Visit With Hoover

During the opening kickoff on Saturday, newly elected Back line selector and rugby transvestite (a forward who plays in the back line or vice versa), Paul Hoover went down with a serious neck injury while making a tackle. Thankfully our fly-half on Saturday (Jake) is a doctor in training and one of Rappahannock's Old Boys is an EMT, so they were able to keep him stable and calm while we waited for Stafford County Fire & Rescue to arrive.

Without knowing how serious Hoover's condition was, play resumed with a slight pall over the field. West Potomac honored Hoover by winning a back and forth shoot-out 45-33.

The next day we got the bad news: Hoover's spinal cord was injured by herniated discs at C4-5 and C5-6, a vertebral fracture, and ligament damage. When I spoke to Hoover at the hospital today he said the MRI revealed that he has a congenitally narrow spinal column and should not have been playing contact sports. He said the doctor told him that it was wonder something like this hadn't happened sooner.

Hoover's parents are now in town and providing him with as much comfort and assistance as they can.




He's in pretty good spirits considering the circumstances but he is thoroughly enjoying his morphine drip.





Hoover's mom has created a web page for him, you can check it out here. Hoover is concerned that the guest book is getting a little too sappy, so he requests that you all go there and spice it a little bit.