Huskies' quarterback hopeful for playoff comeback
Saint Mary's football team's hopes rest on the recovery of quarterback's knee
(0)Saint Mary’s University quarterback Erik Glavic stood on the sideline, leaning on crutches.
As he watched his team play in the 2007 Vanier Cup without him, Glavic felt powerless. The Huskies lost to the Manitoba Bisons 28-14 without the services of the national player of the year.
Glavic, 22, a third-year commerce student from Pickering, Ont. is in the process of coming back from major knee surgery.
It was Nov.17, 2007. The second half of the Uteck Bowl – the national semi-final - had just started. The Huskies were up 21-0 over Laval Rouge et Or when Glavic ran the ball and was tackled. Glavic had hurt his knee in the first half but, this time, he would not return to the game – or for the rest of the season. Glavic’s knee was planted in the ground when he twisted it.
Glavic’s knee was scanned on the Monday following the game. The results: a torn anterior cruciate ligament. He underwent major knee surgery at the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre to reconstruct his ACL.
In 2007 Glavic led the Huskies to a 7-1 regular season record. He threw 16 touchdown passes by leading the number-one offense in the country. For his efforts, he won the Hec Crighton Trophy as the most valuable player in Canadian University Football.
ACL injuries occur in contact sports, and Glavic is one of many athletes who attempt to return to their sport after surgery. Sandy Curwin, an associate professor of physiotherapy at Dalhousie University, says the success rate for a return from ACL reconstruction surgery is 75 to 80 per cent.
Kurt Stevenson, an athletic therapist at Saint Mary’s, says it takes a patient eight months to a year to recover from ACL surgery. And a 2001 study on ACL surgery states between three to 10 per cent of people who have the surgery still have knee pain and may need another surgery.
After the procedure, Glavic could barely walk. The only thing he could do was “stand up to take a shower or use the bathroom.” Four months into rehab, he could jog but he would still feel pain in his knee.
Ten months after Glavic last played in a game, he made his debut in the Huskies lineup Sept. 21 against the Mount Allison Mounties. His return was short-lived.
“I made a cut, and tweaked (the knee) a bit. It started swelling. We’re thinking it’s a strain. I don’t think it’s anything serious,” said Glavic. He didn’t even make it through the first quarter before removing himself from the game.
Saint Mary’s head coach Steve Sumarah says that since Glavic is tall ( 6-foot-6) it can take longer for the restructured ACL to heal.
Glavic says he won’t play for the rest of the regular season. He might come back for the playoffs. In the meantime, Saint Mary’s quarterbacks Nathan Beeler-Marsman and Jack Creighton have led the team to a 7-1 record heading into the November playoffs.
The Huskies hopes to get back to the Vanier Cup will not rest on Glavic’s arm but on his knee.
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