Selkirk’s Bryce Seaney overcame horrific accident

Bryce Seaney wanted to be part of the Selkirk basketball team so much that he was willing to serve his senior year as team manager so he could be with friends and six other seniors.

Then a handful of games into the season, Seaney asked coach Kelly Cain if he could join the team.

“He was jumping in and helping in drills and shooting a lot on the side,” Cain said.

Seaney had turned out for basketball as a junior and spent the year as a consistent contributor on the junior varsity. It was nothing short of a miracle that Seaney could play considering the horrific accident he suffered the summer before his freshman year.

He was driving a four-wheel utility vehicle with his brother and a friend near a park in Metaline when the vehicle flipped.

“I was driving it around and swerving it back and forth when I turned too sharp,” Seaney said. “The front wheel buckled and we flipped and the roll bar came down on my left leg (just above the ankle).”

Seaney and his passengers weren’t wearing seat belts. The passengers weren’t hurt. Seaney’s brother lifted the roll bar up enough so Bryce could crawl out from underneath.

“It felt like I had a super bad burn. It was the worst burning sensation I’ve ever felt,” Seaney said.

He looked down and his foot was facing inward instead of outward. His leg was ripped open and the only thing connecting the knee to the ankle was a thread of tendons above his ankle.

A paramedic arrived and asked Seaney if he could wiggle his toes.

“I saw my toes wiggle,” he said. “I don’t understand how they could wiggle.”

Seaney was taken by helicopter to Sacred Heart Medical Center.

That’s where his memory is foggy.

“I was heavily sedated for a week and a half,” he said.

His leg healed but it was crooked. So a year and a half later his leg was re-broke and a titanium rod with six screws was inserted.

Seaney wanted to play basketball and got a release from his doctor before the season last year. He favored his leg a lot. He had limitations. His left leg doesn’t have the same mobility of the right. And he doesn’t jump as high if he uses his left leg as the plant leg.

The screws were starting to unscrew last November and were rubbing against the bone and tendons causing pain.

So he had the screws taken out.

Cain remembers about three times last year that he’d see Seaney bent over at practice rubbing his left leg. He still has some gravel in his leg. Any time a piece of gravel works its way near the surface, he has it cut out.

“They couldn’t get all the gravel out,” he said. “X-rays show a bunch of tiny dots and that’s gravel. I’ve had three pebbles cut out that were as big as the tip of my pinky.”

In Seaney’s first game in December, Selkirk’s seventh of the season, he scored 10 points and had 10 rebounds off the bench.

The 6-foot-4 Seaney has developed into the Rangers’ sixth man, averaging five points and five rebounds.

Seaney’s leg is concaved where it sustained the brunt of the injury. He takes two Tylenol before practice and before games to temper the pain.

“It’s remarkable that he’s out there getting after it,” Cain said. “He doesn’t show it but I know he’s in pain. He doesn’t make it an issue.”

Selkirk finished second in the Northeast 1B North behind Republic. The North and South teams are in the midst of their district tournament where the top two advance to the regional round of state.

The Rangers (16-5) meet No. 1-ranked Almira/Coulee-Hartline (21-0) when district play resumes Saturday at Deer Park.

Seaney hopes to do his part in giving Selkirk a chance to earn a state berth.

“I’m just glad I gave basketball another try,” said Seaney, who plans to attend a waste water treatment school in Alaska next year. “It was tough not being out there and seeing my friends have so much fun.”