DOVER-FOXCROFT, Maine — It’s unlikely injured Foxcroft Academy football star Hunter Smith will be able to return to the gridiron for the Ponies this fall.
Smith, a senior quarterback, safety and captain for coach Danny White’s club who is being recruited as a wide receiver at the Division I collegiate level, dislocated his left hip while making a tackle during a preseason game at Orono last Friday evening.
The hip subsequently was reset at Eastern Maine Medical in Bangor that night, and while no additional damage was found, Smith initially was prescribed to wear a knee immobilizer and walk on crutches for the next two weeks.
But a follow-up visit to Dr. Kenneth Morse of DownEast Orthopedics in Bangor on Monday determined that his rehabilitation process will extend beyond the current high school football season, according to Smith’s mother, Laurie.
“Unfortunately things aren’t looking good for him to play this season at FA,” she said. “However, Hunter wants to play football collegiately, so he needs to follow the doctor’s orders and make sure this heals completely.
“Lucky for him, he still has many football games to play,” she said.
While dislocated shoulders are a fairly common football injury, hip dislocations while playing football are rare.
Laurie Smith said Morse, also the team physician for the University of Maine, consulted several colleagues who work with National Football League teams, and the resulting recommendation begins with Smith having six weeks with no weight-bearing on his left foot in an effort to minimize damage to the head of the femur, which locks into the hip socket.
A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan then will be conducted to evaluate the integrity of the femur, and if the results are positive, Smith could begin to bear weight on his left leg and undergo physical therapy to rehabilitate his hip joint.
Smith also faces the risk of necrosis in his hip because of the lack of blood flow during the dislocation, but because Smith’s hip was reset quickly — within one to two hours after the injury was suffered — it is believed that risk was minimized.
Whether Smith’s next football game will be at college or in the Blue-Grey North-South All-American Bowl, a prestigious high school all-star showcase scheduled for Jan. 9, 2016, at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, remains to be seen.
Smith was among 200 incoming seniors — many of whom already have made verbal commitments to play at major Division I college football programs — recently selected to play in one of two scheduled All-American Bowl games from a pool of 6,570 invited players who participated in a Blue-Grey regional or super combine earlier this year.
Smith was named to the 50-player North squad that will face off against the South in a nationally televised contest that begins at 8 p.m. Jan. 9. The East-West game will be played Dec. 20 at AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys.
Smith was chosen for the All-American Bowl based on his performance among 50 players invited to participate earlier this year at the All-American Bowl’s Mid-Atlantic Super Combine in Richmond, Virginia. He posted the fastest time in the shuttle run, had the third-best performance in the broad jump and ran what at the time was a personal-best time of 4.68 seconds in the 40-yard dash.
Smith, whose father Dean starred in basketball at Foxcroft Academy and the University of Maine, also is the reigning Big East Conference player of the year in that sport and this spring was the Class C outdoor track and field state champion in the 110 hurdles (15.62 seconds) and high jump (6 feet, 4 inches).
He is considered one of the top football prospects in the state’s Class of 2016, and his early Division I connections have included Maine, New Hampshire, Dartmouth and Harvard.
