How White Station football captain is coping with missing senior season because of injuries

White Station's Travis Lewis remembers the exact moment he encountered the throbbing pain in his right shoulder that would eventually become a part of his everyday life.

He was playing in his first varsity football game as a sophomore and blitzed from his linebacker position, hitting the quarterback as the ball was released. He felt his shoulder pop out of its socket and pop back in. 

"I played the rest of the game and after the game my shoulder was just throbbing and I could not lift it up," Lewis said. 

He had torn his right labrum. It was the first of a series of shoulder injuries that would require three surgeries within two years and cause the team captain's high school football career to come to a premature end. Because he can't play this season, the Spartans named him honorary captain. 

The 6-foot-2, 210-pound linebacker played through the pain his sophomore season and was a second-team all-region selection. That season White Station upset region champion Germantown in the first round of the Class 6A playoffs. It was Germantown's only loss of the season. 

After the season ended, Lewis had surgery to repair his right shoulder. He rehabbed in the offseason and was named a team captain when he came back. He posted 52 tackles, four tackles for loss and two sacks en route to another second-team all-region selection as a junior.

"Travis was so smart. He saw everything before it happened. He’d read the play and be there in an instant," said teammate Daniel Gwin. "He saw the whole field and he had the athleticism to make the plays, too."

But his shoulder problems persisted and he needed more surgery. 

"I tore my left shoulder, had surgery on that, and then a piece of bone broke off my right shoulder and had surgery on that again this summer."

This time, his doctor told him that he couldn't play football anymore. The news that he would have to miss his senior season was a crushing blow. But he had an older brother, Grant, who played tight end at White Station and later dealt with a career ending knee injury while playing at Wyoming, to help coach him through it.

Lewis also leaned on his Christian faith, which helped him see that his identity was about more than just football. That's the message he has for his teammates. 

"I'm trying to show them that your life is not revolved around football and that your identity doesn’t have to revolve around football," Lewis said. "I'm really trying to minister to the guys on the team who maybe have all their chips in football that It can be taken away in an instant."

Lewis plans to attend college and hopes to find a way to combine his love for sports and ministry after he graduates. 

"I'd love to work in ministry while working with and training athletes. If I could combine those two, maybe by working with high school guys and helping them train for football working out and stuff like that but also sharing the gospel and ministering to them. I think that would be really awesome," Lewis said. 

White Station coach Reid Yarbrough noticed Lewis' leadership abilities and wanted him to tell his story and stay around the program. 

"I knew that I still wanted him around as much as possible. He’s got a way about him and he legitimately cares about all his teammates and he has those intangible leadership qualities that a lot of people don’t have," Yarbrough said. 

When the Spartans take the field Friday night against Bolton in their season opener, Lewis will be there for the coin toss and on the sideline during the game providing inspiration and encouragement. 

"We weren’t allowed to wear his (No. 12) jersey but I don’t think anybody was going to take it anyway because we know how special he is and I know he’s in our hearts and in our minds and I know I’ll be playing for him every night," teammate Scott Welborn said.