The measure of a man
The Daily Inter Lake
WHITEFISH - Jolly Righetti was in a familiar spot Saturday - Memorial Field for a Bulldogs football game.
Unfamiliar was how he got there (a golf cart), how he was getting around (crutches) and what he was wearing (street clothes).
For the first time in over two complete seasons, Righetti missed a start. And he'll miss all of the Bulldogs' games the rest of what is his senior year. Righetti underwent season-ending surgery on his right knee after he tore the anterior cruciate ligament last week at Corvallis.
"The play was an inside play and I took it outside and tried to cut in between two defenders and cut on my heel, twisted and planted and popped," he said.
"I kind of knew right when it happened - a big pop, my leg was in a lot of pain. Then my dad (Dr. Michael Righetti, an orthopedic specialist) came out and felt it and knew it was torn."
After the swelling subsided, Dr. Colin Sherrill operated on Righetti in Missoula on Wednesday.
"They took two 100-millimeter hamstring ligaments, removed my entire ACL, drilled into my femur and my tibia and made a new ACL out of my hamstring," he said. "They cut out some of the meniscus that was torn and repaired some of the smooth surface on my femur that was disrupted."
Righetti was back in Whitefish later that day. He now faces six to nine months of rehabilitation, meaning he won't be able to play hockey or ski in the winter, though he should be back to full strength around June.
One of the best running backs in the state, it's not really clear how this injury will impact collegiate interest in the 5-foot-9, 175-pound Righetti. College coaches are prohibited by the NCAA from talking to the media about potential recruits.
The same does not apply to potential recruits, however.
"I've talked to Missoula a couple of times since the injury, and they still seem pretty positive," said Righetti of the Montana Grizzlies. "I might have to walk-on instead of receiving a scholarship like I'd hoped.
"But you can always walk-on and then receive a scholarship. Maybe they'll reserve a place on their team anyway. They have plenty of players on that team that have received ACL surgery.
"They had a starting linebacker who had knee surgery in high school, Loren Utterback, and he's starting for them this year as a (redshirt) freshman, so I'm not worried about it.
"They've seen what I can do as a junior and they saw what I did my first two games, so hopefully that will speak for itself."
While Righetti's knee may be on its way to healing, perhaps ending up stronger than ever, emotionally it's another story.
As has been written before, Righetti started the football season still struggling with the death of his best friend over the summer.
He said part of what motivated him to play was honoring the memory of his friend.
And now this.
"I was devastated, about as low as you can go," said Righetti of the injury. "It's hard. I'm down. I've been kicked around.
"It's hard not to sit around and pout and whine, but sitting around and whining is not going to make my leg any better.
"You've got to move on."
It is easy, lamentably so at the high school level, for fans and the media to think of athletes in the abstract, as merely a running back or a point guard or a pitcher.
But they are all just kids, young men and women moving quickly toward adulthood, faster than you or I ever did. To heap this kind of adversity in such a short time on someone so young is simply unfair.
Whitefish coach Mike Ferda had a great quote earlier in the week: "Adversity doesn't build character, it reveals it."
And that's why Jolly Righetti was on the Whitefish sidelines yesterday, performing his duties as co-captain during the coin toss, shouting encouragement and offering tips to his Bulldog teammates just three days after surgery (with two rehab sessions in between).
"I knew it was important for my team to see me out here," he said.
"My knee will be stronger than it was before the surgery. That's my commitment to myself."
We should all have so much character.
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This week's top 10 (down to two after eight items were ejected after an ugly brawl; no word yet on their eligibility for next week):
2. Mistaken identity. While walking the sidelines at the Havre-Whitefish game Saturday, a few Bulldog students started calling me "Michael Moore."
Now is that because I'm sometimes an opinionated rabble-rouser or because I'm a fat guy with a beard and glasses who was wearing a baseball cap at the time?
On second thought, I don't want to know the answer.
1. College football craziness. Notre Dame loses to BYU then trips up Michigan. Oregon State blows it at LSU then gets blown out by BSU. Miami-Florida State turns on a missed field goal (natch). And Rutgers (Rutgers!) beats a Big 10 team.
After only two full weeks it's already been a wacky and memorable college season, to say nothing of the goings on of the Montana schools. Life is good.
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Andrew Hinkelman is a sports writer for The Daily Inter Lake. He can be reached at hink@dailyinterlake.com