Once-injured Los Fresnos lineman back better than ever

By CHRIS COBB
The Brownsville Herald

Even Mario Benavides isn’t invincible.

Imposingly massive, the 6-foot-4, 260 pound Los Fresnos junior, is one of the most intimidating offensive lineman in the Rio Grande Valley.

“He’s nasty when he’s on the football field,” said Los Fresnos coach Scott Ford. “He’s just a dominating kid.”

But even the nastiest players have bones that can break, and way before Los Fresnos was getting ready for Friday’s playoff game against La Joya, Benavides was wondering how long it would be before he could walk and eventually play football again.

Oddly enough, it all happened on what was a great night for him and his teammates.

It was an electric Bobby Lackey Stadium in Weslaco, and while the rest of the Falcons were celebrating a 44-41 double-overtime win over the Panthers in last year’s bi-district playoffs, Benavides should have been at the hospital.

“The ride home from Weslaco was one of the worst things I’ve ever experienced,” said Benavides, then the only sophomore playing on the varsity. “At the same time, it was ironic because we just won. I was so happy.”

A painfully cheerful Benavides rode the bus home with a fibula that had completely snapped. A Weslaco linebacker had fallen on it in overtime to cause the break, tearing nearly every ligament in his ankle and chipping a few bones.

Although fairly sure it was broken, it wasn’t until after the bus ride and a long night at home spent fighting off pain that he finally went to the hospital. That morning doctors confirmed the break, recommended the necessary major surgery and basically told him it would be a long road back.

“It was really depressing, but the thing is, I didn’t think once about quitting,” Benavides said.

He would spend the next five months on crutches, doing everything he could to try and keep in shape. First, mostly upper body stuff and after nagging doctors to let him work harder, he eventually started riding exercise bikes, even while still unable to walk without crutches.

After suffering the fracture in November, Benavides was able to get up and around and do some jogging by April. That’s when the real work started.

“I felt like I had a lot of catching up to do,” Benavides said. “Considering I’d missed so much time, I figured all these guys in the Valley are working out hard every day, and I’m just sitting here, but I did whatever I could.”

Whatever he could meant spending the entire summer in the weight room. Ford said the inactivity from five months in crutches had trimmed 30 pounds off of him, and by the time the preseason rolled around, he had gained almost all of it back and was looking like the Benavides of old.

His return to form didn’t really surprise his coach or his teammates.

“He was determined,” said Falcons’ quarterback Jeremy Springer. “There was no doubt in my head that he was going to come back and be as strong as he was last year or even stronger.”

Fully recovered, Benavides hit the field this year playing as well as ever, maybe even a little better.

“The doctor told me I might not be the same or feel a little slow because of my ankle,” Benavides said. “I’m faster now and stronger and bigger.”

Then two weeks ago, he returned to Bobby Lackey for another epic game against Weslaco. It had taken a great deal of effort, pain and sacrifice to get back there, and when it finally arrived, he was brutally dehydrated and fighting off nausea.

“I was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’” said Benavides, but he wasn’t about to let it slow him down. “I played through it, and I ended up having one of my best games. It was the greatest feeling in the world when we won, especially to be at that same place.”

The Falcons are now undefeated at 11-0, and Benavides has been mauling opposing defensive linemen with the potentially crippling injury well behind him.

“I don’t think about the injury,” Benavides said. “I don’t hesitate when go to hit somebody. It just went away.”

The only thing that might be a little unnerving is now when an opponent gets frustrated after a long night of getting pummeled, he goes for the legs. While no one in football player appreciates dirty play, Benavides of all people knows how hard it can be to recover.

“They try to hurt us,” Benavides said. “To me, I know it’s football, but it gets to the point where you have to look out for the safety of the players. I just want to win. I don’t want to hurt somebody. I don’t want anyone to experience what I went through.”

ccobb@brownsvilleherald.com

Posted on Nov 23, 06 | 12:00 am |