Hesston’s Grant Raleigh recovering from skiing accident but not in time for Shrine Bowl

A normal summer day in 2014 for Hesston’s Grant Raleigh included 90 minutes of lifting weights, a two-hour individual workout in the gym and then a jumping workout.

“I’m pretty crazy about basketball and perfection,” Raleigh said. “It drives me insane.… In basketball season I struggled to sleep because I was always thinking about it.”

This summer should have been more of the same, with a little football thrown in as he prepared to play for the West squad in Saturday’s Shrine Bowl, an all-star football game for graduated seniors, in Hays.

A Colorado skiing accident while on spring break in March derailed Raleigh’s plans.

He smashed into a tree and broke his right arm, collarbone and shoulder blade and suffered nerve damage to his right hand. He broke two vertebrae in his upper back and two in the middle of his back. While he doesn’t remember the accident, speculation is that he bounced off the tree and hit a stump, where he smashed his tailbone and cracked his pelvis in two spots.

Raleigh has spent his summer in rehab, only recently dropping from three days a week to two. And that Shrine Bowl game? He plans to watch on the sideline.

“All the honors this year, I never thought much of it,” said Raleigh, a Top 33 football selection by The Eagle at quarterback and an All-Class 3A basketball pick. “I realized how much it really meant to me. Pretty much my whole life, it’s been basketball. I hope I can say I’ve worked harder than basically everyone.

“It’s hard when it gets taken away from you, when you realize what you do have. It’s for sure a privilege to go out and play sports.”

The Shrine Bowl was supposed to be Raleigh’s last chance to to play football. Raleigh, who combined for nearly 3,500 passing and rushing yards, played with basically the same group of players since he was in third grade.

“It’s a different bond in football. It’s different from basketball,” Raleigh said. “I love football and used to love it more than basketball. I love hitting people.

“Before the year, I knew we would be good but the reason I was a standout football player and had all those yards was because we had a really good line. The Shrine Bowl was my one more opportunity to strap it up and go hit some people.”

Raleigh had put on 10 pounds following the basketball season and was dunking with ease shortly before his accident. During his 52-day stay in a Colorado hospital, he lost 42 pounds, dropping to 138.

He became so weak that when he got out of bed, he said he felt as though he was squatting 400 pounds.

“Those 52 days in the hospital were no doubt the hardest 52 days of my life,” said Raleigh, who signed to play basketball at McPherson College while in the hospital.

Raleigh is back working to be ready for the start of McPherson’s season. He recently touched the rim for the first time.

He spends time in the gym shooting and dribbling — with his right hand while he can stand it, and then using his left hand.

“He’s always worked hard, always put in a lot of time,” said Greg Raleigh, his dad and Hesston’s coach. “He’s getting that back. He’ll be OK.”

Grant Raleigh still sits on a pillow because his tailbone hurts. The back pain is the worst.

His right hand is the issue. The nerves in his hand were stretched in the accident, and while it is healing, he’s unsure how much it will heal.

“The hand, we can pray and hope and everything else that it just comes back. We don’t have a lot of control. His bones have healed,” Greg Raleigh said. “If anyone could make it back 100 percent, I would put my money on him.”

Grant Raleigh has rushed his recovery a bit and has been told by his doctor that he needs to pull back. So he’s looked for ways to feed his competitiveness.

He coached Hesston’s incoming freshmen basketball players. He plays board games with his family.

But he expects to play basketball.

“Some of the doctors said that most likely for a while, in the helicopter or on the mountain, I was technically dead for a little while,” Raleigh said.

“There’s some reason I’m still here. I’m proud I went through that and can still be where I’m at now. I obviously feel lucky to be alive, let alone have a chance to play basketball again.”

This story was originally published July 23, 2015 at 10:01 AM with the headline "Hesston’s Grant Raleigh recovering from skiing accident but not in time for Shrine Bowl."