Chris Pezzetta’s road back paved with perseverance

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Chris Pezzetta is a football player for the McMaster Marauders; and considering what he’s been through in the last three years, it’s amazing that he’s still a football player. The 23 year old from Burlington has been down a road that not many have travelled.

The powerful running back will play his first game of the OUA season tomorrow night when the Marauders host the Waterloo Warriors. It will be his first game since last November when he tore the ACL in his left knee on the first play in last year’s national semi-final win over Mount Allison.

At least it was his left knee; he’d already suffered two ACL tears in his right knee. But after three ACL tears, three reconstructive surgeries, three gruelling years of rehab, he’s back.

“I don’t know, I might be a little crazy. But at the same time, it’s something that’s built my character, I feel, over the past few years.”

“As much as you have to be physically ready to come back from something like this, mentally it’s a thing you have to get over. I think it’s strengthened me as an athlete, and even more importantly as a person.”

Marauders’ football head coach Stefan Ptaszek agrees. “He’s as tough as they come, and at the core is all heart, and he loves being part of the football locker room.”

“As we’re waiting for the opening kickoff in Guelph this year, he and I just smiled at each other, and I said, ‘I wish I could go one more time this year’, and he said ‘I’m not going to give this up until they drag me away’.”

Pezzetta says he’s just excited to be back. “Whether it’s 25 plays, whether it’s five plays, it doesn’t matter to me. I just like putting those game jerseys on, being out there with the guys.”

Pezzetta says he wouldn’t be back without the efforts of McMaster Athletic therapist, Chris Puskas, whom many regard as the best in the country.