Logan teen given NMAA Spirit of Sport Award

The New Mexico Activities Association last week gave Ace Whitson, a freshman at Logan High School, the organization's inaugural Spirit of Sport Award for his comeback after an accident that forced the partial amputation of one leg.

The Spirit of Sport Award was created by the association "to recognize those individuals who exemplify the ideals of the spirit of sport that represent the core mission of education-based athletics," according to a news release.

The Spirit of Sport Award was presented to Ace and his family at the NMAA/NMADA Fall Leadership Conference banquet on Sept. 26. He now will be nominated for the National High School Spirit of Sport Award given by the National Federation of State High School Associations each year.

(Logan Municipal Schools superintendent Dennis Roch also received an award during the banquet. See other story in this edition.)

Ace lost the lower half of his right leg in a near-fatal accident while putting up fence on his family's property in the Norton area.

"It was Labor Day two years ago," Ace recalled. "We have a hydraulic tapper for our poles. We were tapping one of them in, and it broke off the tractor and I was in line with it."

"The pipe broke his leg severely," his father Wade said. "It was a terrible accident. We've often said that if Ace hadn't jumped to the left, we would have been going to a funeral instead of the hospital."

"It was painful, the worst pain I've ever felt," Ace said.

"They told us we would have to do surgery, but they wouldn't schedule the surgery until the swelling went down," Wade said. "They were unaware that he had compartment syndrome, and, in hindsight, we should have been on a helicopter and headed to Dallas immediately. He lost circulation to that leg for far too long."

Doctors delivered the news to Ace they could not save the lower part of his leg.

"They came to us and said, 'We're going to have to amputate; there's no way around it,'" Wade said. "The physical pain was unreal; I've never seen a human being go through that kind of pain."

Ace was determined to walk, run and ride again.

"I just knew that I could because everybody was so positive around me, and I figured I had to be positive, too," he said.

After weeks of rehab and physical therapy, Ace was back at it.

Last year, he suited up for football in the fall and basketball in the winter.

"The first time I ever watched him play basketball, you couldn't tell he didn't have a second leg," Logan High School athletic director Billy Burns said. "The fact that he didn't stand out, it really is amazing."

Ace turned in his helmet and shoulder pads this fall to make a run at rodeo. Getting back on the horse took a literal and motivational meaning to Ace.

"To not dwell on things that have happened in the past and to keep moving on," Ace said. "It's something you have to get past, and you can't let it stop you," said Ace.

A 4 1/2-minute NMAA video about Ace can be viewed at https://youtu.be/rnKf23qkpu0.