Byrnes athletes find strength after accident
Byrnes football stars Chris Foster and Caleb Melton shared stories from recovery after the pair were hospitalized in November 2022 from a car accident.
Just six months after a car accident that left Byrnes athletes Caleb Melton and Chris Foster hospitalized, the pair of Rebels are right back on the road to success.
Melton and Foster are standouts in their respective sports, and there’s no shortage of them between the two. Both play football and lacrosse for the Rebels, while Melton is also on the wrestling team and has committed to wrestle and play football at Limestone University.
Back in November, however, making it back onto a field anytime soon seemed far-fetched.
With the pair headed to Melton’s house to grab their football jerseys just hours before a crucial game, their world changed in a flash.
“It was just a normal day,” Melton said. “But we were driving back to his house, and all of a sudden, I had to swerve to avoid something on the road and we ended up swerving off the road and into a tree.”
Melton and Foster were immediately taken to the hospital following the accident. Melton shattered his right hip in the crash, while Foster broke both bones in his forearm and shattered his left femur.
Both were thankful to be alright and taken care of, but their doctor came in that same day to deliver gut-wrenching news. Foster recalled the moment vividly.
“I’ll never forget it,” Foster said. “I remember laying in the trauma bed and the doctor telling us it would probably be six months or more before we’d be athletes again.”
For both young men, that news couldn’t have come at a more inopportune time. The first round of the Class AAAA football playoffs was that night, and both were hitting their strides heading into the postseason, Melton as a defensive lineman and Foster as a middle linebacker/defensive end.
“Literally the week before all of this, Chris and I had both had killer games,” Melton said. “Chris had tipped a ball at the line of scrimmage and I picked it off. It was just starting to feel like everything was rolling full-steam ahead.”
That six-month recovery timeframe would have likely ended not just their football season, but Melton’s wrestling season and Foster’s lacrosse season, as well. With Melton being a senior, it was a potential reality the two refused to accept.
They made a choice in that moment.
“After the doctor told us that, we just decided we weren’t going to let that happen,” said Foster. “It was his senior year and my junior year, so we didn’t want to just quit right then and there. So we just worked and worked and worked non-stop. It was an everyday process. We wanted to get to a point where we were comfortable to play.”
Foster wanted to be ready to play lacrosse in the spring. Melton, having not played the sport before, decided he’d do the same.
“I knew I wasn’t going to be able to wrestle,” Melton said. “There was no chance I’d be recovered by the time that started. And since Chris played lacrosse, I decided I’d give it a shot. I wasn’t done being a Rebel yet.”
The two of them set out on a grueling recovery process four days later as soon as they were released from the hospital. For Foster, the steps were small at first, but over time, he found his injuries healing and his life slowly getting back on track.
“Right after I got home, I asked myself, ‘man, what can I do? I’ve got two working things right now, my left arm and my right leg. That first week, I was able to walk without my crutch. I just kept practicing that, going from the couch to my bathroom and back without the crutch. I lifted with my left arm a lot, and then I finally started to get my motion back in my right arm, too. It felt like a long process, but in a fairly short amount of time.”
Melton’s situation was different, however.
“I wasn’t allowed to put any weight on my right leg for 12 weeks,” Melton said. “So it was a three-month period. I mean, sometimes I got tempted and still put a little weight on it. But for the most part, I stayed off of it. As soon as I got back to school, though, which was maybe two or three weeks after the wreck, I talked to our strength coach, Coach [Keith] Caton, and during my free period each day I’d do upper body lifts with him.”
Both Foster and Melton’s hard work paid off. They speed-ran through their recovery process, outpacing the doctor’s expectations by eight weeks.
They returned to action in early March, finishing out the year with the lacrosse team.
No matter what, Foster and Melton knew one thing: they were going to play their first games back together. Neither would return to action before the other.
Byrnes’ March 4th game against Fox Creek was the date they chose, exactly four months after the accident. The Rebels cruised to a symbolic 14-3 victory.
“That was a pretty big deal for us,” Foster said. “Anytime people see me or Caleb, we’re probably going to be together. If we were going to do this, we knew we were going to do it together.”
Through determination and relentless effort, the pair accomplished exactly what they’d set out to do.
Both opened up about the life lessons they learned throughout the challenging process.
“I mean, if I look back at November 4, I remember thinking ‘there’s no way I’m going to be able to get through this and be alright,’” Melton said. “But through this, my mental toughness has really been strengthened a lot. And even when all of this was first happening, there were like, 30 people in our hospital rooms at times. I’ll never forget the love our friends and teammates showed both of us.”
“Without the man above, God, we wouldn’t even be here,” Foster said, with Melton nodding his head in agreement. “And so many people helped get me through this. My parents, my grandparents, my aunt. The doctors, especially. And my friends always kept pushing me, talking junk to me to motivate me to get back.”
Foster laughed and smiled.
“Yeah, I think our confidence really grew a lot from this,” he said. “We turned a six-month injury into a lot less. I think it just shows that if you put your mind to it, you can really do a lot more than you think.”