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Witt twins long comeback ends in season opener
Their mom says they're not your average twins.
More: Witt twins return from ACL tears
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Every football player who experiences an ACL tear will tell you he has to take one big hit — one crushing blow at the end of which he rises from the turf — before he feels comfortable on the field again.
The same goes for a dad watching from the stands.
Desmond Braziel
Derrick Braziel
Cornerback Desmond Braziel (right) gets pumped up with Wittenberg University teammate Manny Rodriguez before the Saturday, Sept. 1, game against Capital University at Edwards-Maurer Field.
Derrick Braziel (13) of Wittenberg University is tackled by Zac McKenzie (99) of Capital University during the Sept. 1, game at Edwards-Maurer Field. Staff Photo by Barbara J. PerenicHis anterior cruciate ligament won't be tested. He won't feel the pain. But when he sees his son get hit in that first game after a major knee injury, he will wince and he will wonder, "Is my son all right?"
When it's two sons — two right knees torn up and pieced together again — coming back in the same game, imagine the tension.
That's what Dennis Braziel, father of Wittenberg senior starters Derrick and Desmond Braziel, experienced in the Tigers' season opener against Capital University on Sept. 1.
"I was thrilled, excited, ecstatic, but I had butterflies," Dennis said. "I was hoping they would get up on every play."
'Truly devastated'
Before you hear about what happened to the Braziel twins, let Wittenberg head coach Joe Fincham tell you a little bit about them.
"They are not verbally challenged. You never wonder what their feelings are, because they're always going to tell you," Fincham said. "They're great upbeat people. They bring energy to our huddles and our football team, and we're lucky to have them."
Though maybe a little biased, naturally, their mom, Denise Braziel, would agree.
"They have been blessed from the day of birth," she said. "They aren't your average twins."
Derrick, a tailback, and Desmond, a cornerback, didn't have to both blow out their knees 34 days apart last year to prove that, but that's what happened.
Derrick tore his right ACL on Aug. 23, 2006, in a preseason scrimmage. His brother was the first one to get to him.
"What happened, what happened?" Desmond asked.
"I don't know," Derrick said.
But he did know. He knew it was his ACL. He just needed confirmation.
"When I first heard that Derrick tore his, I was truly devastated," Denise said. "I knew how much he loved the game. I didn't think he was prepared to actually have to stop and really reflect on the fact that he wouldn't be playing."
It got worse. Desmond continued to play in that scrimmage and kept playing as the season progressed, never once thinking the same thing could happen to him. It was too weird, he said. There was no chance it could happen to him since it happened to Derrick.
But it did happen. In practice Sept. 26, Desmond tore his right ACL.
Wittenberg's head trainer Ellen Crosbie thought Desmond was joking when she first saw him, but she tested him and immediately called Dr. Tim Kremchek, Wittenberg's orthopedic surgeon.
"I remember saying, 'You won't believe this, but I think his twin just tore his ACL," Crosbie said. "When Doc called me up after he saw him, he was like, 'All right, here we go, round two.' It was pretty unbelievable."
"Once I was able to get beyond the shock," Dennis said, "I told them this was carrying the twins thing a little bit too far."
"If it had to happen," Desmond said, "that was the best time for it to happen, so we could go through it together."
'Eye of the Tiger'
Kremchek had never seen anything like it: Twin brothers tearing their ACLs a little more than a month apart.
"You've got to be kidding me," he said.
While Kremchek is better known as the Cincinnati Reds Medical Director, he is also a Wittenberg graduate. He performed both knee surgeries on the Braziel brothers.
"The first one who came in (Derrick) was devastated," Kremchek said. "Obviously, a young kid tears his ACL, and he's got tears in his eyes, but then he snapped out of it. ... He was very assured he was going to get over it."
When Desmond came in for his surgery — Denise watched both operations from a window outside the operating room — he had the "eye of the tiger," Kremchek said.
"There was no doubt in either one of their minds that they were going to start this year," Kremchek said. "This was just a bump in the road."
'100 percent'
Four days before the 13-0 loss to Capital, sitting on a bench at Edwards-Maurer Field not far from where both injuries occurred, the twins declared themselves ready to go.
The long rehab — the leg raises, the Shirley Temple knee bends, the leg presses, the balancing exercises, the calf, ankle and thigh work — was over.
"I'm 100 percent," Derrick said.
"One hundred and 10," Desmond said.
The twins had extra incentive to get back on the field. Their dad, a Wittenberg grad, hadn't seen them play together since high school in Springfield, Va., and he would be in attendance.
The Braziels started their careers at the University of Findlay, but Derrick came to Wittenberg after one season there, and Desmond followed a year later in 2006.
Both have big roles to play this season — Derrick as the replacement for one of Wittenberg's all-time great running backs, Tristan Murray, and Desmond as a veteran starter in a secondary full of new faces.
Against Capital, they got to embrace those roles and were reunited on the field at last..
"One thing that I have that other kids don't have is I get the opportunity every day to watch my brother play football," Desmond said. "That is something that is very special that I can always take with me."
Rejoining their Tiger teammates also motivated the brothers.
"I feel honored to be able to go back on the field with those guys," Desmond said, "just because of how they treated Derrick and I as transfers, as injured guys."
Both twins looked strong in the opener. Derrick rushed 17 times for 50 yards, and Desmond had three tackles, including one for a loss.
The game went beyond stats for the twins and all who helped them get there.
"There's no greater satisfying feeling in the field of medicine today than to watch one of your athletes come back from a significant injury," Kremchek said. "That's the reason we do this."
"I'd forgotten how fast the game was," Derrick said. "Just being out there and feeling 11 guys trying to be one again, I realized how much I love playing and how much I love being around the guys."
"We probably hugged each other about five times before the game even started," Desmond said. "We were so happy to be finally out there together. We feel like this is exactly where we're supposed to be."
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0351 or by e-mail at djablonski@coxohio.com.
