Hayden Rebounds From Broken Leg

Stonewall Jackson Swimmer Aims for Titles, Scholarship

Swimmer Zach Hayden snapped his left femur during a recruiting visit to the University of Texas on Oct. 7, but he has recovered enough to compete in the 50 and 100-meter freestyle in the state championships. (Jonathan Ernst - The Post)

Zach Hayden could bear the intense physical pain, but the despair was agonizing.

As he lay holding his deformed, broken leg last October, his spirit sank. The senior All-Met swimmer at Stonewall Jackson had trained fervently for his senior season, hoping his performances would help him earn a scholarship to a top Division I program. With just one step, though, his prospects were cast in doubt.

"I had all these goals . . . and then those all just went out the window immediately," Hayden said.

The broken leg, suffered four months ago, will prevent Hayden from defending his Virginia AAA 100-yard breaststroke and 200 individual medley titles at today's state championship meet in Fairfax (although he will swim the 50 and 100 freestyle). What the injury will do to his college chances is less certain -- most programs that were recruiting him in the fall backed off after the injury, but Hayden still has a chance to land a scholarship by the spring signing period, which begins April 12.

The injury happened on a recruiting visit, of all places. On Oct. 7, during a visit to the University of Texas, Hayden and some Texas swimmers were playing "six-square," a game in which players knock a ball back and forth at a fast pace. Hayden took what he called a "bad step" and snapped his left femur.

"Going to Texas and breaking my femur, like on a list of one to a million, it was probably 1 million out of the things I expected to do while I was there," said Hayden, a high school all-American.

He had surgery that night. A titanium rod was inserted in his leg and attached with four pins. Hayden was relieved that doctors did not fit him with a leg cast, sparing him a four-month hiatus from the pool. They also assured him a full -- but lengthy -- recovery.

For a senior seeking a scholarship, Hayden was injured at a terrible time. The NCAA's early signing period for swimmers began Nov. 9, and Hayden had not even resumed swimming at that point. He had to postpone recruiting trips to Michigan and Virginia.

College coaches said they would wait for the spring signing period, gaining a chance to gauge Hayden's recovery. Virginia offered Hayden a 33 percent scholarship, but he declined with hopes of returning to health and getting a better offer in the spring.

Pete Morgan, Hayden's coach at the Curl-Burke club, has guided more than 150 swimmers to Division I programs over 27 years. He said the college coaches' decision to wait on Hayden "made complete sense."

"I think all the coaches in this process that are recruiting Zach have an idea of the kind of guy that he's going to be regardless of this temporary setback," said Morgan, who said he has been in contact with the coaches at Texas, Michigan and Virginia. "And I think they view it all as a temporary setback, not something that's going to hold him back from reaching his potential."

A positive outcome didn't always seem likely, however. One of the doctors who met with Hayden shortly after the injury told him it would be a year before he could swim competitively. Then, in late November, Hayden suffered a setback.