Encouraging signs for T.R. Miller’s Kenneth Lett after four-hour surgery

 

 

 

By JIMMY WIGFIELD

T.R. Miller’s Kenneth Lett underwent four hours of surgery for a broken neck Friday night after being injured on the opening kickoff against UMS-Wright and doctors are also assessing some spinal injuries, Tigers coach Brent Hubbert said Saturday.

However, Lett has shown some promising signs after the operation at University Hospital in Mobile.

“He has some feeling back and some movement in the upper extremities, which is positive right now,” Hubbert said after visiting Lett Saturday morning. “To my understanding from his mom, it is not a severed spinal cord, so that was also something that was positive.”

Lett, a 5-7, 140-pound sophomore, was injured while returning the opening kickoff of No. 1-ranked Class 3A Miller’s 28-14 win over the Bulldogs in Mobile. After an extended examination on the field, Lett’s head was immobilized with his helmet kept on. Both teams gathered next to the ambulance and prayed on the field before Lett was taken away to the hospital.

“Watching it on film, it was the right angle, right lick, right time or wrong time,” Hubbert said. “It was like the perfect storm.”

Lett asked Hubbert about the game when the coach visited him at the hospital Saturday.

“The things that we’ve heard and heard seen so far are definitely uplifting,” Hubbert said. “We were talking, he was asking about the game and he knew the score and he wanted to know some different things that happened and everything. He got to smiling and laughing about a couple of things, so that was good.”

Hubbert said he was told by Lett’s mother that it is too soon for doctors to determine if Lett will have paralysis.

“There’s nothing there, yes or no,” Hubbert said. “It’s going to be a long process. They work with the spinal injuries as they get to them.”

The players have maturely handled Lett’s injury, Hubbert said, because they endured the death of freshman teammate Lavarius Bell in a drowning in May 2022.

“They’ve taken it in stride,” Hubbert said. “This is not their first bit of adversity. They lost a brother and a teammate two or three years ago. They still do a lot for him. They carry his jersey to every game and things like that, so they’re a pretty tight-knit group.”

Tigers star running back Myles Johnson, who ran for 138 yards on 21 carries and a pair of touchdowns in the victory, said Lett’s injury is a sobering reminder of the game’s risks.

“That just lets us know that this game is not promised,” Johnson said. “And we’ve just gotta thank the Lord for letting us play this game. We’ve just gotta play it like it’s our last time. We realized that he went down and we’ve gotta step up. And that’s our brother. He would want us to go out and get the win for him.”