Coaches, players stand by teammate

ELY -- The announcement came in a team meeting here Tuesday evening and Austin Harrington immediately thought of him. His close friend. His roommate. His support.

He wanted to shake his hand first, to thank him again for all the groceries and meals and those utility bills that suddenly disappeared. He wanted him to know that he got it. That, finally, he knew what Bryce Saldi meant all those times.

"He would always say, 'You earn and deserve this as much as I do,' " Harrington said. "Every time he would do something for me with his (scholarship stipend), he would say that. ... I will never forget that.

"This is a stand-up guy. A Southern gentleman. A guy who always goes out of his way to make sure everyone else is having just as good a time as he is. ... This is tough."

Harrington is a sophomore tight end for UNLV who this week was put on scholarship for the first time, a moment he could not share with Saldi because of what happened July 3.

Players had the holiday week off, and Saldi spent time in California, where he suffered a severe brain injury in a skateboarding accident. His recovery is still long from being in the same ZIP code as complete, but news came Thursday that is sure to lift the spirits of those coaches and players praying for him.

"He is whole again," said Jay Saldi, Bryce's father. "It's a new beginning. All the procedures have been done. He is no longer on life support machines. There are no more tubes. We might eventually be setting off a lot of security alarms at airports because of the titanium plate in his head, but Bryce is doing it on his own now with a total body put back together.

"He is moving forward."

Bryce opens his eyes for intervals of 15 to 30 minutes and is responsive to certain stimuli, but doctors have kept him asleep for the most part to aid in his healing and recovery.

Plans are being made to transport him from the hospital in California to one in Texas.

Things are thought more positive today than at any point since July 3. Fear is being replaced by hope.

Do you know who Bryce Saldi is? He is a sophomore linebacker and the embodiment of what UNLV coach Mike Sanford has often said he wants in a player. He is a winner, a product of one of the best programs in the monster that is Texas prep football, a three-time 5A state champion from Southlake Carroll.

Saldi is a fighter. A competitor, the son of a man who played nine years in the NFL, the kid who became tired of all the hand-me-down clothes and baseball gloves from two older brothers and set out to make his own mark in sports.

He played in all 12 games last season and this spring was a member of the team's Champions Club, based on things like work ethic and effort and attitude and improvement and attendance.

He is a close friend to Austin Harrington, who he played against in high school and befriended before their arrival at UNLV, who bought all the food and paid the water and electric bills and never once mentioned it. Harrington has visited three times since the accident, sitting up all night talking to his friend. Just talking and laughing and hoping Bryce hears him, that he is laughing along inside.

Saldi wears No. 54 and you know this by the makeshift locker room UNLV constructs for camp in Ely. Each player has a folding chair in which his jersey and pants and helmet and pads are placed before each practice. The staff has designated a chair for Saldi, and all of his gear is in its place.

Uniforms are washed twice daily. When it comes time for laundry, Saldi's belongings are included with all others. They wash his stuff as if he had just practiced for two hours in it.

Doesn't this kind of devotion more than anything define a program? UNLV hasn't had a winning season since 2000, and this is certainly a critical year in Sanford's coaching career. The Rebels need to win now, and Sanford needs to take them to a bowl. All of that is understood.

But how he and his staff and players have handled what happened to Bryce Saldi, how they have remained committed to their injured teammate, speaks to a far bigger character trait than what a scoreboard suggests.

I have no idea if Sanford will ultimately prove a capable college head coach or not, but I know this: How he has involved his team in Saldi's journey and the type of loyalty they have shown is beyond admirable.

It brought Jay Saldi to tears Thursday.

"I will never forget how Mike Sanford and his team have acted throughout all this, how much they have done for my son," Jay said, sobbing. "They have been phenomenal. Whatever we have needed, Mike Sanford has been so supportive. All I can say is he and UNLV really has stepped up and made us feel special and wanted. ...

"We have a long ways to go. There has been improvement. But I've never been a marathon kind of guy unless I was training for one. ... We took another step (Thursday). My son is the total package again. Bryce is on his way."

Positive thinking and a team's worth of daily prayer.

That kind of stuff can move mountains. It can heal those most injured.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at 383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com. He also can be heard weeknights from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. on "The Sports Scribes"on KDWN (720 AM).