Perry baseball's Bryan Witmer survives life-threatening injury, returns to play, give back

PERRY TWP. — It's a sunny Sunday afternoon in April. A rare respite from an otherwise water-logged spring so far.

Perry High School sophomore baseball player Bryan Witmer is smiling while standing next to a brand new set of freshly painted dugout benches. They are benches he helped build at the newly renovated Perry baseball field as part of his Eagle Scout project for the Boy Scouts.

His smile and the benches don't tell the full story of his amazing project. They don't detail the blood, sweat, tears, trials and heartache that led to this reflective moment.

It's a story in many ways beyond belief. It begins for Witmer as just another Saturday playing the game he loves. Little did Witmer know that everything about his life would change in June 2021 at a state youth baseball tournament in Columbus.

One fly ball altered everything. Witmer charged it. So did a teammate. The play ended in a full speed collision. Witmer's teammate drove his shoulder into Witmer's face when they hit. The impact sent Witmer to the ground and near death.

"I don't remember much," Witmer said. "I just remember colliding and they told me they rushed me to the hospital and that I was having seizures on the field. The next thing I remember after that was waking up in the hospital."

There were many anxious moments in between the collision and Witmer waking up in the hospital. He was admitted as a level one trauma patient at Nationwide Children's Hospital. The collision resulted in 12 facial fractures and a skull fracture. Witmer was placed on life support.

Bryan's grandfather Bob Kneen remembered getting the call about the accident. Kneen was preparing for a Boy Scout camp event as an Assistant Scoutmaster with Troop 265.

"It was a rough day," Kneen said. "I was at a camp preparing for an event when I got the call from Bryan's aunt. She is a trauma nurse and she told me Bryan had been in an accident at the baseball tournament and it was not good. She told me he was going to be facing tough odds. There were still COVID restrictions in place at the time so only two family members were allowed to be with him so I wasn't able to visit. He had his mother and his aunt. Both are registered nurses so he had the right two people with him."

The news hit Kneen hard. He is close to his grandson and had been instrumental in Bryan choosing to join the Boy Scouts at a young age. In fact, Bryan was set to receive a Boy Scout award at the camp Kneen was attending. Bryan wouldn't be there because of the baseball tournament, but his grandfather would.

"They actually did something really cool for him that night," Kneen said. "He was supposed to receive an award that night and they honored him by calling his name and leaving an empty chair for him. It was a really emotional time. All we knew was that he was in the hospital with a serious head injury and that he was alive."

When Bryan awoke at the hospital, he was still not out of the woods.

"He was in the hospital for a week," Bryan's mother, Emily Witmer, said. "It was a really difficult time and we didn't know how his recovery was going to go or if he would be able to make a full recovery. We were hopeful, but there was a lot of uncertainty."

It was one thing to hear about his injuries. It was another to see the effect of those injuries on him.

"I was able to see him when he got home," Kneen said. "I brought him a shirt from the camp. When everybody heard what happened every scout in attendance signed a shirt for him they wanted him to have. But I was struck by how extensive the injuries were. It was a 'wow' moment. His speech was delayed and it was clear he was still in rough shape."

Bryan's medical condition was constantly monitored.

"He met with neurologists and surgeons every two weeks for nine months," Emily Witmer said. "He had surgery nine months after the collision to repair the facial fractures."

The nine months in between the accident and surgery were difficult. Bryan was extremely sensitive to light. He was not allowed to watch television or play video games. He had to be careful with travel and was not allowed on an airplane, among other restrictions.

"He wasn't allowed to do much of anything during that time," his mom said. "There were a lot of board games played as a family. We tried to find things we could do together as a family."

Doctors were not sure if Bryan would be able to play baseball again. His dream was always to return to the diamond, though.

"He made an amazing recovery after surgery," Emily Witmer said. "He healed really quickly. The doctors said because of his age it would help. The ability to recover is much better at a younger age. They said it would have been a much more difficult process for an adult. Even I was shocked at how quickly he got better after the surgery."

Bryan still needed to be cleared by an MRI before he could resume playing baseball. It was a hurdle he cleared, allowing him to play junior varsity baseball last year.

"It was ironic," Emily Witmer said. "He was allowed to resume baseball activity because they deemed baseball a non-contact sport and low risk for him. This 'low risk' sport was the thing that landed him in the hospital to begin with."

Bryan also was able to return to being active in the Boy Scouts. He always dreamed of being an Eagle Scout and he soon began to think about what project he might like to undertake as part of the process. His thoughts kept returning to baseball. The game he loved. The people he loved.

It was a community that rallied around Bryan after his injury. A project supporting the area baseball community made sense to him.

"I love the sport and I love the area baseball community," Bryan said. "They did so much for me after the accident. It's something that I grew up with. I really felt like it was an opportunity to give back to everyone that did so much for me during a tough time."

Bryan's timing was fortuitous. The Perry baseball field was undergoing a renovation. A new brick backstop was being constructed. Fence posts were being moved and separated from the dugouts. New backstop nets were going up to protect the crowd. Bryan saw an area where he could help. The dugout benches. To say the benches were old may be an understatement.

"The benches had been around a long time in the dugout," Perry head baseball coach Craig Whitaker said. "My brother actually played on those benches back in 1986 and they had been in place a long time and been repainted then. They had been around for 30 to 40 years at least. We were already working on the backstop project so the new benches are kind of like the cherry on top of that project."

Bryan began the arduous process of putting together the project. It involved mountains of paper work, plus meetings. He gathered community support. Organizations such as the FOP Henderson Lodge in Massillon, Lowe's, Stark Creative and others donated materials.

"The project took awhile," Bryan said. "Getting the measurements right was a challenge. Working with the type of wood we were working with was another challenge. Fortunately, I had a lot of help. Teammates from the baseball team and other members of Troop 265 were with me through this."

It's a project that will benefit far more than just the varsity baseball team.

"We're not the only team that uses that field," Bryan said. "A lot of leagues and teams play there throughout the summer. That was important to me. It was something that was going to benefit the local baseball community that had done so much for me as a whole."

Completing his recovery and finishing the dugout bench project would be magical in and of itself. Bryan also has proven he can still play. He made Perry's varsity baseball team this season.

"He's a great kid," Whitaker said. "He's motivated and you can definitely see he is the type of player that will grind it out on the field. He wants to be a starter one day and he's working hard towards that. In the meantime, he's been really focused on our team goals."

Bryan has gained a reputation as the consummate team player in a short time with the varsity program.

"It's very easy to see the kind of kid he is if you watch him," Whitaker said. "He's always supporting his teammates. He's the type of person that makes everyone around him better. He's also taken on a leadership role. That is including outside of the varsity program. He is really active about helping out with the youth teams and working with young players coming up."

That much is clear after a conversation with Bryan. His focus quickly turns to team goals when asked about the varsity season this spring.

"The big thing we are focused on is trying to win 15 games this year," Bryan said. "I think that would be a very good step for us. We've all fought through a lot and it would mean quite a bit for the team and the community if we could accomplish that."

It's also a journey Bryan knows is precious.

"I just enjoy every moment that I am out on the field," Bryan said. "They told me that if I get another concussion, I am likely going to be done as a player. I just try to go out and do my best, support the team and have a good time playing the game I love."

Reach Cliff at cliff.hickman@cantonrep.com

On X: @chickmanREP

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Perry baseball's Bryan Witmer survives life-threatening injury, returns to play, give back