High school football players learn how to fight off a block. They learn how to fight off a tackle.
For Cave Spring High School senior Zac Foutz, his journey included fighting for his life.
On the first Wednesday of February, Foutz took his position on the Cave Spring High School auditorium stage. Beside him were his parents, Andrea and Ben, his sister Alex, and Cave Spring head football coach Tim Fulton. Just over two years earlier, all five may have had reason to doubt this day would come. Zac was preparing to sign a Division-1 full football scholarship at Liberty University. It had been a long and tedious journey.
Rewind the clock to the summer of 2012. Zac had suffered back pain and a disc problem after participating in AAU basketball. Physical therapy and a steroid shot had worked to relieve the pain, but with the rigors of his sophomore football season underway, the decision was made for one last shot. That’s where the adventure began to unfold. The second shot was in a batch that was later determined to be tainted.
“I was in my room at home and my mom and dad called me downstairs,” Zac recalled during a recent interview. “There was news on TV- ‘Shot Recall’. The menacing and potentially fatal condition was fungal meningitis and Zac was to become the youngest person in the country to be infected.
Everything became so serious and it was complete silence while we listened. It was the same batch of my second shot. I didn’t understand it, but I had goose bumps. Two had already died in Virginia, but with me being healthy, it didn’t sink in. For me it was go to bed and kind of forget about it.”
Problems progressed slowly. Foutz dropped back to only punting in Cave Spring’s homecoming game against Blacksburg, but followed with his best game of the year against Christiansburg where he had three interceptions against the Blue Demons, including one he returned for a touchdown.
That same weekend, Foutz went out of town with his family and several buddies to celebrate his 16th birthday and his condition rapidly deterioated.
“I started having headaches and was dehydrated,” Foutz noted. “Nothing was getting better and by Sunday I was taken to the emergency room at Lewis Gale Hospital. I was admitted for two days there, then transferred to Roanoke Memorial for the next fifteen days.”
“At Roanoke Memorial, things kept getting worse,” Foutz added. “It was a tough deal. There was pain. The doctors were concerned about kidney failure. Due to light sensitivity, the room was kept dark and I wore blinders. I was awake and kept asking questions, but it was bad. I couldn’t eat and was violently throwing up for over a week.”
Then, a visit from a young doctor, who Foutz still doesn’t know, ramped up Foutz’s determination to recover.
“This doctor came in my room and said ‘you’re close to requiring a feeding tube, and believe me, you don’t want it,'” Foutz remembered. “I made me realize I had to fight to beat this disease. Things started turning around and they started getting things right with my medications.”
While the recovery slowly progressed, few had hopes of Foutz ever returning to athletics.
“Many people thought I’d never play sports again,” Foutz recalled. “I was out of school for most of four months and half the school thought I was dead. When I finally returned, some thought they were seeing a ghost.”
“For my part on returning to sports, “no” wasn’t an option. I had tunnel vision to get back, and take it one step at a time. But, I’ve never been a baby steps kind of guy”
Foutz tried to return to basketball that winter, but the road to recovery was harder than he anticipated.
“I played in a couple games, but the toll my condition took was discouraging,” Foutz said. “I wanted to start, but my body wouldn’t do it. I kept beating myself up.”
Little by little Zac saw gradual improvements and was eventually able to get off medications. Things started coming back to normal.
“My body got behind and I was not in the shape I was accustom to,” Foutz pointed out. “I was determined to train as hard as I could. I was playing catch up.”
The extended recovery period also affected college recruiting process for Foutz.
“I wasn’t able to attend football camps before my junior year,” Foutz noted. “I had been receiving 3-4 letters a day from prospective colleges. After my illness, it all took a big dip.They were looking at a recruit who almost died as opposed to others who were 100% healthy. Suddenly, I was having two other guys getting recruited in front of me.”
Foutz finally got a break when he was invited to a camp at Liberty in June, 2014, where he competed with 60-70 other recruits.
“Coaches at Liberty finally realized my size and weight had returned” Foutz said. “People saw potential.”
Then, the call came. Liberty head football coach Turner Gill offered a full scholarship.
“I couldn’t speak,” Foutz noted of receiving the offer. “Coach Gill looked at everything that had happened as a positive. Finally, I saw things coming together. Other things never went my way, but I had kept pushing. It was a sigh of relief, I had accomplished a dream. Many said it was not possible, but all the hard work and determination made everything worth it.”
“It was a situation where we relied on information from the doctors,” Gill said during a phone interview in February. “There was nothing that said Zac could not play football. Like a knee or ankle injury, we check it all with a recruit. Zac’s future was as good as before the illness.”
“He’s an inspiration,” Gill added. “A young man who wants to compete and was determined to overcome a tough situation with a lot of self-motivation. These are people you want in your program. We’re excited about Zac being a leader in Liberty’s program.”
“Liberty saw a young man who had overcome adversity and had promise,” Fulton says. “It’s not always about being a star. Quite honestly, I think they got a steal. My gut feeling is that Zac will have a terrific career.”
“I’m excited about Liberty,” Foutz notes. “Their philosophy is that the best person plays. I know I’ve got to perform and I’ve got to compete. I’m going to work hard for everything. This is my one shot.”
Game on, and Foutz undoubtedly has proven he has the fight to succeed.
Bill Turner
