Brian McLemore III had emergency surgery two weeks ago, and he appreciates how Ridgefield High School and the community rallied behind him and his family

Paul Valencia
ClarkCountyToday.com

It was a routine tackle on the football field.

Everyone thought so, anyway.

Oh sure, Brian McLemore III was slow to get up after making the tackle, but that happens in football.

“I thought I got the wind knocked out of me,” said McLemore, a junior at Ridgefield.

That usually only takes a few seconds to remedy.

In this case, McLemore just could not catch his breath.

He came out of the game. He raced to a garbage can, hoping to throw up, just to feel better. Nothing.

For a few seconds, he thought whatever it was had passed. He even told a coach he was ready to go back in the game.

But no. He quickly raced back to the garbage can. This time, he was able to vomit.

“Everything goes downhill from there,” McLemore recalled. “That’s when the pain started hitting me. It felt like someone was stabbing me constantly.”

This was in Week 3 of the high school football season in what became a 24-21 victory over Hockinson. McLemore was brought into a local hospital before being transferred to Randall Children’s Hospital in Portland. The next morning, Sept. 21, McLemore had emergency surgery to repair a hole in his large intestine.

“I’m blessed,” McLemore said Friday night after Ridgefield improved to 5-0 with a 21-0 win over Washougal. “If they didn’t rush me into surgery, I wouldn’t be here right now.”

He loves it “here,” on a football field. No, he is not playing. He is done for this season, in recovery. Still, while he is not able to play football, he remains a very big part of this football team.

He spent seven days in the hospital, and when he was released on Sept. 27, his first outing was to attend Ridgefield’s game against Hudson’s Bay. 

McLemore was back on the sideline for Friday’s game against Washougal, too. He was taking turns firing up his teammates and firing up the homecoming crowd.

Two weeks earlier, he was in a battle for his life, even if he did not really think of it that way, at least as it was happening.

“I made that tackle a million times. It was a safe tackle. There was nothing wrong with it,” McLemore said. 

As McLemore slid toward the ground, the ball carrier’s foot got stuck in the turf. McLemore’s abdomen landed on the heel of the ball carrier just as both players landed on the ground.

“It was a freak accident,” McLemore said.

He would later learn, he said, that his intestine blew up like a balloon, from the pressure of that literal kick to the stomach. By the next morning, he was rushed into surgery.

McLemore was conscious, and in the loop, until he was given anesthesia for the procedure. So he knew what was going on during the ordeal.

“I was nervous. I was a little scared. But there was no time to think it through,” he said.

When he woke up, his mom, Katrina, and dad, Brian McLemore II, told him that the surgery was a success, the hole had been repaired, and he was expected to make a full recovery.

The McLemore family moved to Ridgefield from Las Vegas during Brian’s freshman year. Brian III acknowledged he was not thrilled with the idea of leaving his friends in Nevada to move to Washington. But he appreciated how welcoming the community and the school had been to him.

And he was floored by Ridgefield’s reaction to his emergency.

“This community means everything. It means the world to me. Everyone dropped everything to help my family, to help me,” McLemore said. “They were making food for us. My team visited me after surgery. Everyone was texting me. Everyone was making me gift baskets. My teachers would stop their lessons and have the class write notes to send to me. 

“It was insane. That’s just love.”

He wanted to return the love to his team as soon as he could.

“I just felt I needed to be there for them,” he said of those first hours after leaving the hospital. “As soon as I got the green light, I said, ‘We’re going to the game.’”

He surprised the Spudders, who were about to take on Hudson’s Bay at Kiggins Bowl when McLemore arrived.

“It just boosted the whole team up,” said junior lineman River Leeling. “It gave us another reason to fight for that game.”

Leeling noted that it was a confusing week for the team and the school. It was just a regular football play, after all, but a friend was in danger.

“We were all worried about him,” Leeling said. “He’s a fighter. We knew he was going to be alright.”

Ridgefield coach Scott Rice said McLemore’s positive spirit is contagious.

“He’s a guy that they just love,” Rice said. “Since he came in from Nevada, he’s in the locker room, he’s in the weight room, he just wants to be around, he wants to play football. He’s a real catalyst for our program with the attitude and the energy that he brings.”

McLemore gave his teammates a message before the Hudson’s Bay game.

“You gotta play every play like it’s your last because you never know when it’s your last,” McLemore said. “I showed them my stomach.”

McLemore has a large scar, an incision that needed 18 staples to close. 

“My season’s over, y’all,” he told the Spudders. “Play every play like it’s your last.”

Notice he said his season is over, not his career. All signs point to McLemore being able to resume his football days next season.

The Spudders won that night 49-0, avenging a loss to the Eagles from the previous year, a loss that cost the Spudders a share of the league title. 

Then this week, the Spudders returned home and got another shutout, taking down Washougal 21-0 to improve to 5-0 overall, 3-0 in the Class 2A Greater St. Helens League. Wyatt Hemmelman caught two touchdown passes from Landon DeBeaumont, and the Ridgefield defense was lights out.

Leeling had one of the many top plays for the Ridgefield defense, getting a sack a split second after the ball was snapped. The defensive lineman was in the offensive backfield before the quarterback could take his second step.

“That’s all you dream of as a D-lineman, being able to get off the ball super quick and sack the quarterback before he even has a chance,” Leeling said. “It was a stuff of dreams.”

Dreams have come true for McLemore, too. Of course, he would prefer to be playing. Naturally, he wishes he had never been injured. But he also has an interesting point of view when thinking about all that he has endured the past two weeks, knowing that he and his family did not go through this alone.

He took a moment to watch his teammates celebrating their victory, and he saw all the fans who had attended the homecoming game. This is home for McLemore. 

“I know this is a bad situation, but there is a lot of good that came out of it,” McLemore said. “A lot of good.”