Leyden’s injury ends playing days at IMS

Everyone knows their high school career is going to come to an end at some point.

For Iowa Mennonite School's starting shortstop and pitcher Trevor Leyden, the end came sooner than he planned when he was injured playing baseball.

'It is so crazy to end it this way because I haven't been injured my whole high school career,” Leyden said. 'It is kind of weird to end it on that.”

Playing shortstop during the third inning of the first game of the postseasonJuly 13, Leyden tried to reach a ball hit up the middle.

'I hurt it when I dove for the ball and landed on my right hip,” Leyden said. 'It was kind of an awkward landing. I felt something when I got up. It didn't feel right. I just wanted to get to the dugout. I knew there was two outs so I just tried to walk it off. The next play was a ground ball to me. I felt pain when I planted to throw and my hip just gave out.”

Leyden stayed on the field until an ambulance came and took him to University Hospitals in Iowa City.

Leyden is now on crutches with an avulsion fracture of the pelvis.

An avulsion fracture is an injury to the bone in a location where a tendon or ligament attaches to the bone. When an avulsion fracture occurs, the tendon or ligament pulls off a piece of the bone.

'That chipped bone will just be floating in my body forever,” Leyden said. 'They said it wouldn't hurt me and it would be fine to leave it in there.”

As Leyden lay on the field, his mother Andrea, who is a nurse at Washington County Hospital, and New London coach Brad Helmerson, who is an EMT, came out to check on him as did Iowa Mennonite coach Danny Herschberger.

'They told me a hip injury can be pretty serious, so they didn't want me to try to get up,” Leyden said. 'I tried to get up and say that I could walk off the field and everyone was like ‘no, no, no.' It was kind of scary to just lay there and not know if I could ever play anymore and be able to help my team out. My coach came out and tried to joke around with me to keep my mind off of things.”

Eventually an ambulance arrived at the field. he was given pain medication in an IV, but the waiting continued when he got to the hospital.

'I just lay there for a while because it was pretty busy,” Leyden said. 'They sent me for X-rays and then lay around for a longer while. (IMS athletic director) Dwight (Gingerich) and my parents came up and visited with me.”

Eventually the doctor came out with the diagnosis, and it was delivered in the traditional way.

'The hospital came in and said, ‘the good news is it is not broken, but the bad news is a bone chipped off of (my) pelvis and then the muscle tore away.' He said no surgery, which is good, but I just have to rest and do some physical therapy to strengthen it.”

The estimate is it will be six weeks to heal and he should be able to walk by the time he goes to the University of Iowa this fall.

He had no plans to continue his athletic career at the next level.

Not that he was a hockey player, but he won't be executing a hip check on anyone for awhile.