East Hamilton Quarterback Nick Woods Bouncing Back From Ugly Knee Injury

   Nick Woods earned the Hurricanes starting quarterback job last year as a sophomore. But he injured his knee in the first game against Signal Mountain.

"Once I got to the sideline that’s kind of when it hit me. I knew it was pretty bad because Megan tried to make me run, and my knee wouldn’t let me."

    Woods soon learned he was done for the year.

"It was a torn ACL, a torn MCL, and my meniscus."

Said head coach Ted Gatewood,"It’s one of those situations where it doesn’t just affect one person. It affects a lot people. The ripple affects that it had. We really had to struggle with those."

   Woods is also a standout baseball player, and despite his injury, he still managed to return last spring to play baseball.

Reporter-"How much do you think that he was able to come back and play baseball with that knee helped him maybe feel more confident coming into the season as a football player?"

Said Gatewood,"Well, I think he just got used to it. He was participating in something that was athletic, where he had to move and move around and do some things."

    Woods has already verbally committed to play baseball at Tennessee, but he still wanted to play high school football.

"Even with me talking with the Tennessee coaches when I committed, he (Dave Serrano) told me I’m a big football fan in general because he played in high school. He said he played over three sports and stuff like that, so he kind of encouraged me to play again."

   In his first game back on the gridiron, Woods threw for nearly 300-yards.

Said Gatewood,"Right at 300, yeah."

Reporter-"That’s not bad."

Chuckles Gatewood,"That’s pretty good on a comeback note. Sure is. He understands the game. He’s a very knowledgeable young man of the game itself, but also breaking down defenses. He understands where to put the ball for the throws. He’s a pretty heady, competitive kid."