Reality Check

Tim Fairfield, Brandon Fischer and Matt McConnell were on their way to Lake Havasu City, Ariz., to spend four days with friends. It was supposed to be a final summer fling for the three El Dorado football players. It was nearly the final ride of their lives.

A rear tire blew out on the driver’s side of the 1984 Bronco II that Fairfield, 17, was driving. The car skidded left, then flipped four or five times, crashing down a steep incline and ejecting McConnell from the back seat. He landed next to a homemade rock memorial where someone had previously died on the isolated stretch of Interstate 40. A cut on his foot severed several nerves and the back of his head was scraped bare as he lay dazed, screaming obscenities about the road burn that covered his back.

Fischer, riding shotgun, had his scalp torn from ear to ear as his head made first contact with the ground as the vehicle rolled. He was unconscious with a severe concussion.

Fairfield, the only person who wasn’t asleep at the time of the accident, had a chance to brace himself and escaped with a backache, some abrasions and a blister on his ear. He pulled Fischer from the car, wrapped his head to slow the bleeding, and carried him over his shoulder 74 feet up the incline.

Terri Bowman and her brother, Richard, both from El Monte, were driving behind the black Bronco on Aug. 9. Had they not been there, or had not stopped, Fischer surely would have bled to death. The cellular phone Fairfield had been given by his parents was thrown from the car, along with everything else.

The Bowmans had a cell phone with them.

“It’s the phone call every parent dreads once their son or daughter gets their driver’s license,” Donna Fairfield said. “From the looks of the car, they all could have been killed, easily.

“He said, ‘Mom, we’ve had an accident,’ I’m waiting for him to say everything’s OK. But instead, he said, ‘Really bad, Mom. Really bad. Brandon’s head. Brandon’s head. . . .’ ”

As headlights from the Bowman’s car illuminated the site, Terri Bowman ran to a call box so emergency personnel could pinpoint their location. It was an hour before an ambulance could get there.

New Perspective

“Three months ago, me and two of my friends almost died,” McConnell said. “And three months later, we’re playing in the CIF playoffs. I’ve wanted to cherish everything since then.

“Before, I was just living life, but now I’m realizing I could die all of a sudden, and I want every second and every minute to be my favorite. I want to love everything.”

When El Dorado steps onto the football field at El Modena High Friday to begin the Southern Section Division VI playoffs against fourth-seeded Villa Park, Fischer will be the starting tailback, Fairfield a starting inside linebacker and McConnell the starting free safety.

The Golden Hawks, no matter what the outcome, will be stronger for having gone through the experience, for having learned what so many take for granted.

“Brandon Fischer seemed like he was the most invincible person I knew, strong mentally and physically,” said Danny Hancock, a senior defensive lineman at El Dorado. “And then this happens to him, he almost dies. It’s amazing to see how fragile life is and how easy it could all come to an end.”

McConnell, though awake at the scene, doesn’t remember the accident. He does remember waking up on an X-ray table and asking, “Am I alive?”

“Everybody on this team plays their heart out. It made everybody realize, ‘It happened to them, it could have happened to us,’ ” McConnell said. “I think it improved a lot of players’ hearts, to make them want to play football the very best they can all the time.

“I think my teammates have applied themselves in areas outside of football because of what they learned from this experience.”

Fischer, for one, is studying harder. He doesn’t mind going to college close to home instead of back east. He’s going to church again, and McConnell and Fairfield have joined him.

“We learned to persevere,” said Rick Jones, the Hawks’ coach the last 10 seasons. “We tell the kids to stay the course, and if you never give up, you’ll be fine. The course you set never goes exactly the way you want it to, but you have to deal with those setbacks, remain humble, keep fighting on, and never give up.”

For some the accident provided a stiff slap in the face.

“I think until you get to be about 40, you think you’re immortal--everybody, teenagers, athletes, and football players especially,” said Jones, 39. “You learn by real-life events, and a lot of things that happen in real life are bad.

“It was an emotional downer, but it was an eye-opener for all of us about being thankful, about not taking things for granted, that we have a chance to play and not settling for being mediocre. We should try to take the gifts and talents we’ve been given and use them to the best of our ability.”

Jones relishes the chance to teach more than X’s and O’s.

“Being the best football player is not the epitome of your whole livelihood,” he said. “You have to take values and lessons you learn here and apply them. The things [the players] learn here will make [them] a better dad, husband, worker. If all we do is teach them to block and tackle, what good does that do them when they’re 30, 40, 50 years old?”

Long Night

Within an hour, Denise Fischer, the school’s Quarterback Club booster president, and Paula McConnell, a single mom, were riding with Garry and Donna Fairfield toward Lake Havasu, retracing the path their sons took. “We just headed in the general direction,” Donna Fairfield said. The Fairfields’ middle son, Scott, a Bell Gardens police officer, helped them get in touch with the right authorities along the way, and they learned the boys were taken to Needles.

They thought McConnell was the most seriously hurt because he was ejected from the car. When they reached Barstow, they were told via cell phone by doctors in Needles that Fischer had been airlifted from the site to the University Medical Center trauma unit in Las Vegas. Doctors told them to go there first because mother and son needed to be together.

Craig Fischer had not accompanied his wife because they were told by the Fairfields that Brandon would only need a few stitches.

“I had on a tank top and shorts and $20 in my pocket,” Denise Fischer said. “I thought I was just going to go pick my kid up. I think [the Fairfields] wanted to keep us calm. But that was the longest ride of my life.”

Craig Fischer was visited by about 25 people, mostly football players, who spent that night at his home, and about 60 over the two days before he finally was able to join his wife and son.

“The support was overwhelming to me,” he said. “So many people showed up, I couldn’t even get away from the house.”

The Fairfields were inundated with phone calls of concern and support. Their oldest son, Rob, finally stopped answering at 4 a.m., about the same time the Fairfields and Paula McConnell reached Needles.

They had dropped off Denise Fischer in Las Vegas at 2 a.m.

Fischer, like her husband two days later, was devastated when she saw her son’s blood-filled eyeballs (from the concussion) and the head injury.

“The back of his head, basically, was hamburger,” she said. “Doctors said it was a miracle he lived, that he didn’t have brain damage.”

Doctors stopped counting after 400 stitches and staples to connect the 40-centimeter flap of skin that curved from Brandon Fischer’s left ear to the top of his head and then toward its base, and a vertical laceration on the left side of his head.

Fischer spent three days in intensive care, another 10 in the neurosurgical nursing center. A portion of his skull was still exposed when he came home. He has since had one reconstructive surgery and expects two or three more to reduce the scarring so he will be able to grow a complete head of hair.

Eight varsity football players went to Las Vegas to be at Fischer’s bedside, along with other friends.

“It didn’t surprise me that so many football players showed up because I knew they were close,” Denise Fischer said. “It did surprise me that they showed up at the hospital in Las Vegas because it was so far away.”

Many more waited hand and foot on McConnell at home while he recovered. In addition to being on crutches, McConnell’s back was raw from road burn; his teammates, Nick Zehner and Joey Turgeon, helped bathe him as though he were a burn victim, and many players kept him occupied during his recovery and ran errands for his mother.

“Without them, I don’t think I would have been able to play the first game,” McConnell said. “They got me determined to come back and play.”

Fairfield, unwilling to get in a car for weeks, was despondent, blaming himself. Teammates, and Fischer himself, reassured him it was nothing more than an accident.

All three were wearing seat belts, and the Highway Patrol determined there was no alcohol involved.

“I don’t think I could have gotten out of my depression if it wasn’t for my friends,” Fairfield said. “Every second, they tried to do everything they could to make me realize it could happen to anybody. They helped me get through the whole ordeal. . . . It’s more like a family than a team.”

A family that is now bonded forever.

“There’s one thing about talking about brotherhood and loyalty, it’s another thing when you demonstrate it,” Jones said. “Those guys demonstrated their care and love and loyalty to those guys.”

When Fischer returned home, cheerleaders cooked for the family for a week and, along with football players and other students, stocked the cupboards with food.

The accident occurred about 2 1/2 weeks before two-a-day practices began. The three players were critical cogs in El Dorado’s plans. Fairfield showed up the first day of practice, and both he and McConnell played in El Dorado’s first game. Fischer, who one doctor said would never play football again, played some against El Modena in Week 4 and in all of the Golden Hawks’ upset of Brea Olinda the following week.

Even more than what Fischer and Fairfield brought to the field as players (both are captains), they also brought an emotional element that was crucial for a program that consistently asks its players to compete over their heads.

“If we don’t have these guys, we probably don’t make the playoffs,” Hancock said.

El Dorado finished 6-4 and fell short of winning a third consecutive Empire League title only because it lost to league champion Cypress in the final week.

Fairfield, mostly in goal-line and short-yardage situations, gained 224 yards (4.4 average) and scored five touchdowns at fullback in addition to playing linebacker. McConnell had a team-high three interceptions.

Fischer, despite playing only half the season, rushed for 435 yards (5.6 average) and four touchdowns. He also caught 10 passes.

“The day I got cleared to play football,” Fischer said, “was the greatest day of my life.”

At El Dorado, where team and community came together, the priorities are clear.

“You couldn’t trade any number of victories for those kids’ lives,” Jones said, “or their ability to walk, talk, laugh or think.”

The playoffs are important, certainly. But there’s something more at stake, clearly.

“If we win or lose,” Hancock said, “it’s a great feeling to know they are next to me.”