Comeback complete

Photo

Canfield senior Dan Banna

By Joe Scalzo

Cards’ Banna named first team All-Ohio

The third baseman tore his ACL during football season.

This a story about an All-Ohio baseball player, but it starts on a hot day in mid-August in a scrimmage against Louisville, where a Canfield senior running back named Dan Banna is about to play his last down as a high school football player.

Banna, a Division I recruit who seemed poised for a big season, had just completed 10 plays at linebacker when the teams switched sides and Banna took his place in the backfield. On the first offensive play, he took a handoff at his own 20 yard line, broke open and was already deep into Leopards’ side of the field when he saw a defender coming on his right side.

“So I made a cut and all the sudden it felt like something was wrapped around my leg,” he said. “I felt a little pop in my knee, but I didn’t think anything was wrong, so I kept running.

“As I was running, the knee wasn’t working. So I went down and something didn’t feel right. As soon as I got up, my knee gave out and I knew something was wrong.”

Doctors soon confirmed the worst — an ACL tear. Banna was looking at six to eight months of rehab and no football. His season had ended on the other team’s 20.

“My whole senior year, I didn’t cross the goal line,” he said. “When I found out, it was like I just got hit with something. My heart just sank.

“I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t think it would ever happen to me.”

Up to that point, Banna’s life was going perfectly. He was coming off a junior season in which he was a two-way starter for a league championship team. With Banna in the backfield, the Cardinals had the look of a playoff team.

Even better, he was getting looks from Mid-American Conference schools and was hoping a big year could boost him into the Big Ten.

But with knee surgery looming — and baseball season still a possibility — Banna turned his attention to getting back on the field.

“I was thinking, OK, six months to get my butt back in shape and get my knee ready,” he said. “I was looking forward to baseball. That was my main goal.

“I just wanted to have a senior year, to play with my buddies.”

Weeks later, the Bannas were blindsided once again. Dan’s older brother Kyle, a fullback on YSU’s football team, suffered an ACL injury in a Week 6 game against Liberty and was lost for the season.

“That was kind of a bummer,” said Dan. “I was kidding with him, saying he wants to follow me, even though he’s my older brother.

“If he had any questions, I tried to help him out since I had already went through it. I told him he was going to come out stronger.”

The older Banna was cleared for full-contact on Tuesday. The younger Banna, meanwhile, rehabbed with a vengeance and was back on the field this spring for a Canfield team that got off to a promising start, winning 18 of its first 19 games and earning a share of the All-American Red Tier title.

Although the Cardinals’ season was cut short by Fitch in the Division I sectional finals, it was an unqualified success for Banna, a third baseman who broke the school record by batting .633 to shatter the old mark of .506. He also had six homers.

The capper came this week, when the Ohio Baseball Coaches Association voted him first team All-Ohio in Division I — the only area player to earn that honor in any division.

“I was really excited,” he said. “That’s what I was shooting for, to come back and be successful.”

The knee injury probably cost him a football scholarship, but YSU has already invited him to join the team as a preferred walk-on. He is also getting looks as a baseball player, with schools like Akron, Bowling Green, Kent and Ohio University showing interest.

“Right now, the plan is to play football at YSU,” said Banna, who plans to major in finance or accounting. “I love football. I love contact. I love the atmosphere and the fans — I love all of that.

“I love baseball, too, but my heart is probably set on baseball. That’s why it’s so hard. I don’t want to leave football.”

Still, if the right baseball offer comes around, he’ll take it.

“I don’t want to leave baseball, either,” he said. “Right now, I’m just working out and getting ready for whatever comes up.”

scalzo@vindy.com