DE PERE — Langdon Nordgaard was ready to spend the summer gearing up for football season. He was coming off of a breakout sophomore campaign where he was named second-team all-conference.
Instead, during the first practice of the summer, the outlook on his football career changed dramatically.
"I caught it and then I was coming down right into my defender's elbow and he hit me in an awkward spot right in the kidney," said Langdon.
He quickly was taken to the emergency room before being sent to the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.
Langdon's dad Jeff said he could feel the pain in his son.
"As a parent it's hard to see your kid in pain without being able to do anything about it really," said Jeff Nordgaard.
The injury to Langdon's kidney was severe, but was very close to being devastating.
"Pretty severe and nearly tragic. It was pretty traumatic and painful no doubt but had it been a couple millimeters more it would've been a different story right now," said Jeff Nordgaard.
After the surgery, Langdon began the long rehab process.
"For a while I couldn't do anything I could only walk and I could barely walk for three weeks," said Langdon Nordgaard.
During this time the family didn't know if Langdon would be able to ever play contact sports again.
Eventually, doctors told him that he would no longer be at an increased risk of severe injury if he continued playing contact sports.
For the Nordgaard's the goal was always to get Langdon back to playing the sport he still loves.
"The goal was never alright he's done playing football let's move on to something safer," said Jeff Nordgaard
Langdon returned to the field against Green Bay West and registered his first reception of the season last week against Ashwaubenon.
"I feel like I'm back, like I'm the old Langdon that I was and I can do just as much as before," said Langdon Nordgaard.
