Bedford's Leahy overcomes odds to return for football season

The text message made Derek Stank a little bit nervous.

It was March, but it wasn't unusal for the Bedford High School football coach to hear from one of his players.

But this was a message from starting running back Nick Leahy, and it put Stank on alert.

"I got a text message basically saying 'hey, I hurt my knee, I think it's just a sprain, everything seems fine,' " Stank said.

Fortunately for Leahy, he still went to see a doctor, and after an MRI, he received the worst possible news an athlete could receive just months before the start of his senior season - torn ACL.

And it came from playing a pickup basketball game.

"I was dribbling and went to make a jump cut," Leahy said. "No one pushed me. I do it a thousand times probably and it tweaked a little bit. It gave out sideways and I fell. It hurt. It was a weird pain. My first thought was an ACL. I was pretty paranoid. It got better. It was a weird experience."

It also could have been an early end to a promising high school football career that seemed to come out of nowhere.

A running back for most of his life, Leahy moved to slot receiver before his sophomore year with the Bulldogs, trying to find an opening on the field.

"I had always played running back as a kid and I wanted that spot sophomore year, personally, but we had Mike Collins and Colin Cashin," he said. "I did what I could at slot receiver and I worked hard and thought I got better."

By the end of the year, Leahy had reached the top of the depth chart and was starting to make the transition to running back. By the start of last season, he'd claimed the position and had such a great season, he was a finalist for the Gatorade Player of the Year Award.

"We didn't know what he was going to," Stank said of the summer before Leahy's junior year. "As soon as we got him on the field, we knew he'd be a good threat for us. He also grew by leaps and bounds in size."

Leahy believes what he went through as a sophomore, having to work his way on to the field and not getting the ball as often as he might like, helped him have the season he did.

"I just love football," he said. "I'm very competitive and I want to be the best player at my position, especially looking at college."

That opportunity looked like it might be in jeopardy after the knee injury, but a week after the surgery, Leahy felt well enough that his doctor told him to slow down.

"I think he was a week after the surgery and he put 10 miles in on a bike," Stank said. "He got told he needed to stop doing so much. That's the type of kid he is."

Looking back, Leahy thinks he probably started coming back too soon, but his recovery went quickly enough that he was at practice when Bedford opened the preseason in early August and took part in the Queen City Jamboree last Friday.

"I'm probably stupid with some of the things I did," he said. "I wanted to get out there and those guys knew it.

"My team was behind me, my coaches were behind me. They never discouraged me and checked in to see how I was doing. I just tried to take it one day at a time."

And four months later, Leahy is ready to pick up right where he left off.

"He's been running routes for the past month and a half," Stank said. "He's got a little hobble to his step and he might not have the top end (speed), but inside the box, I think he's going to do all right for us."

Bedford opens its season Friday night at 7 p.m. against Merrimack.