A player no more

It started as a pain in the neck.

Ross Brunelle moved into the starting lineup as a fullback for the University of Montana, leading the way for tailback Lex Hilliard to rush for 1,322 yards and a dozen touchdowns, and the Grizzlies to a share of the Big Sky Conference championship. The East Valley graduate started the season as a linebacker prospect and ended it as an honorable mention All-Big Sky Conference fullback/tight end.

But that pain in his neck after a head-on collision with a defender was a concern.

“I tried to just play through it,” said the former All-State linebacker for the Knights. “This spring the coaches decided to have it checked out a little further.”

Doctors discovered a dangerous condition in Brunelle’s third cervical vertebra. After years of wear and tear from playing football, there was no protection for the spinal cord to go on impact except back into the spinal column – something commonly referred to as “a stinger.”

Two team doctors and a Montana neurologist agreed: it was best if Brunelle stopped playing football. Last month a spinal cord specialist for the Seattle Seahawks concurred.

Ross Brunelle is through playing football.

“I’ve had a couple months since the doctors first discovered this thing to come to grips with it,” Brunelle said. “Looking forward, there are some things that I want to do with my life. If I continued to try to play football, I might not be able to do them.

“And there’s a chance of paralysis, so it’s kind of a no-brainer.”

But it’s particularly disappointing.

There’s a buzz around the Missoula campus about the upcoming college football season. Former Washington State quarterback Josh Swogger transferred to Montana and will take over an offense that features Hilliard and University of Washington transfer Craig Chambers at wide receiver.

“I was definitely looking forward to the season,” Brunelle said. “They had put some new stuff into the offense just for my position. In the offense we play over there, I’m officially a tight end – an H back, really. But I’m different than the type of H back they’ve had in the past. They were looking to go into more I-formation type stuff.”

Brunelle’s brother, Brady, plans to walk-on with the Grizzlies this season – making the first time the brothers would have to play on the same team.

“When I was a senior, he was a freshman and had to play on the freshman team,” Ross said. “I’ve never really played on the same team with him before. It was something I was looking forward to.”

Montana coach Bobby Hauck offered his former fullback a job as a coach – something that thrills Brunelle’s mother, Kim, Central Valley’s longtime gymnastics coach.

“My son has a personality very conducive to being a good coach,” she said. “I know he really wanted to play, and this news broke his heart. And it broke my heart to see his heart broken.

“It was a dream that my two sons would get to play together. But now, it just might be that my older son will get to help coach my younger son.”

Ross said he’s excited about the chance to coach.

“Even though I’m not technically a graduate assistant, I’ll do a lot of the things they do,” he said. “I’ll put practice plans together, set up practice times, break down films, things like that.

“I’d like to stick around with this for a while, especially if the coaches there stick around for a while. I wouldn’t mind sticking around and going to grad school and working for them.

“I always thought I could make a pretty good coach, and I’ve certainly had a great role model in my mom – I’ve learned a lot watching her over the years.”

Brunelle said he still has a year-and-a-half to go until graduation and has started work on a second degree.

“I have a criminology degree, but that only took 70 credits and I need 120 to graduate,” he said. “So I’ve started to work on a forensic anthropology degree.

“I pretty much went to school to play football. I have always wanted to go into law enforcement and, hopefully, SWAT, so that seemed like the best degree to go for to help with that.”

The good news about the neck situation, Brunelle said, is that it shouldn’t cause him further problems as long as he stops playing football – a great prognosis for his career plans.

“As long as I avoid those helmet-to-helmet or helmet-to-chest collisions, I should be just fine,” he said.