Landon Suber rebounds from life-threatening injury in time to play baseball at Reynolds

Landon Suber drew a walk in his only at-bat for the Reynolds baseball team in the first round of the 7-A state baseball tournament against Davie County.

His teammate Gavin Searcy, who was next in the batting order, had a base hit that allowed Suber to advance to third base.

As Suber rounded second base, his mother, Pam Anglin, heard another parent watching from the stands remark:

"Wow. I forgot how fast he was."

Reynolds went on to lose the game 12-4. The loss hurt Suber and his teammates, as it marked the end of the season.

For Suber, a senior at Reynolds, it also marked the end of his high school sports career, one that he thought had ended last July during a football workout.

"It made me happy to come this far and be able to play a high school sport again," Suber said. "It was just fun for me to be part of a team again. I didn't think I would have that chance a few months ago."

Freak injury

We wrote about Suber last fall after he suffered a freak injury during football practice that robbed him of that portion of his senior year.

While going through passing drills, Suber, who was slated to be a starting defensive back on the football team, ran over to the middle of the field to defend a pass. One of his teammates was running from the opposite direction and jumped for the ball at the same time.

They collided in mid-air and Suber caught a knee to his mid-section. He was seriously injured but didn't know it at the time. He was fuzzy. He threw up on the field. He remembers the trainer at Reynolds and members of the coaching staff saying that someone needed to call EMS.

Suber remembers the paramedics saying that he probably had internal bleeding. He remembers getting in the ambulance and the ride to Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

He remembers seeing his mom and dad in the emergency room. He doesn't remember losing consciousness or the blood transfusion he received. Also, he remembers waking up surrounded by doctors and nurses and his parents and hearing the words "lacerated liver."

He knew life was going to look and feel a little different for the rest of his senior year.

There would be no senior season of football. There were three different medical procedures during his initial stay in the hospital from July 29-Aug. 9. He also had a stent placed in his abdomen to help drain bile.

Suber lost 34 pounds. He missed the start of school and did remote learning until he was healthy enough to return to the hallways. He worried that someone would take his No. 11, the same number his father wore when he played football at Wake Forest. He still wanted to be part of the football team at Reynolds, even if he knew he wasn't going to be able to play.

He was determined to walk on the field as a team captain on opening night on Aug. 22. Despite the drain tube and collection bag that his jersey was hiding, he was able to do just that to represent his team.

And he wasn't finished yet. He was determined to get back on a court or a field before his senior year was over.

More unexpected complications

On Nov. 3, Suber underwent his fourth and final procedure after his injury to remove the stent from his abdomen.

It wasn't without some complications.

"The doctors told us that a common side effect once the stent was taken out might be pancreatitis, where your pancreas gets inflamed," Anglin said. "He did end up developing a mild case of that last November. The CT scan he had in December showed that he was completely healed from when the injury happened and caused damage to 60-70 percent of his liver. The doctors actually cleared him for activities."

He started playing in a church basketball league one night a week from November through January.

"I was tired from that, but I pushed through," he said. "Some nights were harder than others."

He was also cleared to play baseball, a sport he had not played since middle school. He was cleared to participate, but not cleared to bat. He started having severe pain once he started baseball practice.

"I wanted to play a sport my senior year," Suber said. "My last procedure came during basketball tryouts, so that was out. So it came down to playing something in the spring, and that was either going to be baseball or lacrosse. And I think you just get hit a little too much in lacrosse and I'm not sure my body was ready for that. The baseball coach asked me about playing every year and I just never did. But I was going to make it work this year."

Joe Davidyock, the football coach at Reynolds, laughed as he recalled Suber coming to him during a workout in the weight room to tell him he was considering playing lacrosse or baseball in the spring.

"I looked at him and told him that there was no way his mom was going to let him play lacrosse after what he went through" Davidyock said. "He laughed too. Then we kind of weighed the pros and cons of each. The fact that he even had those opportunities was a blessing in and of itself. I know how much he was itching to get back out there and do something.

Davidyock got to catch one of Suber's baseball games as well.

"He caught three fly balls," Davidyock said. "He's courageous. He's resilient. When he sets a goal, he's going to go and chase it, which is why he was successful with us the last three years. It speaks to his character as a whole and the type of person that you are going to get with Landon Suber. It solidified and verified who he is. I was so happy for him."

Playing baseball came with some complications.

He developed abdominal adhesions – lumps of fluid on his chest – something that wasn't expected.

"The doctors hadn't told us about that possibly happening," Anglin said. "As it turns out, 90 percent of the people who have laparoscopic procedures like Landon eventually get them. Basically, they cause scar tissue inside his body that feels like cramps. The scar tissue is connecting things that shouldn't be connected."

He pushed through 20 sessions of physical therapy with the ultimate goal of eventually getting to bat during the season.

'I've never had someone tell me that before'

Patrick Frail, the baseball coach at Reynolds, was excited that Suber decided to play baseball this season.

Frail was aware of Suber's limitations because of his injury and was going to help Suber work wis way to eventually being able to hit during a game.

Frail knew that Suber's speed would be an asset in the Demons' outfield.

"Every day he came to practice, he and I would communicate about how he was doing, how he was feeling," Frail said. "With the understanding that if he was in too much pain, he was going to get the day off. Well, one day when I asked him how it was going like I normally did. he looked at me and told me he didn't think he would be able to practice that day because his liver hurt. Now, I think I've heard just about every reason there is to try and get out of practice over the years. And it just kind of stopped me in my tracks, even knowing what he had gone through. I've never had someone tell me that before."

Frail said that just having Suber as part of the team was infectious.

"Everybody on our team knew what he had gone through," Frail said. "He was a quiet leader for us. He was engaged. I was excited for him to be a part of the team. There was the unknown with him from not playing for a few years, let alone having a catastrophic injury.

"You know he's a great athlete and has a baseball background, so let's see what he's got. It ended up being even better than we thought, the coach said. "We gave him some opportunities and he just ran with it. After seeing him get after it like he did, you'd have thought he had played all four years."

Suber advanced through the season as the team's primary rightfielder. He also saw plenty of action as the centerfielder.

In 17 games, he had 34 putouts in 39 chances for a .923 fielding percentage.

He also eventually was able to take some cuts at the plate. That he didn't record a hit in 11 at-bats was of no concern for Suber, Frail, or Anglin.

The fact that he even got a chance to be on a field again was all that mattered.

"Being a part of the outfield, it felt a lot like being on the back end of a football field again like I was before," Suber said. "It was just fun for me to be part of a team again to be honest. There were games when things were a little bumpy because of the pain I was having, but that really didn't matter to me."

Anglin said there were games when they went home afterwards and Suber would show her new pockets of fluid that developed.

"Some days were harder than others for him, for sure," Anglin said. "As much pain as he was in, he never would have told me anyway. But I'm glad he got to do something like this one more time. He deserved that after what he went through."

'I came a long way back … '

Suber will graduate on Friday at noon at Joel Coliseum with a 4.42 GPA, which ranks him No. 37 in a class of 410 students.

He is going to N.C. State in August to study biology with the ultimate goal of attending PT school.

"I want to be able to help people who have gone through what I have gone through," Suber said. "I came a long way back to be able to play sports again at my school. I don't think Friday will be as emotional for me. I cried all my tears already going through what I went through. And I'm thankful for all the support I got along the way."

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