Tough year for Garnet Valley’s McHugh

Alec McHugh knows the exact time that Saturday morning. He remembers looking up and seeing it there, 7:45 on the clock, and wondering why he's awake on a summer weekend when he can be enjoying some rest.

The pain that began in his chest and was coursing down his right side told him why. It screamed something was wrong - adding another chapter to a very wrong-filled year in his young life. The searing pain told him football - his love - might be gone.

McHugh, Garnet Valley's 6-2, 240-pound defensive tackle, was looking forward to his senior season - his last year, he had determined, that he would play football. But an appendectomy in August threatened to take all of that away. He lost 25 pounds, couldn't walk for 3 days, though he never was deterred that he wouldn't suit back up and assume the starting position he had worked so hard to attain.

Against Marple Newtown last week, McHugh made his first start of the season, and Friday night he'll be back on the field again when the 5-0 Jaguars host Upper Darby at 7 in a Central League game.

McHugh has provided strong run support and a good push up the middle for the Jags' defense. It's been through football where McHugh can find some solace in what has been a tumultuous year, undergoing the emergency surgery in August and coping with the sudden death of his father on Jan. 7 and the loss of the family home. He's endured a lifetime of pain in an 8-month span, and a big reason he's been able to get through it is because of football.

"That's why I play for more than myself," McHugh said. "A lot of kids with issues that I've had would act out, but to me, it didn't bother me. I had football and school that was keeping me busy. I had my Garnet Valley football family supporting me and my counselors at school. I have more than enough to be grateful for."

McHugh and his mother, Debra, live in a one-room efficiency. He sleeps on a blow-up mattress in the living room every night. The Garnet Valley coaching staff paid for his father's funeral, and serves as surrogate fathers to him now.

"Alec is a kid who worked his way up and made himself a better football player, and we had him penciled in to start for us this year," Garnet Valley coach Mike Ricci said, "but with everything that's happened to him, he could have taken a real downward spiral. No one would have blamed Alec if that happened. But it didn't. Alec is a very resilient kid, who's selfless, thinks of the team first, and has helped our defensive front. He's big and rangy and does a nice job."

What makes McHugh's journey to high school varsity football that much more impressive is that he only started playing the game as a sophomore. He had to be taught how to put on shoulder pads, standing there each day next to teammates who had played football for 10 years.

Once McHugh got a feel for the game, though, it was an instant love affair. He views the game now as kind of a gift, not only for the chance to play, but also for the people he's come in contact with since he started.

"I love it, and I suppose it's why I play the way I do, knowing that this is it, it's probably the last year I'll ever play football," McHugh said. "I realize that I don't have many more shots to play. I don't want to take it for granted."

He also does it for someone else  . . . to honor Dad. The 7th of each month is difficult on McHugh, another anniversary of his father's passing. As a reminder, McHugh keeps his father's Air Force dog tags in his football locker and scrawls "Dad" in black marker over his taped hands before each game, so that when he looks down, he can see it.

"Other kids take things for granted, I can't," McHugh said. "My father was only able to see me play a few times, because we lost our car when my father lost his job. But I still think I'm fortunate. I have great people supporting me, and I'm fortunate to have football. A lot of kids playing the game forget what this is like, playing in high school. I want to live every second of it." *

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