Cody Cliett and Stephen Sykes don’t regard injuries as obstacles that knock them off course.
Instead, the Caledonia High School senior linemen have used setbacks they have suffered in their careers as motivation to help them arrive at their destinations of choice.
Those landing spots became official Wednesday, as Cliett and Sykes signed National Letters of Intent to continue their football careers at East Mississippi Community College and Holmes C.C., respectively.
Cliett and Sykes played integral roles in a season to remember. Buoyed by strong play on the offensive and defensive lines and a breakout season by senior running back Brandon Henry, Caledonia (6-6) returned to the playoffs for the first time since 2005.
Caledonia coach Andy Crotwell said Cliett and Sykes are “gifted football players and outstanding young men.” He said both players worked hard to recover from injuries to be a constant source of encouragement and a source of strength for their teammates.
“I expect big things from both of them,” Crotwell said. “They are two guys that don’t miss practice and show up every day and work their rear ends off.”
Cliett suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament and a broken femur in Caledonia’s season-opening game against Heritage Academy on Aug. 22, 2013. A year ago, Cliett said he was in a wheelchair as he battled through a nine-month recovery process. He said he is humbled by the fact that any team, let alone the back-to-back National Junior College Athletic Association national champion East Mississippi Community College Lions, would make his wishes come true and give him a chance to play football in college.
“Everybody was telling me, ‘Watch what you eat because you’re not going to be active for a long time,’ ” Cliett said. “I did that and didn’t put on an extra weight. I think that was a big thing. But I couldn’t have done any of that without the support and positive attitudes of my family and friends coming to see me every day in the hospital and when I was laid up on the couch.”
Cliett, a 6-foot-2, 295 pounder, admitted there were days when he wondered if it was worth it and he didn’t feel like going to rehabilitation. He said he is glad God gave him the strength so he wasn’t, like he said, “one of the old men at the coffee shop who wishes he would have played football again.”
Crotwell said Cliett isn’t a player who wonders “what if.” He said he — like Sykes — is a leader who sets the tone on and off the field.
“I think (the fact he came back from the injury) shows he is incredibly resilient and he is incredibly dedicated,” Crotwell said. “It would have been easy for himself to mire himself it pity. He didn’t look at it that way.”
Sykes suffered a knee injury after his sophomore year. While Crotwell said the injury might not have been as severe as Cliett’s, he said Sykes’ level of dedication is high, as evidenced by the fact he added 100 pounds to his squat from his junior year to his season year. He said Sykes had a lot of “catching up to do,” and he did that by being one of the team’s hardest workers in the weight room.
“He was constantly pushing himself and the others in his lifting group,” Crotwell said. “He is just a hard worker and a great kid. He has a lot of energy, and he breeds enthusiasm among those around him.”
Sykes, a 6-1, 285-pound nose guard, said he had a slight tear in his medial collateral ligament from the time he played on the offensive line. He said he wasn’t going to allow the injury to define him and take away something he loves, which is why he worked so hard in the weight room to make up for lost time. He said his goal was to show his teammates what he could do to get back into the starting lineup.
“Every day I went into the weight room and said I wanted to get bigger and stronger because you can’t be a football player without wanting to do work,” Sykes said.
Sykes said the gains he made enabled him to believe he could play at the next level, even when some might have doubted if he could. He didn’t let that negativity hold him back and turned it inward and used it to earn a ticket to Goodman. He said he had to mature to complete the journey. Now that this step is finished, he is excited to take the next step.
“I like the academic program at Holmes and how I can be a success and how I can be the missing piece to the puzzle,” Sykes said.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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