Pierre Walters is a big man.

At 6 feet 5 inches and 261 pounds, he’s one of Eastern football’s most feared defensive players.

But starting this semester, the Forest Park native had another fear: how he was going to shower on his own.

Walters underwent surgery on a ligament in his right ankle Dec. 27 in Chicago.

He currently has a cast on his ankle and uses crutches to get around.

But he said he has adapted to showering by himself and managing other daily tasks independently.

Walters tore a ligament in his right ankle during the last defensive play of Eastern’s 2006 game against Eastern Kentucky.

“I was rushing the quarterback and, as soon as he was about to throw the ball, I got to him and hit him,” Walters said. “Ryan Bennett, the other defensive end, got to him and hit him from behind.”

Walters’ ankle planted into the natural grass surface at Roy Kidd Stadium in Richmond, Ky., as more than 400 pounds came tumbling back on top of him.

“I knew I had to get my ankle up, but I couldn’t do it in time,” Walters said. “I felt the pop and my foot went numb. It went a little limp and, when it did that, I knew I did something. It was definitely scary.”

In the summer of 2007, Walters visited an ankle specialist who told him his ankle was full of scar tissue and fluid. He recommended surgery.

Walters declined. It would have prevented him from playing during the 2007 football season.

“My reason for playing was the fact that I had already sat out, ” Walters said. “I had to sit out my first year at Eastern because I was a gray shirt. I figured I already did my time; I already sat out.”

A gray shirt is an athlete who does not meet some of the academic requirements from the NCAA Clearinghouse coming out of high school. Walters missed the 2004 season because of this.

Walters played the 2007 season with the injured ankle.

“Playing football at this level, you kind of get used to the pain,” he said. “After a while, it seems normal.”

‘It couldn’t get much worse’

Walters’ teammate and fellow defensive lineman Trevor Frericks also played injured during the 2007 football season.

Frericks suffered a shoulder injury in high school that only got worse during college.

During the summer between his junior and senior years of high school, Frericks said he hit a teammate during practice – and his right arm dropped out of socket.

“I think my head coach might have jammed it back in for me,” he said.

Frericks played this past season with a torn labrum, a torn rotator cuff, a partially torn capsule and six bone chips.

A labrum is a cuff of cartilage that forms a cup within the shoulder joint for the end of the humerus to move. The cuff of cartilage makes the shoulder joint stable and allows for a wide range of movement.

“My arm would just completely go numb; I had no sense of feeling in my fingers or anything like that,” Frericks said. “I wasn’t knowing when it was coming out or not. I would only know because my nerves would go numb.”

During games, the team’s trainer would routinely have to pop Frericks’ shoulder back into socket.

“They were saying the painful part of it was over because everything was so shredded,” he said.

Frericks wore straps to keep his shoulder in socket. But his shoulder would still move out of the socket once or twice a game.

“Everyone kept telling me it couldn’t get any worse, so I might as well keep playing,” he said.

Frericks had surgery Dec. 13.

“They say I am lucky,” he said. “This is my third year of college football and my first surgery.”

Walters has had four surgeries: two on his pinky finger and one on his left knee.

“But now, it just seems like a second language to me,” Walters said. “It’s kind of expected. You take it in stride, and you just learn to deal with it.”

Playing through the pain

Tim Kelly played through a bilateral sports hernia and a possible stress fracture on his shin. Through the years, he has had a sports hernia repaired and bone chips removed from his ankle. The defensive end, who started all four years of his Eastern career, has also suffered concussions, broken fingers and broken wrists.

Kelly believes the injuries affected how Frericks and Walters played. At one point during the season, Frericks was unable to practice and could only play during games.

“Doing that is not an easy task, and we as a team, especially as a defense, were fortunate in the fact that he was able to adjust and still play well,” Kelly said. “With Pierre, any time you have a player of his caliber, you want him to be at full strength – and when he is not, it can be frustrating.”

Kelly said watching Walters play and dominate defensively was impressive.

“I feel that the level of respect for the injured players grows because everyone knows how tough it is to play hurt,” Kelly said. “And when people like Trevor and Pierre are doing it and still playing as well as they did, the respect for them grows.”

Walters earned first-team All-Ohio Valley Conference honors and was named third-team All-American by the Associated Press after he had 47 tackles and four sacks. Frericks finished with 30 tackles this past season.

Linebacker Donald Thomas agreed that when players play through injuries, they gain the team’s respect.

“It inspires other players to play through extreme pain because they see others playing through it,” said Thomas, who led the Panthers with 91 tackles in 2007, his final season. “It also shows the true character of a man who plays through pain to help his team get a victory. It shows that the player isn’t selfish and shows that he isn’t considering his best interest, but the interest of the team.”

Eastern quarterback Bodie Reeder said he didn’t know Walters was injured until after the season ended, but he knew Frericks was.

“Trevor was hurt real bad,” Reeder said. “He was basically playing with one arm. The surgery will make him a lot better player, and that’s saying a lot because he did a fantastic job this year.”

Frericks even considered walking away from the sport he loves because of the injury.

“I honestly thought about it, but I realized I don’t know what I would do. I can’t imagine myself as a regular student,” he said. “I can’t imagine myself not playing football, so I was going to do what I had to do to keep playing football.”

Next season, Frericks expects the surgery to improve his game. His right arm may be weaker than his left, but he plans on spending the summer rehabbing to increase the strength of his right arm.

Walters said he believes his surgery will help him physically and mentally.

Now that his ankle is repaired, he can turn his attention to another body part: his shoulder.

Walters had an MRI done on his shoulder in December, and doctors discovered he had a torn labrum, like Frericks, and several bone cysts.

Walters said he is not having surgery on the injury and is uncerain if he will even have surgery because of time constraints.

“I’m going to have more confidence to go out there,” he said. “My ankle is fixed. Now, I just have to worry about my shoulder.”

Nora Maberry can be reached at 581-7942 or at nemaberry@eiu.edu.

Pierre Wlater and Trevor Frericks are Eastern Illinois football plaer who had to undergo surgery for football related injuries this year. Walter, a defensive end, had a torn ligament in his right ankle, while Frericks, a defensive lineman, had a torn albr

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