Middleboro's Holmgren well armed on baseball field

Enterprise, The (Brockton, MA) - Tuesday, August 11, 2009

By Adam Riglian
ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER

Left, right, left.

It may sound like a sergeant leading soldiers on a march, but the words could just as easily be shorthand for the story of Middleboro ballplayer Brett Holmgren.

Now bound for the ball fields at Div. 2 Catawba College in Salisbury, N.C., the 18-year-old Coyle-Cassidy alumnus has circumvented injuries to both arms that would have kept a lesser player off the diamond.

Holmgren's baseball odyssey began in 2006, during the early part of his freshman baseball season at Coyle-Cassidy High School.

"We were practicing pickoffs and I went to throw a ball and it literally felt like someone stabbed me right in the elbow," Holmgren said. "(I had) Pain up and down my arm. The pain lasted for 10 seconds and then my whole arm went numb."

Despite the pain, Holmgren, whose father, Ron, is the American Legion baseball coach for Middleboro Post 64, continued to play for the rest of the season, although he didn't pitch. Initially, he was told the pain in his elbow was tendinitis, a diagnosis that didn't make much sense to the Holmgrens given the nature of that injury.

Finally, at a meeting with his orthopedist, Brett learned what was causing the pain in his arm.

He had developed osteochondritis dissecans, a joint disorder that strains the flow of blood to bone, causing "dead bone" to form. Although fairly uncommon, the disorder occurs more often in gymnasts and has some prevalence among younger ballplayers.

Holmgren is still unsure why it happened. His father always had him on strict pitch counts throughout his baseball career, and Brett diligently did the arm-strengthening exercises that are supposed to ward off such an injury.

"We're assuming it's over-use," Ron Holmgren said. "Why him, where we did everything we possibly could ... that's life I guess."

Brett didn't want to get surgery on the arm, which he eventually did have done, because at the time, he and his family thought it could be restored with physical therapy. Either way, playing baseball as a lefty was no longer an option for him.

But while sitting in the doctor's office, Brett had an idea.

He asked if there was any reason why he couldn't field left-handed and throw right-handed. The doctor had no reason as to why not so from the time they got home, Brett was practicing in the backyard with his father, learning to throw right-handed.

"In the beginning, it really wasn't that pretty," Brett recalled. "I couldn't reach second base from first base," said. "I kept working at it and working at it because I didn't really want to stop playing."

Brett lucked out in that his hitting was not affected by the elbow injury. Still, with a new glove hand, throwing and footwork to deal with, it was no cakewalk.

"In the beginning, it really wasn't that pretty," Brett said.

When physical therapy alone had failed to rehabilitate his left arm, Brett opted to have the surgery, the first of two procedures he would have on the elbow. A three-season athlete, Brett had to give up his hockey career because of the surgeries.

The initial surgery restored the blood flow to the dead section of his elbow, but he later needed a second surgery to repair damaged cartilage in the elbow.

After the surgery and some rehab, Brett was fit enough to try out for the varsity high school squad, still as a righthander.

Despite his spot on the squad not being as secure as it would have been, Brett persevered. He batted over .400 in his sophomore season as a right fielder for the Warriors, playing in more than half the games.

The following fall, he continued his soccer career as a junior, playing goalie for the Warriors. When his arm bothered him, particularly after the cartilage surgery, he had to cede the goalkeeper position and play as a defender.

His junior baseball season went uncharacteristically smooth. He had another fine year at Coyle-Cassidy, similar to his sophomore season, and played in the Bay State Games.

Holmgren's freedom from injury did not last, however. During his senior soccer season, he injured his right arm, but didn't think much of it, dealing with the pain and finishing out the season.

In the months leading up to his senior baseball season, the pain in his right arm became worse and it became apparent in indoor baseball workouts that something was wrong.

Another trip to the doctor revealed that he had a torn labrum, a ligament in his right shoulder.

The doctor gave him the OK to play baseball, but added that the soreness would not go away. Holmgren knew that if he did play ball, he would not be effective in the field and would be forced to DH.

"He had a decision to make on whether to have surgery in March, or to hold it off after the season," Ron Holmgren said.

The decision didn't come easy. Brett weighed finishing what he had started with the Warriors against a college career. He knew he had a spot on the Catawba College team, and he knew what he risked if he put off surgery on his right arm.

In a baseball career filled with setbacks, Brett chose to look forward.

"It was more for the future then looking at it right then," he explained. "I wanted to get it done so I'd have plenty of time to rehab my shoulder. I didn't want to go to college and rush it down there.

"It was hard. It wasn't an easy choice, but I didn't want anything to hurt my opportunity in college."

Brett said the decision to head south was part baseball, but mostly education.

"I'm going to major in sports management, I definitely knew that," he said. "There aren't a lot of schools up here that have that as a major, but that's definitely something they have down south."

He made one last comeback to local baseball this summer, playing left-handed for the Middleboro Post 64 Legion team coached by his father. As luck would have it, he was medically cleared the day that the season started.

"My left arm is almost back to full strength," Brett said. "Fielding-wise I'm a little more comfortable left-handed, but I can definitely go out and play right-handed when my arm comes back to full strength."

Since the end of the Legion season, Brett has kept fit on a local U18 team. He'll ship off to North Carolina before the end of the month to attend college

And after years of coaching, practices and surgeries, Brett's parents now only have one problem: getting to North Carolina to watch him play.

Something that would not even be possible if a 14-year-old Brett walked out of the doctor's office and called it a day.

Adam Riglian can be reached at ariglian@enterprisenews.com.