The last image of Marian Central senior Tommy Waytula on a football field was unsettling, to say the least.

Waytula caught a pass late in the Hurricanes’ 42-27 loss to Montini in the IHSA Class 5A playoff quarterfinal game and was taken down along the sideline. Immediately, he motioned with his right hand, pointing to his grotesquely bent left elbow.

Waytula had suffered a dislocated elbow on the play. At first, no one could be sure how it would affect Waytula for his best sport, basketball. Here was a kid playing football for the first time, probably talked into coming out by his buddies because he is 6-foot-5, can run and has good hands, and perhaps he would be knocked out of his favorite sport.