Kawika Emsley-Pai is trying to choke down a harsh reality.
“It’s my senior year and I can’t play football,” Emsley-Pai of Jackson High School said in a phone interview Thursday, less than two weeks before prep gridiron teams start practicing for the 2006 season.
Emsley-Pai was a star wide receiver/defensive back for the Jackson football team last fall. He’s also an elite baseball player who helped Jackson win the Class 4A state championship in May.
But the senior said his prep football career is likely over due to a small stress fracture on the L5 vertebra in his lower back. Emsley-Pai had been in pain since May but didn’t learn the extent of his injury until he visited a spine specialist last month in Seattle.
Emsley-Pai, an All-Wesco South first team football pick on offense and a second team defender, was stunned.
“Honestly, my heart dropped right when (the doctor) said that,” he said. “I was praying not to have that injury.”
Emsley-Pai, who had hoped it was a muscle strain, hasn’t played baseball in three weeks and decided that playing football is too risky. On the bright side, his doctor said the partial fracture is a fairly common sports injury that usually results in a full recovery. But the only thing Emsley-Pai can do is rest and wait for it to heal.
“It’s definitely been an emotional ride so far,” he said.
Emsley-Pai thinks he suffered the injury May 20 in a regional tournament baseball game against Lake Washington. He felt a sharp pain in his back when he made a throw from center field. The pain continued but he played through it and was a key contributor in Jackson’s undefeated championship season.
Later, Emsley-Pai, a highly recruited catcher and utility player, competed in the USA Baseball Tournament of Stars June 20-25 in Missouri and was one of 32 players picked for the junior national team pool.
Despite his injury, Emsley-Pai hopes to heal in time to go to Atlanta Sept. 6-14 and try to make the final junior national team, which will participate in the Junior World Tournament in Cuba starting on Sept. 17. He’s trying to convince the USA Baseball coaching staff that he’ll be fit to play.
Emsley-Pai’s doctor said pain will persist but the fracture won’t worsen. Emsley-Pai called the baseball tryout in Atlanta a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that he simply can’t pass up, injured or not.
“I’ve played through (the pain, which sometimes feels like a knife in his back) for two months,” he said, “so I don’t see what two weeks will do to me.”
Emsley-Pai said the Division I college baseball coaches who recruited him before the injury are still interested. The senior’s top four choices are Texas, Clemson, Arkansas and Arizona State.
Emsley-Pai’s decision not to play football means that, for the third straight year, Jackson’s gridiron team will be without a top-notch player. Travis Snider missed the 2004 season after suffering a broken right fibula and skipped the 2005 season to focus on baseball. Snider now plays minor league baseball for the advanced rookie league Pulaski (Va.) Blue Jays, an affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays.
Although he can’t contribute the way he’d like, Emsley-Pai plans to share his experience and leadership at Jackson football practices. Even without the injury, Emsley-Pai would have missed at least two football games while he attended the USA Baseball tryout.
“If he can come out and help us with our receivers, especially with our young kids, to be a mentor for (them) and give them any words of wisdom or advice, I think that’s a benefit,” Jackson football coach Joel Vincent said.
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