Atholton’s Ean Katz overcomes appendicitis to lead No. 8 Raiders’ defense

The last time Atholton played River Hill, on Sept. 16, the visiting Raiders dominated so thoroughly in a 14-0 victory that the Hawks didn’t manage a first down until the second half.

Defense has been the calling card for the eighth-ranked Raiders (10-1); they have six shutouts, including four in a row, entering the Maryland 3A East Region final against visiting River Hill (9-2) on Friday night.

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(Jonathan Newton/WASHINGTON POST) - Said Ean Katz of suffering a ruptured appendix during a game against River Hill: “I didn’t know to call a timeout. . . . I just played the play. I felt out of it. The room was spinning, and after the play I just collapsed in the backfield.”

But their leading tackler didn’t finish that regular season game against the Hawks.

And Raiders senior linebacker Ean Katz is hoping for at least one major difference in the playoff game between the two. In the regular season meeting, Katz made a routine third-quarter tackle but knew immediately something was wrong.

“I got up and it was a sharp pain, like nothing I’d ever felt before,” Katz said. “They had got out of the huddle, lined up, and I didn’t know to call a timeout, I didn’t know what to do. So I just played the play. I felt out of it. The room was spinning, and after the play I just collapsed in the backfield.”

What Katz had assumed was just a bad case of the stomach flu earlier in the week turned out to be acute appendicitis, a condition that occurs when the appendix becomes inflamed and fills with bacteria. Katz had managed to play well through the pain, but that one hit caused his already-swollen appendix to rupture.

For Katz’s father, Jeff, a doctor who practices emergency medicine, missing the diagnosis in his own son was both frustrating and frightening, especially because the abdominal infection that results from a ruptured appendix has the potential to be fatal within hours.

“That’s one diagnosis you can’t miss. To miss it in my own son was just sort of an abomination. I couldn’t look myself in the mirror for about a month,” Jeff said. “It’s really hard to make that diagnosis sometimes, especially in athletes, because their pain tolerance is so high.”

With the game still in progress, Ean was carted off the field to his father’s car and rushed to Howard County Hospital where, early Saturday morning, he had emergency surgery.

For Raiders Coach Kyle Schmitt, Katz’s willingness to take the field was impressive yet problematic.

“It’s scary for you, because I know how important it is to these kids, and the commitment that he made to us is so impressive,” Schmitt said. “To play with that, to play in pain, means a lot to me as a coach. But at the same time, it’s scary because sometimes we have to protect these kids from themselves because of how tough they are. He’s a tough kid, he loves the game, he loves playing and he loves playing against River Hill.”

The surgery was performed laparascopically, thus requiring only small incisions to his abdomen. The 6-foot-3, 215-pound Katz missed just three games; when he came back, against Hammond on Oct. 14, he made nine tackles. He matched that figure the next week in a 35-0 win at Wilde Lake, adding two sacks and a pair of fumble recoveries.

Schmitt and Katz believe his injury was not without a silver lining. For Schmitt, it was nice to see other Raiders step up in Katz’s absence. For Katz, the time spent watching and observing on the sideline paid dividends.

“I definitely learned a lot being on the sideline, watching from a different perspective of what my position does, what I need to do,” said Katz, who has received recruiting interest from Maryland, James Madison and Elon (N.C.) “I feel like having that probably made me a better player.”

With a state semifinal berth at stake Friday night, Katz is eager to face the Hawks fully healthy.

“It feels like a second chance, a second chance for me to show what I have against them. To not be 100 percent for that game [means] not being able to do something that means a lot to me,” he said.

“There’s just things that you never wish ever happen again, and that’s one of them. I’m so glad I don’t have another one,” he added.