Costa Mesa players gather around their coaches Friday night during the game with Orange. (Photo courtesy Mark Bausman, For OC Sports Zone)
Fans, players and coaches at the Orange vs. Costa Mesa Orange Coast League football game Friday night were stunned to see Khory Yacht, one of the Costa Mesa players, go down with an injury while playing offense in the fourth quarter.
The 5-10 Yacht is normally a back-up defensive back.
There was encouraging news Saturday afternoon from Costa Mesa Coach Jimmy Nolan, who told OC Sports Zone that Yacht has been released from the hospital and is “healing at home.”
“Khory is going to be OK,” Nolan said.”He’s moving his neck now. He will be out for a while but will make a full recovery.”
Friday’s game was stopped with 10:42 left when Yacht was injured and Orange was credited with a 43-0 victory. Yacht was taken by ambulance to a local hospital for treatment.
Nolan said that after Yacht went down he complained that he could not move his neck.
“It was really scary, he could not feel what was going on in his neck and he could not move it,” Nolan said. “In my opinion, it was probably just a really bad stinger and when you’re a first year football player and you don’t know what a stinger feels like, again this is my opinion, it’s pretty scary…..we all were scared for him.
“We’re just so happy. I believe the X-Rays were good and he’s been told he’s going to be OK. I know he has been discharged and I’ll be seeing him soon. Thank God he’s going to be OK.”
“Khory has a bad sprain to his neck,” Costa Mesa Athletic Director Sharon Uhl added on Monday. “He went home Friday night and is doing well. He had good movement and was in good spirits at the hospital.”
After the injury on Friday, players coaches and fans were silent as they tried to deal with the injury, according to Tom Connolly, who covered the game for OC Sports Zone.
Both Orange Coach Robert Pedroza and Nolan expressed their concern during brief interviews and instead of exchanging hand shakes after the game, players and coaches from the two teams knelt in prayer for Yacht.
Nolan believes that Yacht has a bright future.
“He’s a first year player and he’s going to be good one day,” Nolan said. “He’s really just learning the game.”
Tom Connolly contributed to this story
-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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