HAMPTON, Va. (WTKR) — With one conversation, Emery D'Urso thought his final high school football season was ending before it could even get started.
The senior offensive lineman, who's been a part of two straight state championship runs with Phoebus, started feeling pain in his left foot during the summer.
"I was getting some training in for the season," he remembered. "It was one of those things they said was a stress fracture. My doctor said I was doing too much."
His diagnosis was a navicular stress fracture and the outlook on the injury was bleak.
"The doctor said he'd never seen it heal was surgery," D'Urso said, indicating his season would've ended with the procedure. "The odds of this injury healing and being able to play on it was very low."
"You're looking at one of your seniors, this kid's been in your program for four years and has played nothing but varsity," said Phantoms head coach Jeremy Blunt. "It was an emotional moment."
Before he made the decision to go through with the surgery, however, D'Urso made the choice to try rest and recovery, despite the low odds.
"I love my team and I wanted to be here for them and it was hurting me that I couldn't," he said.
After missing the first game of the season against Oscar Smith, D'Urso got clearance to return to the field. A month of not putting weight on his foot had paid off.
"You could've heard a pin drop," Blunt said. "We were all quiet and all of a sudden, the coaches office just erupted."
"I was so used to pain for so long in (the foot), it was weird not having any," D'Urso said. "I just knew right off the bat we had to try everything and I'm glad we did."
His senior season has delivered. Phoebus is 9-0 in 2023 and clinched a seventh straight Peninsula District title on Saturday with a close win over unbeaten Warwick.
D'Urso getting a second shot at his final chapter with the Phantoms and he's doing all he can to end his career on his terms.
"After hearing what I heard and being able to play was by itself just amazing," he said. "It felt surreal."
The Phantoms wrap up their regular season on Friday night against Denbigh.
