethan’s dad.
Ethan's parents, Corey & Cassidy, and Ethan himself do not blame football for what happened that day.
As Ethan says, it was a one-in-a-billion accident.
The 15-year-old has chosen to move forward, accept his new reality, and fight hard to make any progress he can.
And that work is paying off.
“My left arm is like dead basically right now. But my right arm — my biceps, like — I can flex it a little bit," Ethan said. "And then I can move my rotator cuff and my shoulder. I think it moves like my (right) hand a little bit like that."
“Oh I see it. I see it,” said Shaver. “That's new?"
“Yeah, in the past couple of weeks,” Ethan said.
Watch Part 1 of Randy's interview with Ethan Glynn here: