Lebanon is a town that rallies around a team.
“Football is huge here,” said Mindy Hutson.
The Hutson family knows that Yellowjacket passion well.
“Our older son also played and he said to me, ‘Mom a lot of people knew who we were from me, but now everyone knows who we are because of JJ’,” said Mindy.
Sophomore JJ Hutson played on the J-V team. Mid-way through the 2023 season, his number 68 jersey made its way to the Friday night lights, but not the way he envisioned.
“My dad called me and told me that JJ got in a wreck and just kind of explained it,” said JJ’s cousin Tommy Jennings. “At first I was kind of in shock. I was like oh it was a little wreck but as I learned about it, it was horrible.”
Last September, JJ lost control on the road. He crashed, pinning himself between his car and a tree.
“[I remember] just waking up saying this can’t be real,” JJ said. “This has to be a dream and trying to wake up from a dream. But, it was real.”
It took two hours before responders could pry JJ from the car and he was airlifted to the hospital in Springfield.
“The ER doctor had said that he had broken his neck and he would never move again from his neck down,” Mindy said.
JJ spent months recovering.
“Nine hour long days where it was just straight therapy the whole time,” JJ said.
But he was never alone.
“The football team is a family,” Mindy said.
“When he was in the hospital we would come visit JJ,” said JJ’s teammate and friend Evan Ogle. “If you didn’t see the way he was you wouldn’t know what circumstance he was in because he had that positive energy the whole time.”
“Even now he is cracking jokes,” said JJ’s teammate and friend Westyn McKinney. “He has always been the class clown. Just making jokes about it.”
JJ finally returned to school in January.
“I think it was also a sigh of relief,” Westyn said. “Like okay JJ is going to be okay.”
“School at the beginning was pretty hard,” JJ said. “Just really something to get used to, lots of people looking at me, but now it’s going pretty good.”
He is getting back to the life he once lived, like weights class with his teammates.
“I feel like everyone was a bit happier,” said JJ’s teammate and friend Jake Rebmann. “It’s hard to be sad around JJ.”
But what JJ missed the most is getting in the discus circle.
“The gap from eighth grade season to ninth grade season I didn’t go a day without throwing a disc,” JJ said. “It just meant a lot to me.”
His dedication to discus displays the same drive JJ has in his recovery.
“I remember one day he just wasn’t having the best day,” said JJ’s teammate and friend Eli Jackson. “But he kept pushing through and he kept throwing and I just remember eventually towards the end of the day I came back from the shot put ring and I saw he was throwing it so much farther than everyone else. It was amazing to see him challenge himself and get through a rough day.”
As just freshman, the distance of his throws were proof of his hard work.
“[Throwing] half meter behind a senior, he’s pretty good at throwing,” Jake said.
JJ still attends track and field practices, now as an honorary coach.
“I’m there for support, as a good friend,” JJ said. “Trying to do my part. “
“Just him being there has kind of elevated all the throwers, just made us all better,” Jake said.
The Yellowjacket passion is obvious in Lebanon. While JJ is no longer throwing on a jersey, nothing is stopping him from being apart of the action.
