A Bright spot for Fenwick

PEABODY – The night the Bishop Fenwick football team opened its 2018 season with a win over Hamilton-Wenham, its star quarterback endured one of the most challenging car rides of his entire life. Senior Cory Bright, a starter since the middle of his freshman season, injured his throwing shoulder around the start of the game and couldn’t return. A hospital trip for X-rays was necessary, which was nothing new for a kid that has suffered three other major injuries over the past two years. “Does the reward outweigh the risk,” kept circling in his head, just as his sister and mother had religiously asked him since his last injury. Now, Bright would say it did. He returned from a separated SC joint in Week 6, and helped lead the team to a semifinal appearance in the Division 6 North playoffs. He also broke the school’s all-time career passing yards and touchdown records throughout the run. Yet, as he rode in the car with his family to the hospital that night, he wasn’t sure the reward did outweigh the risk. “I was frustrated, I was overwhelmed,” Bright said. “I kept thinking, ‘What else can I do? Is it still worth it?’ … I had done seemingly everything I could do (to get healthy), and when I got hurt again, I was doubtful.” For Bright, injuries are like the unwanted dog that no matter what you do, it somehow always ends up back at your doorstep. It all started around the end of his sophomore season, as Bright hurt his left wrist in a playoff game. He was told by a doctor to rest it for three months, but that turned into six months when a second look revealed a break and a need for surgery. That meant missing basketball and baseball – Bright’s favorite sport. He was back on the gridiron for preseason his junior year, only to break a bone in his left foot during a scrimmage. And after returning several weeks later, an awkward twist during a game led to a torn ACL in his right knee. That’s when Bright’s sister and mother started to check in with the question, “Does the reward outweigh the risk?” But Bright’s answer was yes every time. “There was no doubt in my mind I was going to come back,” he said. “I felt that if I didn’t come back, that would’ve been letting the team down. … If I didn’t, that would be something I’d look back at for the rest of my life.” Crusaders head coach David Woods highly regards Bright as a person, as well as an athlete. With a rare combination of awareness, football intelligence, speed, accuracy and throwing power, Woods says Bright is perhaps the best quarterback he’s ever had. But what also stands out to Woods is Bright’s leadership of the younger players even when out with an injury, which he finds to be rare. And that sort of selfless attitude is what made it so hard for Woods to see Bright separate his shoulder after missing six months with the ACL injury, just seven plays into the Hamilton-Wenham game. “Cory’s an incredible kid, it’s hard to describe how special he is,” Woods said. “The stuff he’s had to go through with injuries, he’s worked real hard to get back to be ready to play, and then get another injury. He’s never, never been negative about it. “The hardest part for me was this year, I saw him work so hard after the ACL,” he continued. “First game, several plays in, he gets hurt again. Usually it’s the coaches trying to pick up the kids when a big player goes down. They had to pick me up.” Of course, Bright came back and threw for eight combined touchdowns in the regular-season finale and first-round playoff victory. It’s the kind of talent that drew a lot of college attention before the injuries, and if he were healthy like this during that time, more than the small few still would be after the quarterback with over 3,000 career passing yards despite all the missed time. But after all that rehabilitation, Bright is moving on. Baseball season is around the corner, and he’s finally healthy. There are no what-ifs. He just wants to play.