Heading into the first game of the 2014 season, Moorestown High School senior wide receiver and defensive back Quinton Law had a bright future in football.
Law was a three-year varsity player and was drawing interest from a number of Division I schools. He accepted a scholarship offer from Bryant University in Smithfield, R.I., prior to the start of his senior year and was excited to play one final season with his hometown friends.
However, Law’s plans were derailed in the first quarter of the season opener against Winslow.
Law was hit with a block from the back and twisted his right knee. The injury looked minor, and Law was able to play through the rest of the game. When he went to the doctors afterward, however, Law discovered he had chipped the cartilage in his knee and would need to have microfracture surgery. His senior season was over, and suddenly, there was doubt whether he would play in college.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Law said. “We just thought it was a sprain or at the most a torn LCL where I could get back at the end of the season.”
Upon news of his injury, nearly all of the colleges interested in Law disappeared. One college decided to keep in touch.
“I actually lost contact with every other school except Bryant,” he said. “I didn’t know what to expect, but they stuck with me.”
Despite the injury, Bryant kept its scholarship offer to Law on the table. Law knew he wouldn’t play football in high school again, but he had a new goal. He was going to go to Bryant, come back from his knee injury and take the field for the Bulldogs.
The journey was not going to be easy. Doctors estimated the earliest Law would be able to recover was mid-April, seven months after he suffered the injury. Following surgery, Law had to go through weeks of therapy with a continuous passive motion machine. The CPM machine would work Law’s knee back into shape with flexing and waving repetitions.
As he began his recovery, Law continued to attend Moorestown football games and act as a leader on the sidelines. It was a tough season for the Quakers. After beating Winslow in the only game Law played on opening night, Moorestown lost all nine of its remaining games. Law felt helpless as he watched Moorestown stumble through the season from the sidelines.
“It may be the toughest thing that happened to me,” he said. “I spent most of high school putting so much into football. It was a disappointing year. We were plagued by injuries. I thought we needed leadership, and a lot of our leaders got hurt.”
The season ended in mid-November, but Law kept working. After he got off crutches, he began going to physical therapy three times a week at the Moorestown Field House.
“We started running in an underwater treadmill,” Law said. “I couldn’t run on land yet. We slowly progressed into the regular treadmill.”
The seasons changed from winter to spring, and it was nearly summer before Law could even think about doing football-specific workouts. A big reason for his lengthy recovery was the amount of time it took to get proper stability and balance in his knee.
“It took quite some time for the knee to heal up so I could do some strengthening exercises,” he said. “My legs looked completely different. One looked like it was used and one had no muscle.”
Because of the injury, Law was originally going to arrive at Bryant’s football training camp late. However, after a visit from the athletic trainer in June, he was cleared to arrive at camp on time.
During training camp, Law’s knee didn’t give him many problems. His knee swelled once, causing him to miss a day of practice, but he has otherwise been on the field every day. The biggest challenge for him now is getting back into game shape.
“I might be the only person on the team to not play football last year,” he said. “It’s hard to simulate or train a football game.”
Bryant opened its season on Sept. 5 with a 27–3 win over American International. Law was not able to dress for the game, as he is still working his way back into game shape. There’s a chance Law may be redshirted for this year, meaning he would sit out the entire 2015 season, but the season wouldn’t count against the maximum four seasons NCAA athletes can compete in.
However, Law doesn’t want to wait another year to play in a game. His goal is to get on the active roster as soon as possible and make enough of an impression to make the away game roster and maybe even get some playing time on special teams. Law feels he can be a starting cornerback for the Bulldogs in the coming years.
“That’s my goal is to get on the travel team and go up and down the east coast for away games with the team,” he said.
