By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
After helping the Mt. Vernon football team win 12 games as a sophomore and 10 as a junior, wide receiver Rafe Darter was poised for another big year last fall.
Just three weeks in, however, Darter was left wondering if his high school sports career was finished.
The 6-foot-3 senior tore his ACL in September and figured he would be out for nine months. But Darter has made a remarkable recovery since having surgery on Oct. 2 and has somehow managed to play in three different sports this school year.
“It was definitely saddening to watch the rest of the season and not be able to be out there with those guys but I had to support them,” Darter said of the football season. “I knew I would be able to play again so that’s what’s kept me going.
Darter racked up 1,276 receiving yards his sophomore and junior seasons, scored 17 touchdowns and made 97 receptions. He was a first-team Big 8 receiver as a junior and also earned All-Area and All-District honors.
It was during a week two win at East Newton, though, that he took a hit to the knee and felt something was wrong.
“But I didn’t really know so I finished the game and then in practice the next week I fully tore it but still didn’t know,” he said. “The trainer didn’t think it had happened so I played week three and he was like well, the swelling isn’t going down so you’re going to have to get an MRI. That’s when they told me and I was so surprised because I didn’t feel a tear or anything.”
In just three games for the Mountaineers he caught 35 passes for 310 yards. In that week three contest against Reeds Spring – playing with a full tear – he still managed to intercept a pass and also hauled in an 18-yard touchdown.
“I was able to run straight but when I went to go cut on my left leg it gave out,” he said.
Mt. Vernon went just 2-6 without Darter in the lineup.
After surgery, Darter rehabbed at Mercy Sports Medicine – HealthTracks in Springfield; therapists there helped him “tremendously.” The rest of his recovery involved plain hard work.
“I rode a stationary bike probably from here to Seattle and back,” Darter said.
Around four months in he asked his doctor for an honest assessment.
“What do you think I can do?” Darter asked. “He was like well with where you’re at right now I think you could play district basketball. I was like wow, that’s great news. It felt amazing to be able to compete again.”
Sure enough, Darter returned for the final two basketball games of the season, a 48-36 win in the district semifinals against Reeds Spring – five months and a day after surgery – and a 66-58 loss to East Newton in which he scored eight points.
“I ran a mile three times before I played the first game and that was it so I was a little winded during basketball but now it feels good,” he said.
His knee didn’t feel 100 percent healed in March but now, with baseball season in full swing, it feels great. Head baseball coach Nick Swillum is glad to have him back.
“None of us thought we were going to have him at the beginning of spring,” he said. “His recovery started progressing real fast and we were thinking okay well maybe mid-April we get you back but then as he just kept recovering we had him for the jamboree. He came back for the end of basketball, last two games. It was crazy.”
Darter was a first team Big 8 East outfielder as a sophomore and earned second team All-District honors. He batted. 410 with 13 RBI’s and 17 stolen bases. He plays center field and is one of the team’s top two pitchers.
“He’s our team leader without a doubt,” Swillum said. “Our three hole hitter. Just an incredible athlete. Just having him with us is huge for us.”
Through the first 10 games this spring Darter batted .444 with 11 runs scored and five driven in. Of his 12 hits, five were doubles and he also added a triple. He’s pitched 18.1 innings and struck out 24 batters.
And his football career isn’t over, either. Missouri Southern contacted him after his junior season, and, even after a coaching change, he signed with the Lions last February to play wide receiver.
“I spent a lot of time in Joplin and I love that town,” he said. “I trusted those people were going to pick a new coach that would want the program to be better.”
Southern hired Atiba Bradley in February and the team won at Southern Nazarene in its lone spring game.
“They just won so they’re getting back on track,” Darter said. “Hopefully I can go contribute.”
