Drake Morley had it going.

The senior wrestler was on a clear cut path to the state tournament until he suffered a horrible arm injury in the regional semifinals at Portage Northern in Kalamazoo.

Morley was carted into an ambulance and brought to the nearest hospital where he sat for four hours, waiting in anxiety for his diagnosis.

“My first thought when I felt the pain on the mat was is my arm ever going to be the same again,” Morley said.

Morley has found success in football and lacrosse, but wrestling has always been his passion and he shows that on the mat, putting up an astonishing 68-26 record while being a district champion last season and defeating a state medalist in only his sophomore season to secure a win against a Grand Haven wrestling foe, the Grandville Bulldogs in the 2014-2015 season.

“He is a leader,” Wrestling coach Vincent Gervais said. “He’s been a leader for the past couple years. He has been voted by his teammates as a captain both Junior year and Senior year”

That leadership is shown through his work ethic, which is second to none.

“When it’s go time, he’s one of the most competitive people in the room,” Gervais said. “He works his tail off. He does the right thing and I lean on Drake quite a bit.”

Morley was told he had suffered a dislocated elbow, and it would be several months until his elbow would be totally healed. Morley’s hopes and desires for making states was completely out of the picture.

“Once it kicked in that my season was over, I thought about all the hard work I put in towards making it to states and how badly I wanted to wrestle with my teammates who were headed to states,” Morley said.

It wasn’t just Morley who was devastated about not being able to go to states, it was also his teammates and Coach Gervais.

“Drake does all the right things,” Gervais said. “He had a pretty good shot at getting through and the fact that he wasn’t able to try and earn a spot in the state tournament made me disappointed for him.”

This injury did not cause Morley to quit, instead it pushed him to keep going.

“I was a little nervous after the doctor told me it could be 8-10 months before I would be healthy,” Morley said. “But I knew that if I took physical therapy seriously I could be back quicker than that,” Morley said.

Morley participated in I’move physical therapy as well as consistently visiting an elbow specialist in Holland, where multiple x-rays were taken.

His family was by Morley’s side all along through those tough times and pushed him to not give up.

“My mom has stayed positive from the day it happened and she kept me focused on getting back as soon as I could,” Morley said.

Drake’s teammates were also extremely supportive of Drake and showed great amounts of empathy and motivated him to push through physical therapy because they realize how much of an important asset Morley is for the team.

“A few of my teammates came to my house the day after the injury happened, to see how I was doing and they were always wondering how my elbow was doing, it really helped me stay positive knowing that I have teammates that care about me,” Morley said.

Morley kept his head up and made it through the grueling physical therapy and constant checkups with an elbow specialist and was able to make a complete comeback in 6 months. The doctors originally said it would take 8-10 months to make a complete comeback.

Drake is now in his Senior year and has just wrapped up his Varsity football season and has just started wrestling season where he uses his unfinished season as an incentive to work his absolute hardest.

“I keep the injury in the back of my head,” Morley said. “So every time I’m in the wrestling room and I’m not pushing myself as hard as I could be, I look back at my unfinished season and use it as fuel to push through the pain.”

Coach Gervais and everyone on the wrestling team is thrilled to have Morley back in business.

“It feels good to have him back on the team, being able to wrestle again,” Gervais said.

Morley is now happier than ever to be back in the wrestling room doing what he loves. This injury has left a mark on Morley and has changed the way he views how fortunate it is that he is healthy.

“My injury has made me grateful for my opportunities to play sports,” Morley said. “I realize any day could be my last.”