A broken neck didn’t stop him. Providence’s John Balas is a study in courage and overcoming
Two years ago, they put Providence High linebacker John Balas on a stretcher, and he laid on his back and watched the world go by.
His team was playing West Mecklenburg and all he could think about, beyond the aching pain in his broken neck or the sweat running into his eyes, was that he wanted to get on the field and play. He wanted to help his team win.
Funny how things can change so fast.
“They had a running back, he was good, and he broke through the line,” said Balas, the first winner of The Charlotte Observer’s Courage Award. “I dove at his leg and then I couldn’t move.”
His left arm went numb.
“I was thinking, ‘Somebody pick me up,’ ” Balas said. “I’m glad they didn’t though.”
Later at the hospital, the doctors gave Balas, then a sophomore, the really bad news.
“I rode in the ambulance,” he said “and I just mostly wanted to get back in the game because I wanted to win. I wasn’t really worried about my career until we got to (the hospital) and the (doctor) looked at it and said, ‘You’re done for the season,’ and I was pretty sad about that. They said I fractured some vertebrae in my neck,” he said. “And I was like, ‘Crap.’ ”
Providence coach Wes Ward wasn’t sure if Balas would play again. The school made him an honorary captain later in the season. Balas walked out to midfield wearing a big neck brace.
“It was really devastating,” Ward said. “At that time, even as a sophomore, he was our best defensive player on the field.”
Balas wore that neck brace for eight weeks and was out of sports from September 2019 to February 2020. But when he got the brace off and started lifting weights, Balas said he began to feel stronger, began to get his confidence back.
“The doctors said there was an increased risk of something like this happening again, but that’s what I’ve been doing my whole life,” Balas said. “Of course, I want to come back. I had all that time to lift. We have a rack and dumbbells in the garage (at home). I was lifting and getting back because that’s my sport.”
Even if Balas was sure, the Providence coaches weren’t quite as certain. And Providence baseball coach Danny Hignight was particularly touched by Balas’ journey. He thought maybe a noncontact sport like baseball might scratch Balas’ competitive itch.
“He had played baseball and football in middle school,” Hignight said, “and the injury he had could be career-ending, and you worry about his well-being and if he’s going to be OK. ... I mean, how does the world turn for a 15-year-old when what you love is taken from you?”
Balas played junior varsity baseball with Hignight in a season that was cut short due the pandemic, but not before Hignight — a two-time state champion whose teams are almost always nationally ranked — determined that Balas had enough baseball talent to eventually be a Division I player.
And when the football season was moved from the fall of 2020 until the spring of 2021, again due the pandemic, Balas had more time to train, get stronger, grow his confidence.
Finally, his doctors agreed to let him play.
“I knew I could come back once I got my brace off,” Balas said. “I remember going back for a follow-up (with his doctor) to see if I was cleared to play and we had that conversation, and he said, ‘You’re more at risk, but you’re good if you want to.’ After that, I was like, ‘Heck yeah, let’s do it.’ ”
So Balas played two seasons with the Panthers — in the spring of 2021 and again in the fall of 2021. He was named all-conference last fall, developing into one of the better linebackers in the region.
“It’s big to come back from that,” Ward, the Providence football coach, said. “It just takes huge amounts of courage, man, to be able to put yourself back out there and play at his level. If you watch the film and see what kind of player he is, he’s not a soft-mentality guy, waiting to get in the mix. He’s in your face, physical, coming downhill. It’s just amazing to me.”
Balas received several Division I offers and committed to play at Air Force, until a medical issue blocked his entry. His injury had not healed completely and unfortunately never would. When Balas posted on Twitter that he was reopening his recruitment, coaches from Georgia Tech offered him a preferred walk-on. That would get him into the prestigious academic university, which is difficult even for a 4.0 student like Balas, though he would have to pay his own way.
Balas accepted the offer. He planned to work his way toward a scholarship while continuing to play the game he loved so much, the one he wanted to get back to as he laid on that stretcher several years ago.
But he wasn’t cleared to play at Georgia Tech, either.
“I’m here forever,” Balas said from Atlanta last week. “I had to visit their spine specialist to get to play here, but the bones did not fuse all the way, so I can’t. I was pissed for awhile, I’m not going to lie, but I’m here and I’m going to stay here and make the best of it and see what I can do. ... It (stinks), but (football) got me here. I’m not too (upset).”
