Central City’s Kramer has overcome a lot to reach final high school game

CENTRAL CITY - Like many high school football players, tonight will be the final game for Central City senior Luke Kramer.

'It's bittersweet because it really saddens me that it's my last year of football because I love football,” said Kramer, who plays offensive and defensive line. 'But, it's made me appreciate things more and it makes you really want it.”

He came very close to not playing his senior season.

On Nov. 30 last year, Kramer was working on the farm with his dad and suffered a terrible combine accident.

'The corn head was plugged and I was attempting to clear the corn head and I slipped,” he said. 'One of the grabbing chains caught my carharrts and pulled me into the combine head.”

Huge chunks of tissue and muscle were torn from his left calf and there also was some nerve damage. Kramer was rushed to UIHC, where he went through three surgeries in the first four days. He also had compartment syndrome the day after the accident, where pressure builds up in the muscle and prevents blood from flowing. Doctors made large incisions on his leg to relieve the pressure.

In January, Kramer had skin grafts done to cover his wounds.

After his 10-day stay at UIHC, he went to inpatient rehab at St. Luke's to learn how to walk again. He also went through many months of painful physical therapy.

'The five days of rehab at St. Luke's was pretty grueling because at that point I couldn't walk and put pressure on my leg,” Kramer said. 'And, I couldn't lift my left foot at all, it was just stationary.”

Many doctors weren't sure if Kramer would be able to play football again, but there was no way he was going to miss his senior season. When August came around, he was ready to go and he has started every game this season. He actually sent an email to one of the doctors who didn't think he'd be able to play.

'About halfway through the season I sent him an email and told him, thank you for being my motivation because I worked to prove him wrong,” Kramer said. 'No one was going to take this dream away from me.”

His determination has been an inspiration to the team.

'I think it's opened their eyes that there's a lot of things in life you can get through,” Central City Coach Bryan Deal said. 'This combine incident with Luke, that's huge, most of us it would have put us down for a long time, not Luke.”

Ten months ago, Kramer was in a wheelchair learning how to walk again. Now, he's playing in the final football game of his high school career.

'It makes you not take little things for granted, it makes you want it so much more and work that much harder because you realize what it would be like without football,” he said.