Chris "Tipper" Esponge gets spinal injury at basic training

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Esponge injures spinal cord during basic training
'Tipper" will get up from this hit like all other hits

Posted August 29th, 2009
Editorial by Chris Rosa
Delcambre’s Chris “Tipper” Esponge has been hit in the head a thousand times over the last 10 years while he played football, and each time he has gotten up and gone back to the huddle. Tuesday, he took a hit to the head and this time, he never got up.
He graduated from Delcambre High last year and decided he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and joined the National Guard. Chris Esponge Sr. made a career of the National Guard, and his son planned to do the same. But something occurred this week while in basic training that changed all that.
Tipper, a nickname he has had since he was young, was running through an obstacle course in basic training like thousands of young soldiers have done before him. But Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2009, would be the unluckiest day of Tipper’s life.
When Tipper went to the ground to cross under a wire during the obstacle course, his head hit the ground first and jammed his neck. Everyone thought Tipper would get up off the ground like he had done each time he took a hit for football. But this hit was bad, really bad.
Tipper never got up. His legs and arms did not want to move. He received an injury to the C-5 section of his neck. Five was once his lucky number because it was his old football jersey number.
Today, Tipper and the Esponge family are in a special hospital in Atlanta, Georgia that deals with patients with spinal cord injuries.
Delcambre football coach Darcy Delcambre got the news Tuesday during football practice from a relative of Tipper. When practice was over, he gathered his team together and told them the news.
He did not expect them to understand how bad Tipper’s injury really was. At the time, many did not. They all thought he would eventually get out of his bed and walk out of the hospital. As the days went by, many learned Tipper will not be walking out the hospital this week, next week or even next month. They learned it could take Tipper at least a year to regain his strength in his legs to walk out of the hospital.
His father told Darcy that Tipper has movement in his hands, which is a great sign for someone with a spinal cord injury. The coach told his players and brought smiles to their faces.
Tipper, the 2008-2009 Abbeville Meridional Athlete of the Year, is no doubt going to walk. He has to because the community of Delcambre and his former Panther teammates are counting on him to.
This football season expect to see possibly a “5” on their helmets in honor of their old teammate.
His teammates have watched him stand tall on the football and baseball fields for years. He flew high enough to win the Class A state pole vaulting title his senior year.
Tipper is a great athlete and a great person, and that is why everyone in Delcambre is confident he will get back up from this hit.