Coach:

Life's

turns

WOODSTOCK — It was both unexpected and unimaginable, a life-altering event for a young man who never saw it coming.

Dennis Snelling, head coach of The Woodstock Academy’s girls’ soccer team, had just finished his workout at the YMCA in Putnam on Jan. 25, just two days after his 31st birthday.

He was pumped when he left the facility, having just run a mile and a half in 11 ½ minutes.

 

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Recovering

Woodstock Academy girls’ soccer team head coach Dennis Snelling is pictured with, from left to right: team members Linda St. Laurent, Kennedy Davignon and Hallie Saracina at Gaylord Hospital in Wallingford. Courtesy photo.

 

It was and will remain a lifetime best.

Shortly after he left the facility, he began to feel a little light-headed. He was on his hands-free device, talking to his wife about whether she wanted him to pick up coffee on the way home.

He had to stop at the light at the intersection of Kennedy Drive and Pomfret Street in Putnam. 

He accelerated when the light changed.

“I don’t remember anything else,” Snelling said.

His Jeep went through “a tunnel of trees and bike racks” and missed everything. It didn’t, however, miss the corner of the Rite-Aid pharmacy.

The next thing he remembers was saying over and over again, “my back hurts.”

Day Kimball Hospital transferred him to Hartford Hospital for emergency surgery.

He recalled waking up to hear his doctor tell him that they fused the L2-L5 discs in his back.

The accident had been caused by some form of seizure, possibly hereditary in nature, possibly brought on by over-exertion and lack of food. 

The prognosis was murky at best.

“The neurosurgeon was very calm and said, basically, that my lower extremities don’t work. I was like ‘OK.’ I understood every word, my brain was fine, I felt fine, my arms are moving, so what’s the big deal? I could wiggle a toe, but just a little bit. I said to myself, ‘That’s not good,’” Snelling said.

On Aug. 24, Snelling was back on the sidelines, coaching his girls’ soccer team on the first day of practice..

“Honestly, I’m not that surprised,” said senior midfielder Kennedy Davignon. “We got to see him work so hard to get to where he is now. I feel like that’s honestly what has pushed us this summer and this preseason to be better than last year because we have a really good role model to look up to.”

The Centaurs finished 13-3-2 and won the Eastern Connecticut Conference Division II championship. 

Even bigger things are expected this season and Snelling wanted to be around for it.  

The rehab was not easy.

Snelling suffered spinal cord damage, his L3 had burst upon impact and created “a mess” in the spinal cord region.

Snelling remained in Hartford Hospital for a few days before being transferred to Gaylord Hospital in Wallingford, which specializes in spinal cord injuries, where he spent 10 weeks learning how to go about daily life in a wheelchair.

“I never asked the question ‘Is this permanent?’ I knew there was no answer. It’s what you put into it and to what extent the nerve damage was which no one really knows,” Snelling said. 

At the same time, his house was being renovated to accommodate his wheelchair. His full-time job in the auto repair industry was likely going to have to change. He told his sister and assistant coach, Jennifer Bruneau, to tell the girls’ soccer team that he was fine and would be back in the fall.

“I wasn’t 100 percent positive of that, but my thoughts and intentions were to do so,” Snelling said.

The team was shocked when they heard the news, according to senior forward Makara Sorel, and immediately began to plan how they could support his recovery. That included making some home-cooked meals for Snelling’s family, gift cards and a trip to Wallingford for visits with him.

“It was really eye-opening to see how quickly your life can change with just one accident,” Davignon said.

Snelling underwent three to four hours a day of therapy, but his quadriceps muscles were not firing after eight weeks and his insurance company recommended he be sent to a rehab facility.

“It was on that last day that my insurance company was going to pay for my stay that they got a little movement out of my quad. From there, it was like, this might be better than we thought,” Snelling said.

Today, Snelling is back on the sideline. 

His left leg is “completely numb” in areas so he no longer can run for long periods of time. He won’t be playing soccer in practice with his girls’ team like he used to, but he also won’t be in a wheelchair.

He has learned to appreciate things more.

This past summer, he organized a family reunion. 

It’s something he may not have done before the accident.

“I hug my kid a little extra before he goes to bed. I don’t miss much now. It’s hard to take a whole day for granted. It changes your life. You realize life is a little shorter,” Snelling said. 

Does he feel lucky?

“I hate the word ‘luck’ because not having this happen would have been pretty lucky, too. Knowing that if the bone broke differently than it did, it could have been a permanent injury, the ‘luck’ was avoiding the internal damage. The hard work that I put into it, the mindset that was never pessimistic, that’s not luck - that turned out being who I was after the injury,” Snelling said.