High School Football Playoff Injuries Ripple Into Winter Sports

Football injuries sustained during November postseason play have had lingering effects on several local high school teams, disrupting basketball and wrestling lineups and highlighting the challenges of managing multi-sport athletes.

Williams High School lost multiple players to collarbone injuries in a Class 6-A playoff loss to Union Pines. Senior receiver William Overby played through what was later diagnosed as a fractured right collarbone to finish the football game, and may have first sustained the injury three weeks earlier in the regular-season finale at Roxboro Person. The injury kept Overby out of all December basketball games; he was placed in a sling after the playoff game and was cleared to return to the court on the Friday night matchup with Southeast Guilford. Overby came off the bench for a brief first-half stint and logged extended minutes in the second half as Williams topped Southeast Guilford 71-61.

Another Williams player, junior tight end Braeden Vetter, suffered a displaced left collarbone in that same playoff contest. Vetter, who had been part of Williams’ basketball program, is not playing this basketball season. He was a starting goalie on the school’s lacrosse team as a sophomore last year, underscoring the way one injury can remove an athlete from several team rosters and seasons.

Those setbacks came in the third round of the playoffs, a deeper postseason run for the Bulldogs after receiving a first-round bye. Extra playoff games increased exposures and contributed to a concentration of injuries late in the football season.

Southeast Alamance also saw postseason injuries carry forward. Sophomore lineman Pedro Cabello suffered a serious foot injury in a first-round playoff game at home against Orange. Cabello missed Southeast’s next week when the Stallions were eliminated at Southern Nash. Southeast football coach Tony Aguilar said in November, "losing depth along the line wasn’t ideal, but he also hated to see an injury that would cause an athlete to miss time in another sport."

Cabello was expected to compete in the upper weights for Southeast’s wrestling program, and his foot injury has put that season in doubt; coaches indicated he could miss the entire wrestling season, though he might return for spring football workouts. Southeast wrestling coach Grant Gibson said Cabello has attended some practices and meets and has stayed involved with the team despite being sidelined.

For local programs with lean rosters and overlapping sports calendars, these cases illustrate how late-season football injuries reverberate through winter and spring athletics. The immediate impact is a loss of depth and experience on court and mat. Looking ahead, recovery timelines and roster adjustments will shape team strategies and opportunities for younger players to step into expanded roles.