Leach's recovery is no accident
Rehab regimen leads to return to gridiron
David Leach has plenty of reasons to smile these days. The most compelling one comes in his stride.
The 23-year-old walks around the Framingham State College campus, amazingly, with no trace of a limp.
A little more than two years ago, Leach was thrown from his motorcycle after colliding with a sport utility vehicle just a few hundred yards away from a baseball game at his alma mater, Chelmsford High.
No one in the SUV was hurt. Leach will tell you that he's lucky to be alive.
His memory of the accident is fuzzy. He remembers being helped by his former high school football coach, Bruce Rich, and athletic director Jack Fletcher, and being told "the helicopter is here." He was flown to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, where he was diagnosed with a fractured sternum, shattered femur, punctured lung, and separated shoulder.
"It was tough. My whole life I had been playing three, four, five sports," said Leach, who had just completed his sophomore year at Merrimack College. "Next thing you know, you wake up in Boston and they tell you you're going to have trouble walking again, and then it's rehab time."
His peers will tell you that Leach is an intense competitor.
Four days per week, for an entire year, a determined Leach attacked his rehabilitation. His reward? This season, the 5-foot-8, 170-pound junior, with a metal rod and two large screws in his right leg, will be playing football at Framingham State.
"I remember my doctor saying she was shocked that she was clearing me to play college football again," he recalled.
On the field this fall, Leach will team up with Bruce Rich Jr., the Chelmsford coach's son and Leach's close friend and former teammate in high school and at Merrimack. The two transferred to Framingham a year ago and Rich, starting at free safety last fall, led the Rams with four interceptions and ranked sixth in total tackles (41).
"He's a winner - him and his whole family. He'll itch and claw to win," Leach said of Rich. "You'll see it. You'll be playing basketball, he'll be scheming, drawing up plays even for a two-on-two game. You'll be playing horseshoes or bocce with him, and he's just going to try to find any way to win."
Rich said Leach is the best athlete he's ever played with - by far. "He's just an incredible gamer."
At Framingham State, second-year head coach Tom Kelley gives Leach, and many other Rams players, a reason to smile pretty much every day. The Rams are in their second season of running a spread offense, with a focus on the running game and short passing routes.
Leach is listed as a wide receiver, but Kelley said he plans to use him all over the field in the Rams' attack. He might line up at tight end, in the slot, in the backfield, or split out wide; he'll be taking handoffs, pitches and screens from various spots on the field, Kelley said.
The plan is to get guys like Leach and fellow wideout Corey Steele as many touches as possible.
"Not only do we want to play football, we want to be exciting when we do it," Kelley said.
That also means Rich will be back at quarterback for the first time since his senior year of high school, when he led the Lions to a Super Bowl appearance.
Putting him at free safety last year, Kelley admitted, "was a mistake on my part. Football-wise, he's probably our smartest player."
Optimism is high for a team that finished 2-7 a year ago, losing its final six games in the New England Football Conference. The Rams return just five starters on defense, but have two of its top three tacklers returning in linebackers Joe Treacy and Anthony Pappagallo.
Framingham State also welcomes in a promising class of 30 freshmen, and new assistants for Kelley in skills coach Aynsley Rosenbaum and offensive line coach Mike DiCenso.
DiCenso has implemented several new blocking schemes, and has focused on improvement in footwork and in combination blocks. Kelley also introduced a new strength program that has left tackle Steve DaSilva describing himself as in "the best shape I've ever been in my life.
"Look at this smile. You can't deny this smile," said DaSilva, a senior who like his head coach is a Milford High graduate. "I've been waiting for this since I came on board. Everybody's all smiles. This is going to be a nasty team."
Leach can certainly relate. For him, every moment on the field screams optimism these days.
"I used to dread practicing, but now it's . . . I'm lucky to be able to come out here and practice. It's so rewarding now," he said. "It's one of those things you take for granted, and then all of a sudden it's taken away.
"You realize, 'Why am I complaining about coming down to a football field for double sessions?' There's plenty of people that cannot do that."
Brendan Hall can be reached at bhall59@hotmail.com. 