For the October 16 issue of the Post Register, I wrote a profile on Tristan Cano, a lineman for the local Rigby High School. I’ll let the first section of the story (below) provide the key details:

Tristan Cano raced down the dirt path on his four-wheeler, seconds before his life would be forever altered.

On this clear June day in 2011, Cano and his friend Konor Anderson passed a water trough. A moment later, the 500-pound four-wheeler slammed into a deep rut.

Cano grabbed the four-wheeler’s front brakes. Anderson flew several yards down the path, and Cano thudded headfirst onto the dirt. The four-wheeler landed directly on top of him.

The last thing Cano remembered on that path in Freedom, Mont., was a hot pain emanating from his left ankle.

Cano’s ankle was broken so severely, doctors told him he wouldn’t be able to play sports again. But Cano wouldn’t give up his goal of playing football for Rigby High School. After three years of physical therapy, persistent ankle pain, family debates and self-doubt, the senior lineman is thriving for the Trojans.

‘I just told myself that I wasn’t not going to play football,’ Cano said.