LAKE STEVENS — Sam Burke still isn’t completely sure what happened.
It’s been almost a year since the Lake Stevens senior linebacker broke his tibia and fibula in the Vikings’ 43-40 loss to Newport in the first round of the 4A state tournament last season.
One thing Burke is certain of, however, is that he wasn’t going to let his injury slow him down.
Burke returned to the Vikings bigger, stronger and faster than he was before his injury. The linebacker and running back’s work ethic is so high that the Lake Stevens coaching staff, which normally selects two additional captains after the players select two, chose Burke as one of the Vikings’ top leaders in a pretty competitive and strong group of seniors.
“Mentally, it’s just tough,” said Lake Stevens head coach Tom Tri. “You break both your tibia and fibula, your junior year is over and now you’ve got nothing but down time. That can be tough on a kid, realizing how much of an uphill battle it is: months of rehab, months of physical therapy.
“Sam made up his mind that he was going to come back bigger and stronger and faster and that’s really what he’s done, just through hard work in the offseason, and just being determined that this is what he’s going to do his senior year.”
Unlike Burke, Tri remembers more about the play that saw one of his defensive leaders go down. There was just a few seconds remaining in the second quarter of the Vikings’ playoff game. It was fourth and long — “about 15 or 16 yards” — and Newport running back Paul Wells got the ball and ran to the outside. A Lake Stevens lineman fell down, forcing Burke and a teammate to change their angles. Burke reacted before his teammate and the pair collided.
Burke had to be taken off the field on a stretcher and left the stadium in an ambulance. The Vikings, meanwhile, returned to the field after a 20-minute delay for the PAT attempt, and then headed to the locker room.
“It happened so fast it was ridiculous,” said Burke, who had never broken a bone before that game. “…I just remember looking down and going, ‘Wow. That’s really messed up. That is not supposed to look that way.’ I knew right away my leg was broken.
“I wasn’t worried at all about myself. I was just really worried about my team. I wanted to win that game more than anybody. I just really wanted to be able to stay in and play in the second half and win.”
Burke was taken to the hospital and had a four-hour surgery to put a metal rod through his tibia and two screws at the top and bottom of it. He spent most of the next two weeks in bed as his teammates came to visit, check up on him and bring food.
For the next two months, Burke could move around on crutches. The football player uses the Super Bowl in early February as the approximate point he could walk around with a cane.
However, Burke said he wasn’t 100 percent until late June, with the senior-to-be even “feeling a little pain through our spring camp in June.”
Still, he was determined to return to the football field for his final year at Lake Stevens.
“I could never say I was hesitant. As soon as I was in the hospital I was thinking about next year as soon as I found out we lost to Newport,” Burke said. “I was bummed, but I was also inspired to come back. I know people who have come back from way worse injuries. I was lucky it wasn’t an ACL (injury) or a knee or anything. There’s definitely times when I was low on myself for sure. But I always knew I’d play football again. I knew it’d be a lot of hard work but I knew I’d come back and I’d be better than ever.”
Tri said Burke, who moved to Lake Stevens and transferred from Everett prior to his sophomore year, has been a standout player for the Vikings since he arrived. That didn’t change when he got injured, and was in the weight room doing upper-body workouts by Christmas — about a month after his injury.
As a junior, Burke ran a 4.8 40-yard dash. When Lake Stevens opened up football practices Burke was clocked at 4.7.
“He’s faster and bigger than he was last year. He’s going to be a lot of fun to watch,” Tri said. “He transferred in sophomore year and has just been such a pleasant surprise, right from the get-go. From that point on, I think Sam’s missed maybe two or three workouts, and that includes the fact that he had to rehab a broken leg in the offseason.”
Burke and Lake Stevens are eager for another shot at Newport, which has ended the Vikings’ season each of the past two years.
“Absolutely,” Burke said. “I think about that every single night: playing Newport again.”
However, before the playoffs begin, Lake Stevens — currently ranked No. 2 in the Associated Press 4A prep football poll — has to navigate Wesco 4A and Friday’s non-conference game against top rival Marysville Pilchuck, which is ranked fifth in 3A.
Aside from Newport, the Tomahawks are the only team in the state to beat Lake Stevens in each of the past two seasons.
“The fact that they’re six miles away, it’s a rivalry,” Tri said. “They were our league rivals forever and ever and if they didn’t win the league championship it was us — or Snohomish. We recognize the fact that they’ve gotten us the last two years and we’re not looking past them at all. This is all about Marysville Pilchuck.
“It’s a neighborhood rivalry. It’s a backyard brawl.”
“I’ve never once beat Marysville,” Burke added. “That’s kind of on my bucket list.”
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