For Niko Boyce, playing under the Friday night lights was a dream come true.
“My whole life I always thought like football is my thing. It’ll always be my thing,” said Boyce.
The former Barron Collier High School quarterback aimed to make the most of his senior season. However, he quickly learned how swiftly life can change.
“Can’t take anything for granted because in the blink of an eye your life can change forever or your life can be gone,” said Boyce.
During Barron Collier’s season opener against Immokalee, Boyce injured his leg. Despite the injury, he played in the Week 2 game against Naples, but the pain worsened.
“Going into the Week 2 game against Naples, I just noticed it wasn’t feeling right and it just building up more and more. Getting worse and worse and then but still I didn’t feel like I couldn’t play that game,” said Boyce.
Boyce realized after the game that he was in excruciating pain, leading to a trip to the ER where he discovered he had compartment syndrome.
“After the game, I was in excruciating pain. Took a bunch of medication, trying to relieve the pain, nothing was working. So that’s when we went into the ER and we found out it was compartment syndrome,” said Boyce.
He underwent surgery that night, facing a life-threatening condition.
“When I woke up from that first surgery and the doctor and my parents ended up explaining to me that the rhabdomyolysis, which is the bad protein that can get into your blood traveled to my kidneys and yeah it threatened my life,” said Boyce.
A second surgery followed, and doctors told Boyce he would not play football again.
“I felt very lost, not knowing what to do. Just feeling like my life was over because like I said I played football my whole life,” said Boyce.
After another surgery and discussions with his parents, Boyce learned he had a small chance of playing again.
“My parents just reminded me and put that reminder in the back of my head that you know I’ve been playing for all of my life and you know I’ve been working at this all my life to get to a certain destination and I’m not there yet. So I definitely want to be there,” said Boyce.
His destination was to play college football.
“I feel like I have a lot of people to prove wrong. Nothing against coaches that recruited me in the past or anything. But I feel like I always been doubted in some way,” said Boyce.
Boyce began training, even with his leg wrapped or in a boot, working with his longtime trainer Jackyson Bazile.
“I know the lower body isn’t working right now. But let’s go ahead and get working with the upper body so you can see man I still have muscles and stay active because staying in bed doing nothing was not going to be good for him,” said Bazile.
Though New Hampshire pulled their offer after the injury, Ana Maria College in Massachusetts offered Boyce a football scholarship due to his determination and recovery.
“My confidence is through the roof now. Now that I’m committed as well. It’s very exciting to know I get a second opportunity to you know make something of you know this sport,” said Boyce.
Boyce now has a second chance at life and football.
