News-Record.com - Greensboro, North Carolina: News:... -
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Published on: 12/9/2005
Last Visited: 12/10/2005
Josh Stewart, though, thought he was reading a love story.
The son, all grown up now, read and heard those stories so often as a young boy that he can tell you all about Western Guilford losing its first two games of the season, how the Hornets rallied behind a quarterback who shares his last name and never lost again that year.He can recite the season's peaks and valleys, can take you to another time and paint pictures of something he never saw.Yeah, the son knew what he wanted.
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In between, Josh would pepper his dad with questions about how to read line sets and coverages.About his father's magical season 28 years past.
One day, Aaron came home and found that Josh had hung a picture of his father playing football on his bedroom wall.
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Even though Josh Stewart will not play a single today, it will be Aaron Stewart's turn to admire the son.
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Josh Stewart is the Whirlies' quarterback.Or at least he was.He suffered a concussion during a game in October while diving for a touchdown.The next week the boy was slammed to the ground by a linebacker and didn't get up.Doctors feared he had broken his collarbone, but an MRI failed to detect any damage.Just to be safe they ran a second MRI, this time on Josh's spine.That's when they discovered the fracture to the C-7 vertebra in his neck.
For Grimsley, the adventure was just beginning.For Josh, it was over.
"It's been devastating," Josh said this week, watching his teammates prepare for today's championship game against Greenville's Rose High School.
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Josh still attends every game in street clothes, offering the only thing he can: support for his teammates.
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"At times I think it's been harder on me than it has been on Josh," Aaron says.
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"I know he's hurting for me," Josh says.
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I'm hoping that's the intangible (today), and I want Josh to help them find that heart.
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And even though Josh won't be on the field, Aaron will get that good sting in his eyes and feel something only a father who's been there can.
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The significance is not lost on Josh Stewart, who is just a junior.He'll be back next year to follow in his father's footsteps.Then again, Josh Stewart no longer needs to borrow his father's Fridays.He long ago began collecting his own.
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Aaron Stewart, left, was the quarterback for Western Guilford High School in 1977 that took his team to the state championship; his son Josh Stewart was the starting quarterback for Grimsley High School until he was injured this season. Father and son pose in front of Aaron Stewarts high school championship game photo and a pennant from his days playing on Duke University football team Thursday Dec. 8, 2005 in their home in Greensboro, NC. (News & Record, Lynn Hey) (LYNN HEY)