Bishop Amat’s 6-4, 295-pounder injured his shoulder during an August scrimmage with St. Paul, and then the bad news came. An MRI revealed a torn posterior labrum.
“Sitting in the doctor’s office and hearing it, it’s every offensive lineman’s worst fear to hear you have a torn anything,” Brayton said.
But there was good news that came with it. Brayton’s injury wouldn’t require surgery, nor was his season over.
“The doctor laid out the law of the land,” Brayton said. “He told me this is what you have to do in physical therapy to get stronger, to get yourself healed, and I rode the bus from there and did everything I had to do. So far, so good.”
Brayton, a huge part of Bishop Amat’s offensive line and a UNLV verbal commit, will miss his third straight game when Amat (2-1) plays host to Chino Hills on Friday, but there is a good chance he’ll be able to suit up and play a week later in the Mission League opener at home against Sherman Oaks Notre Dame.
“Of course you want to play in the (non-league) games but most important is getting ready for league and all those battles. It’s my senior year, these are the games you dream of being in.”
Brayton received a release from his doctor to work on conditioning and drills this week, and expects to be back in pads next week for practice if all goes well.
Other than his physical therapy, the toughest part has been standing on the sidelines and not being able to compete.
“I do my best to be a leader from the sidelines, but you really want to get out there,” Brayton said. “That itch is there, it doesn’t go away.”
With Brayton verballing to UNLV, he made the trip to Las Vegas last week to watch the Running Rebels game against UCLA on Saturday.
“It was great to just go, to be with the UNLV coaches and get a feel for what it’s going to be like when I play there,” Brayton said.
Although Brayton won’t suit up against Chino Hills, he talked about why the Lancers’ non-league game is so important.
Chino Hills whipped Bishop Amat 45-28 last year, and has given Amat fits in the recent series that started in 2012 with a 48-48 tie.
Amat’s only win over Chino Hills was a 47-42 thriller in 2013.
“There’s no doubt, they play us tough, they get off the ball and they’re nasty,” Brayton said of the Huskies.
Brayton wasn’t offering up excuses for last year’s loss to the Huskies, but explained it came a week after a trip to Texas and a big victory over defending state champion Aledo.
“There’s no excuses, we came into the game a little too high (on ourselves) after the game with Aledo and they (Huskies) just roughed us up. It was a wake-up call.”
Of course, Bishop Amat rebounded to share the Mission League title and advanced to the CIF-SS Pac-5 Division semifinals, but something about Chino Hills in recent years gives them problems.
“They’ve been able to impose their will on us,” Brayton admitted. “The schemes they run are totally different than anything we see in league but we have to get past that. I believe in our guys, and this is a game everyone wants because of last year and other games. I believe in our guys, they’ll be ready.”
Chino Hills is 2-1 with blowout wins over Ayala (31-0) and Roosevelt (35-13). It’s only loss came in a blowout to JSerra, 42-14.
