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After injuries, Marion High grad pursues physical therapy career
Jasper Hancox’s outlook showed team ‘we can really get through tough times’
MARION — Jasper Hancox has maintained a positive mindset after two season-ending injuries to his right knee robbed him of his upperclassman years on the football field. Now, as the 18-year-old graduates from Marion High School, he wants to spread that optimism to help others heal through a career in physical therapy.
Hancox is among 170 students who graduated Saturday from Marion High School. He plans starting this fall to study kinesiology at Cornell College in Mount Vernon — inspired by people who’ve supported him through physical therapy to rehabilitate his knee, which was reconstructed in September.
“At this point, I'm just learning a lot more than I probably would have if I didn't get injured,” Hancox said.
He’s been on the school’s football, baseball, golf and basketball teams. On the football field, the injuries ended his junior and senior seasons. He’s spent seasons on the sidelines with a chunky brace, still happy to soak up opportunities to talk to his teammates and root for their success.
Months of diligently going to physical therapy, exercising and staying positive seem to have sped up his recovery. At first, Hancox said medical professionals told him it would be 10 to 12 months before he could compete again. He’s knocked it down to seven months and will be back on the baseball field in the coming weeks.
“I've had that goal of, ‘I'm going to be able to play this year. I'm going to be able to do this,’” Hancox said. “And I've been working as hard as I can at it and … better myself as a person in the process.”
He was honored with the football coaches’ “Leader of the Pack” award this year for being a role model through his hard work, dedication to the team and positive mindset. Off the field, Hancox would fill water bottles and film sessions for review later to help the team continue to improve.
Head varsity football coach Michael Joyner, who has coached Hancox all four years of high school, said Hancox has taught him a lot about perseverance. He’s shown his teammates what to do when things don’t go their way.
“Every single opportunity that he got to be around the team and with the team, he was there,” Joyner said. “That to me shows so much growth and maturity in any young man that you don’t necessarily see every day — a kid that’s willing to come to practice even though he can’t participate in an athletic sense.”
Season-ending injuries may bring a person’s spirits down or make them lose motivation to even show up, Joyner said.
“That can really wreck a kid,” Joyner said. “What he has shown, the grace that he has used throughout this — he didn’t blame anybody, he didn’t get really upset at anybody. … He showed us how we can really get through tough times if we lean on those that are closest to us.”
Comments: (319) 398-8494; marissa.payne@thegazette.com
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