LARAMIE, Wyo.—Patrick Mertens didn’t see it coming.
No one did.
The University of Wyoming sophomore defensive tackle was going through voluntary workouts in Laramie over the summer with several of his teammates.
Then late in June he started to feel ill. The 6-foot-5, 280-pounder thought it was a sinus infection, something he could shake off.
Mertens went home to Sterling, Colo., for a wedding, and things changed for the worse.
“I went home for a weekend and stayed for two months,” he said.
Mertens ended up in the emergency room the first night he got home and spent about a week in the hospital.
Third-year UW coach Dave Christensen doesn’t disclose specific injuries/illnesses. But when he said in mid-July that Mertens would be lost for the season because of an illness, you could see the concern on his face even though he said his player would make a full recovery.
Mertens won’t say what he had nor does he go into a lot of detail about it. But he said he lost around 45 pounds.
“I was a little freaked out,” he said last week in Laramie. “Going from being in top shape—at least the best shape in my life—to kind of getting decimated in that short amount of time, it was kind of unnerving.”
Injuries are part of football, and even though they are unplanned and unpredictable, more often than not when they occur there’s a plan for rehabilitation and recovery.
It’s different when an unexpected illness sets in, especially when you may not know what you’re dealing with.
How does a young person in top condition handle something he has no control over as he watches his body deteriorate in a short period of time?
This isn’t new for UW.
True freshman offensive tackle Justin DiRe was a promising player last season who was redshirted. After the season, UW learned he had a medical condition, and his doctors recommended he not play football any more.
DiRe is still on scholarship and is a volunteer student assistant coach.
Fortunately, Mertens said, what he had was not life threatening. He also said he is not on any medication and has been symptom-free for a while.
He has gained back about 25 pounds, which put him at about 260. That’s his playing weight from last season.
Mertens attended a few practices during fall camp and is on campus full-time, going to school and slowly recovering.
“They’re still part of the family,” Christensen said of both Mertens and DiRe.
A nice touch, no doubt.
Mertens will take a medical redshirt this season and return as a redshirt sophomore in 2012. His goal is to be 100 percent by spring drills.
It’s easy to think of what UW has lost in the short term. As a true freshman last season, Mertens recorded 39 tackles, and he had two sacks in the Cowboys’ 44-0 season-ending win over Colorado State.
He also was a Second Team All-America pick by Phil Steele, who produces one of the most respected college football publications in the country.
But in the big picture, those things mean little.
“It made me realize the value of our health,” Mertens said. “You don’t know the value of it until you don’t have it any more.
“It puts everything in perspective to enjoy the little things, and if you have a bad day, it’s not the end of the world. It’s good to be back with the team and to start living life again.”
A good lesson from a 20-year-old who shouldn’t have to learn lessons like that at his age.
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Information from: Wyoming Tribune Eagle – Cheyenne,
