Inside The Huskies

Heims Injured Near End of First Spring Practice, Requiring Paramedics to Treat Him

The Husky edge rusher was strapped to a stretcher with his condition unknown.
Dan Raley|
Heims Injured Near End of First Spring Practice, Requiring Paramedics to Treat Him
Heims Injured Near End of First Spring Practice, Requiring Paramedics to Treat Him

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Washington Huskies

The initial University of Washington spring football practice was lively, fast-paced, if not the continuation of last season's success — until 10 minutes remained.

On Monday in Dempsey Indoor, all of those good feelings that come with the resumption of Husky football took a jolt when sophomore edge rusher Maurice Heims went down while trying to get at quarterback Michael Penix Jr. in a non-contact drill and didn't get up.

Lying on his back, the 6-foot-5, 246-pound Heims from Hamburg, Germany, immediately was surrounded by four team trainers who talked to him, squeezed his hands and did all sorts of checklist items regarding his range of motion. 

Nine people next carefully lifted the injured UW player onto a stretcher and strapped him in, but they didn't attempt to move him any more than that. 

Paramedics arrived about 12 minutes following the mishap, or as practice was coming to a close, and began treating Heims while everyone else was ushered outside.

Athletic department officials said they would provide an update on Heims' condition as soon as they could.

Yet on Monday night, it was Heims who posted the following encouraging message on Twitter: "I appreciate all the thoughts and prayers.  I’ll be back in no time! Love you all."

Once this injury happened, the coaches moved the Huskies' controlled, scrimmage-like drill away from the downed player and it resumed, yet that didn't stop teammates from continually peeking behind them to see what was happening.

"It's always bad when one of us goes down," said Voi Tunuufi, a junior who appears to be making the move from defensive tackle to edge rusher and playing alongside Heims. "We'll definitely have him in our prayers."

Heims was just coming into his own as this European kid who had traveled halfway around the world to first play high school football in Southern California and then be rewarded with a UW scholarship and play his way onto the field.

He appeared in 7 Husky games last season and accumulated 3 tackles, including two for lost yards and one of them for a sack. He's expected to play even more this coming season.

 

 

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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