Benton recovers from gruesome knee injury
BY JASMAINE SUMPTER, Senior
BLYTHEWOOD-- On the night of the friday game against Ridge View. Senior Timel Benton, goes to catch the ball, while catching the ball he was tackled which resulted in tearing his ACL, MCL, and meniscus.
“This was the worst pain in my life, it felt like I died on the field” Benton stated.
Timel has been the wide receiver for the Blythewood varsity team and has played since his freshman year, and his injury set him back from playing his best his senior year.
Because of his injury, Benton had to sit out majority of his junior year and the beginning of his senior year. Even though he could not play football he attended rehab and still did upper body workouts to maintain his strength.
“Rehab made me trust my knee more and helped me gain mobility back” Benton said.
The first week after surgery he could not do anything for himself, he sat on the couch and ate, he gained about 15 pounds. After realizing he was not going to be back in time for the next season if all he did was sit on the couch, he started taking rehab more serious, and did timid workouts for his knee.
“My biggest obstacle I had to overcome was getting up and being productive and pushing through the pain to achieve my goals,” said Benton. It wasn't easy but with the support of my team and my family, my recovery process started to get easier and there was hope for me to return to football earlier than expected.”
Another obstacle Benton had to overcome was having contact on his knee. He had not been hit on his legs since his injury on August 29, 2014. After having a second minor surgery in July, his first major contact didn’t come until exactly one year later against the same team he was injured against.
After weeks of Rehab and personal workouts with a trainer, Benton returned back to football but was advised to take it easy, because he could possibly retear his ligaments. His first practice back Benton went hardcore during practice.
“When I returned to practice they had to keep up with me,”Timel stated. The first game I played my senior year was emotional because I waited eight months to play again and I went through a lot to be able to play again and God helped me through it all.”
Even though he was cleared to play again, the most challenging thing about coming back was trusting his knee again such as putting full pressure on it and being able to take hits. Through various cycles of intense workouts he gained his confidence back.
Timel’s brother Kenny Benton, who also plays varsity football as a wide receiver described his recovery process as nothing but easy. He did a lot of rehab which often wore him out but he never wanted to quit.
Timel was going to rehab everyday at Moore Orthopedic, going to conditioning football at Peak Performance and doing simple exercises at home. “At times I would join him to support and motivate him,” Kenny said.
Kenny and Timel played alongside in football ever since they were little and when timel got hurt Kenny took it hard because he would miss playing with his brother. He knew he had to work twice as hard to represent for him.
Timel’s dad Robert Benton was devastated by his sons injury because the family is so close. Robert supported him every step of his recovery process.
“I simply encouraged him and reassured him he could do it especially on those days when it seemed like he wasn’t getting better,” Robert said.
From his dad's point of view what impacted Timel the most was physically not being able to be with his teammates and contribute to the team. It hurt him a lot. Not being able to walk, not being able to go up and down stairs, and not being able to be around classmates and friends really got to him at times.
Robert described his son recovery process as grueling, there were many days he fought back tears because of the pain. There were many days he was discouraged when he saw teammates with similar injuries doing more than he could when he was the first one injured, but he stuck with it. He had to ice his knee everyday to keep the swelling down and he still attends rehab to this day.
“Seeing Timel play again was the happiest and most nerve wrecking moments of my life,” Robert said. Although he didn't play that much because he was just cleared he played life as if nothing happened.
“I was proud he overcame all the obstacles and took the field again and I'm just honored to be his dad,” Robert Benton stated.
