During the fall semester of the 2022-2023 school year, Bonita Vista High (BVH) varsity football wide receiver Xavier Bravence suffered a heartbreaking injury during a rivalry game against Eastlake High School (EHS). As a junior, Bravence broke his left femur in the middle of the game after an opponent tackled him straight into the knee. Since then, the now senior has encountered multiple surgeries and is back on the football team making touchdowns for his senior year. Bravece’s experiences with football has led up to where he is now, as he has been playing for years and has obtained a strong bond with the sport.
“My family [inspired me to play football]. I did not want to miss out on my senior season because I have been playing for years. I [also] wanted to play with my friends and that has always been important to me because I wanted my senior year to be fun, and playing football would help that,” Bravence said.
Bravence refused to stay off of the gridiron for his final year of high school could not let his injury distract him from his goals of playing the sport that he loves alongside his friends. BVH running back, inside linebacker, team captain and senior Caden Ada-Tannehill is one of the friends that assisted Bravence in his journey to recovery.
“I knew that Bravence was never going to quit because that is just not who he is as a person, but I helped encourage him to not give up. I helped him get through the mental thinking [he had] and was going through because when you are playing a sport that you love and it gets taken away from you it’s really rough. I wanted to help him through it and make sure he still loved the sport,I was there as his support system to help him,” Ada-Tannehill said.
Injuries, such as that which happened to Bravence are all too common in the realm of sports, but Bravence had help from his community to be able to overcome the challenges that he faced. Bravence’s community did not only include his teammates, but his coaches as well. Athletic Director and Head football coach Tyler Arciaga had not witnessed an injury like Bravence, but has learned from then and stated it was coincidence.
“Injuries happen in all sports and it depends on the nature of the injury. As for football there are different types and the game’s never been safe as far as penalties, protecting players, equipment, field conditions and I think that sometimes it just happens. Unfortunately that is what happened with [Bravence] and that is how it is opposed for sports,” Arciaga said.
Arciaga has witnessed many injuries throughout his thirteen year long football coaching career, but Bravence’s injury was something entirely new to him. Both Bravence and Arciaga shared shock and sorrow at the sight of the gruesome injury. At one point, Bravence had thought that he would never be able to play football again because of the incident because of the amount of damage that he took and the amount of surgery that he would need to go through.
“I did not think I would be able to play again. I thought at the beginning of [this] school year that my knee hurt too much, but I just continued to play and work around my knee because I wanted to play with my friends. Playing with my friends made it a lot more enjoyable for me and helped me forget about my injury,” Bravance said.
Playing any sport, especially football, with an injury is difficult because the injured area could get damaged again, making it harder for the player to fully recover. In Bravence’s case he was lucky that his knee was not too damaged for playtime after his surgeries. Bravence’s effective recovery could not have happened without the BVH athletic trainers that assisted him directly after his injury.
“We are fortunate to have athletic trainers here at BVH and around the district as well. [At the game where Bravence got injured], there were multiple trainers that did well with coordinating. EHS had fire trucks on campus and helped create a pathway. When I think about it, these players are like my own sons. Although it is hard, what’s great with sports is that all of the coaches cover them when needed. They covered Bravence so that people could not take pictures of him and turned their backs so even they could not see him and it was really good to see. They had a level of humanity and were careful with the students,” Arciaga said.
EHS is one of BVH’s rivals, especially when it comes to sports. Arciaga expresses his joy to be able to see that even despite all of the rivaled animosity that the two schools have against each other, there was still humanity and respect. When Bravence was on the ground, what had shocked Ada-Tannehill was that Bravence was not crying like one would expect. He was sitting on the floor in shock when he took the fall. Every now and then there were a few screams that had come out of his mouth, but never a tear from his eyes.
“He was not crying, he was sitting there in shock about the whole thing. He was just screaming because he could not move his leg. Bravence was more scary than anything and that was what surprised me, but if I think about it, it is not who he is,” Ada stated.
Whether or not Bravence is making the right decision to be playing football, he continues to play it for the same reason he did many years ago. He is passionate about the game, and an injury wouldn’t stop him from playing what he loves, just like how an injury wouldn’t force a tear from his eyes.
“Football is a terminal experience for 95% of the students who participate in the sport at a high school level, and so this is probably his last chance to play football. If he were my son I would encourage him to do the thing. He loves everything about football and it’s good for him and his soul. It shows that you can come back from something after getting knocked down and overcome it and get back up,” Arciaga said.
Bravence’s willingness to come back to play football with his injuries is what makes Arciaga happy. It shows that Bravence refuses to give up. With Bravence back onto the field it makes him stronger within his body and his soul that Arciaga encourages him to do. Now that the senior is making touchdowns that he never imagined to do, it always reminds him about his first game that he played back from his injury.
“I was nervous because I knew I was not going to play how I played before. I was injured which was a big thing for me. I wanted to [play], but I physically could not but for me I was nervous about not being able to do what I did before. Living up to those expectations that [I had before] was difficult [at first], but it felt good to be out there and play because it would not last forever and I would not be able to do forever which made me happy,” Bravence stated.
