The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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It seemed like an innocuous play. In the third game of his junior sea- son, Richmond (Va.) The Collegiate School quarterback Wilton Speight kept the ball and dove into the end zone against Episcopal Academy. He flipped the ball to the ref, and that's when he realized something was wrong. "When it first happened, no one re- ally had any idea once he went to the sideline," said The Collegiate School head football coach Mark Palyo. "He was going into the end zone, he dove, he got up, celebrated and came jogging back to the sidelines. Then somebody told me Wilton's out. At that moment I didn't realize anything had really happened. Then I went and checked, and he had broken his col- larbone. They took him to the doctor right then." "At first I was fine," Speight said. "When I popped up and tossed the ball to the ref, I heard a crack and crunch. That's when I knew it was serious." That was Sept. 30, 2011, and Speight would go on to miss the remainder of his junior season of high school. With A SERIOUS INJURY HELPS WILTON SPEIGHT LAND IN ANN ARBOR Speight broke his collarbone early in his junior year of high school, which led to an extra season on the prep gridiron and eventual attention from Michigan. PHOTO BY TIM SULLIVAN