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Midland Christian junior making the most of an injury off the field

MCS student Mason Vandergrift injured his spine playing basketball. Now, due to his association with his school's media class and pregame show, he is thriving.

MIDLAND, Texas — Injuries are the worst nightmare for any athlete.

"I started playing basketball when I was younger," Midland Christian junior Mason Vandergrift said. "And then eighth grade, I fractured my L5 vertebrae in my spine, and I couldn't play anymore."

It can be a confidence shaker, going from being able to play your favorite sport, to being bedridden and not knowing if you'll ever be the same.

"It's indefinite. As far as I know, I won't be playing any sports," Vandergrift said.

But some people take advantage of it.

"I do some of the production so, production truck is what we use, we livestream our games," Vandergrift said. "I get to do some graphic design for the school, and I get to do a little bit of everything. I'm also a basketball manager, whereas that's where I started and got into this through Coach Langford."

Coach Trent Langford is one of the assistant coaches for the basketball team, and also the media teacher.

"So a few years ago, we started a pregame show here at Mustang Alley, we're right outside of Gordon Awtry Field," Langford said. "So before home football games, we'll get out here and do a live pregame show. We bring different guests on."

"A few years back we had a group of kids that were really interested in learning about media and film, we ended up creating a class for media and in that class, Mason really said it, we try to find stories and try to tell them in a in a fun way," Langford said.

One student, Mason, stood out to Langford.

"We noticed, you know, he was kind of going above and beyond, and he ended up helping out the second half of the season with the varsity just because he was just such a good hand and was doing a lot of good things," Langford said.

Mason is now one of the main hosts of MCS Gameday, being able to interview players, coaches and other cool people on a weekly basis. He's doing all this at 16.

It shows that even though one second you might be thinking your future is bleak, the next can be hopeful, and another opportunity shows up, maybe even better than the first.

If you want to see what Mason and Langford are up to before every game, visit the Mustang Network website, where there's also a live broadcast of every game.

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