He’s Bound and Determined to Bounce Back for More : Prep football: Brian Jalowiec, Canyon’s No. 1 quarterback a year ago, will suit up for the season opener after rehabilitation from a couple of surgeries.

Brian Jalowiec, three-sport standout at Canyon High School, has a rather stubborn streak of determination about him. His mother saw it when he was in the fourth grade.

“He went to this week-long soccer camp and it was about 100 degrees outside,” Sue Jalowiec said. “He came home every night with a major sunburn. But he wasn’t going to quit.”

Still, even Sue Jalowiec is amazed that her son is playing football this season. A little sun and dehydration is one thing, but a year of pain and rehabilitation is another matter.

Twice in the past year, Jalowiec separated his right shoulder, which finally required surgery--the same type performed on Dodger pitcher Orel Hershiser.

Then, as bad luck would have it, he had to have his jaw broken as part of an orthodontic procedure. Just seven weeks ago, his jaw was wired shut.

Eating, drinking and smiling were enough of a chore, so football was definitely out.

“I might have been a little naive, but I never accepted that fact,” Jalowiec said.

Jalowiec, the Comanches’ No. 1 quarterback a year ago, will be in uniform Friday night when the Comanches open their season at Sonora. He might even start at wide receiver.

Small steps for some, leaps and bounds for Jalowiec.

“I really didn’t realize what I was up against,” he said. “It took a lot of work. There were days when I got really depressed. But I had to play. It’s my senior year.”

Such determination was rewarded two weeks ago when his doctor cleared him to play. He immediately went to school to get started.

Of course, there were a few stipulations.

--No playing defense.

--No playing quarterback.

--And, absolutely, no unnecessary contact during practice.

Easy stuff to remember, right?

“Brian came home the first day and said, ‘Dad, I de-cleated a guy on my first play,’ ” his father, Walt Jalowiec, said. “He just has a high threshold of pain.”

Jalowiec reached that plateau last fall. Twice in the span of five months, he injured his shoulder.

His year of rehabilitation began, in a way, with a prayer.

On the last play of a tie game against La Habra, Jalowiec let fly a “Hail Mary.” The pass fell incomplete, but Jalowiec never saw it. He was leveled the moment the ball left his hand.

“I never saw it coming,” Jalowiec said. “I just felt the pain. It was excruciating. Then I noticed my shoulder was down in my armpit. I knew something was really wrong.”

Jalowiec was out for the season. The rehabilitation took a little more than a month. That was fine with him as there were other sports to prepare for.

By December, he was playing for the Comanches’ basketball team and everything was fine. Then it was on to baseball and everything was still fine.

One game into the season, it wasn’t fine any more. While diving back into first base, the shoulder popped out again.

This time, he had to have surgery. It was an involved process; his ligaments had to be reattached. Two pins were also placed in his shoulder.

Jalowiec was told the rehabilitation could take more than a year.

“It was really depressing,” he said. “I have always been active. It was like, ‘What do I do now?’ I just couldn’t deal with it properly. My grades slipped a little and I was just down.”

Said Sue Jalowiec: “He went from going 100 miles per hour to doing nothing. We told him he had a lot going for him and that there were more important things in life than sports. I think he put it in perspective.”

There may have been more things than sports, but not to Jalowiec during his rehabilitation. He focused on getting back by August.

Jalowiec went to rehabilitation three times a week, 2 1/2 hours each session. Most of the therapy was stretching the arm to get the mobility back.

In the middle of it, he had to have surgery again to realign his jaw.

“If they didn’t do it, I could get migraines and lockjaw in the future,” Jalowiec said.

He missed a week of rehabilitation and lost eight pounds. He returned to rehabilitation and pushed even harder.

“He made the therapist push him to the maximum,” Walt Jalowiec said. “There were times when we had to rein him back in. It would have been easy to quit, but that’s not Brian.”

By mid-August, Jalowiec was certain he would play.

“In retrospect, I shouldn’t have been surprised,” Canyon Coach Loren Shumer said. “That’s the type of kid Brian is. He’s very dedicated about sports. I should have known he’d be back.”

Said Sue Jalowiec: “He loves sports and that kept him going.”

Jalowiec fell in love with football as a sophomore.

He could only watch his friends play as a freshman, because his mother, fearing injury, wouldn’t allow him to go out for the team.

So, almost every day, he’d be out at practice, longing to join. The closest he ever got was playing catch on the sidelines.

“I made a deal with my dad, that if I got straight A’s, I could play football,” Jalowiec said.

Determined, again, he lived up to his part of the bargain, then won the starting job on the sophomore team. He led them to an 8-1-1 record.

Last season, he had completed 37 of 76 passes for 551 yards and two touchdowns before the injury.

“He has great leadership abilities,” Shumer said. “I think every kid on the team looked up to him.”

Jalowiec’s goal is to play quarterback again. At a recent booster club function, the players had to stand up and name their position. Jalowiec said, “wide receiver and, hopefully, quarterback.”

“He got a standing ovation,” Sue Jalowiec said.

Gunnar Strunz, who took over for Jalowiec last season, is the quarterback for now. Jalowiec was cleared to begin throwing last week, but nothing strenuous.

“It’s an adjustment watching someone else run the offense,” Jalowiec said. “But Gunnar is doing the job and I just want to help the team.”

Still, the stubborn determination remains.

“I figure in six weeks, I’ll be ready to play quarterback,” Jalowiec said. “We’ll see what happens. All I know is playing quarterback is the finish line for me.”