Neck injury ends safety Michael Cole’s football career
Michael Cole’s football playing days are over.
The rising sophomore Hokies safety from Cave Spring High in Roanoke, who had to be immobilized and taken to a hospital after suffering a scary neck injury in the Florida State game last November, has been advised by Virginia Tech doctors not to continue his football career, the school announced Thursday.
Cole will retire from football but remain an active part of the team on the sidelines.
“I would just like to thank coach [Frank] Beamer, coach [Bryan] Stinespring — who recruited me — and all of the coaches in making my dreams come true,” Cole said in a release from the school. “It truly has been an honor and a blessing to be led by such a highly respected group of people.
“I would also like to thank my friends and family back home and the entire Hokie Nation, which has supported me throughout my career. It pains me that I will never be able to put the pads on again for this prestigious program and university, but in spite of all this, I will forever be a Hokie.”
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Per NCAA rules, Cole qualifies for a medical disqualification and will remain on scholarship, although it does not count toward Tech’s limit of 85.
“I am disappointed that Michael Cole will no longer be playing football at Virginia Tech,” Beamer said in the release. “Good players with great character are hard to replace. I believe Michael has a great future no matter what road he decides to take.”
Cole, who turns 20 a week from Friday, was diagnosed with a cervical neck sprain during the Florida State game and did not return to the field the rest of the season. After consulting with Virginia Tech’s medical team, it was decided that surgery would give him only a minimal chance of playing football again and was a route not worth pursuing.
“The doctor basically said that the only way he would let him go back and even consider playing was to do a two-level discectomy and fusion, basically take the discs out and fuse the vertebrae,” Cole’s father, Jim Cole, said. “And that’s not done very often. They’ve done some in the NFL for one level, but two-level is almost unheard of.
“And even then, he wouldn’t know if he could do anything for about six months and it was all healed and it was fused together to see if it would even work properly. … In his situation, they just said that the risk too great, particularly for a guy that young.”
His absence is another blow for a secondary that’s been hit by injuries the last few months. Cornerback Antone Exum is out six to nine months after tearing his ACL playing pickup basketball last month. He had surgery last week.
With the Hokies light on cornerbacks last season, Cole played a significant number of snaps in the team’s nickel package. He played in 10 games, starting four, and had 43 tackles, two interceptions and a fumble recovery. He was an honorable mention Freshman All-American by CFN.com.
His season was cut short during the Thursday night game in Blacksburg against Florida State, however.
Cole stayed down at the end of a play in the third quarter, lying motionless as team trainers rushed onto the field. He was immobilized on a spine board but never lost consciousness, taken to LewisGale Hospital Montgomery, where a CT scan revealed no neck fracture. He was released from the hospital that night.
Jim Cole said Michael underwent surgery earlier this month to treat some of the symptoms from the injury — shoulder and neck pain, plus some reduced strength in his right arm. He said the successful procedure cleaned out part of the vertebrae to make more room for nerve bundles. Michael has since resumed weight lifting.
“He’ll be able to do basically everything except play contact sports,” Jim Cole said. “But anything else, it’s not going to be a problem.”
February 14, 2013 - 4:03 PM
All the best to Michael Cole. I am sure he is very sad to not play again, but kudos to him and his family in realizing that risking further injury that could lead to worse injury is not worth the risk in pursuing the game he loves.
I hope someday he become a coach. He is a hardworking kid.
His butt-on-the-turf interception against Clemson will always be in Hokies’ lore.
What an untimely end to this young man’s playing career. Best of luck to him.
Even as someone that can’t stand Tech, I feel for this guy. Hard worker, seems like a high character guy and to see his career end before it really got started is horrible best of luck to him in the future.
best of luck to that young man !!!
While I hate to hear this news, I am glad to hear that this young man is able to remain on scholarship.
To chime in with others, I’m glad the injury was not worse than it was. Those were some scary moments when he was down on the field. All the best to him in his future endeavors. He was blessed to be able to do what many can’t, play DI football at the highest level. He can always hang his hat on that!
Thank you Michael Cole for your contributions to the Hokies program, and I wish you Godspeed! If you ever decide to go into coaching, I hope you can start at VA Tech!
Michael is a class guy, and one who will be successful in whatever he tries.
This is sad, but not a tragedy. It’s scary, however, how close this did come to tragedy.
Really thought this kid was going to be the next Cody Grimm. He had so much promise, but there is life after football.
Glad you are healthy young man and best pursuits down the road to you and yours.
Blessings and peace to you Michael. You are obviously I man of great strength and character. I wish you the best!
Much more to life than football Michael and you have lots to offer. Best of luck!!
Having had single level surgery I can tell you it’s no simple procedure, even though I was blessed with a full recovery. Best of luck to this young man, may he continue to contribute to the program.
I met Cole after a Cave Spring game during my one season of covering high school football games. Some high school studs act like they are doing you a favor by talking to you after a game. Not this kid. He was modest, candid and basically as down-to-earth as they come. I had a feeling then that he was destined to do good things, and not just in football. I hate to see his playing career end like this because he was fun to watch, but he’s got a bright future.
This guy really had good potential to be great. I am disappointed to see that he has o retire at such an early age. I to am glad that he still gets to contribute to the team even though not actually on the field. He can definitely show the younger upcoming Safeties whats its like to work hard and leave it all on the field. Best of luck to Michael Cole.
Best of luck Mike Cole! You have inspired many by making the right choices with your life. I’m sure you will miss football but the larger game of Life has you as a winner. Thanks and God Bless!