A year ago, Dane Solomon was playing safety when he got caught up in a pile of players after a tackle against Crosby. The pain in the right knee set in immediately after the play, but the panic was delayed.
Initially, Dane said the athletic trainers told him he likely suffered a hamstring injury and he’d need a week or two to recover.
But after the pain continued for four days, they recommended Dane get an MRI done.
“When we found out that it was a torn ACL, he literally cried,” said his father Wes Solomon, who is the principal at Kingwood Park. “He cried for two reasons: one, football, but he was really upset that he wasn’t going to get to play basketball either.”
For Dane, his dad’s calmness helped him get through the toughest days of his injury.
“He kind of kept my head on straight,” Dane said. “He told me it’s gonna be a long journey, but like you gotta get through it.”
That first month was a struggle for both father and son. For the first time in years, Dane was coming home every day after school instead of heading to a game or practice.
“Being isolated, being away from his team, being away from doing things that he loved, as a dad it killed me watching him go through that,” the elder Solomon said.
Last Nov. 21, almost a month after tearing his ACL, Dane had surgery. Almost immediately, his motivation returned and he was determined to get healthy so he could play the sports he loved.
From November until late July, Dane went through rehab two or three days a week.
“The rehab process was phenomenal but also grueling,” Wes Solomon said.
Dane missed his entire junior basketball season and the spring seven-on-seven football.
At the end of July, he was cleared to return to sports.
“It was a little bit nerve-wracking,” Dane said. “But I kind of am not really scared of getting hurt. Injuries happen.”
Dane was just happy to be back on the field, and so were his coaches. In the season opener, he caught four catches and scored a touchdown.
“The biggest moment for me was just seeing him come back and have such a huge game his first game after a serious injury,” wide receivers coach David Feliciano said.
Dane has made the most of his opportunities. He leads the team in receptions, yards and touchdowns. But his contributions are not all seen on the stat line.
“He’s first and foremost a tremendous leader,” football coach Clayton Maple said of Dane. “What he does off the field in the locker room as a leader is just indescribable, and I’m so appreciative of that. Then on the field, obviously he just leads by example with the way he practices, the way he works, the way he is there for other players.”
As the one year mark approaches for when Solomon had surgery, the senior who plans to attend Texas A&M to major in construction science said he has definitely changed. In the eight months without sports, Dane put his energy toward being a key member of the architecture’s Tiny Home program as well as a job as a car washer at Shiner’s.
“I always thought that I was just a football player, a basketball player, but I noticed that I had more of an identity other than just sports,” Solomon said.
And through it all, the love he had for sports never diminished. Solomon’s dad was proud as he watched his son fight to return to his teams.
“He went through all the trials and tribulations,” Wes Solomon said. “He’s back doing what he loves. … I was nervous that he would just say, ‘I’m not going to play football anymore. I’m not going to play basketball anymore because it’s just not worth it.’ He never said that. He just kept day by day getting better, better, better.”
