PURPLE HEART

McALLEN - Jordan Smith hasn't let his mind wander. He has been resolute since February.

Come Friday night, the McAllen High outside linebacker will dress for The Monitor's Game of the Week between No. 2 Harlingen High and No 4. McAllen High at McAllen Veterans Memorial Stadium.

He wasn't always sure that would be case. Smith suffered from a heart ailment that threatened to sideline him for his senior season. Only after a third surgery three weeks ago, did Smith finally get a clean bill of health.

Smith was determined when he found out the day before Valentine's Day that he was born with Wolf-Parkinson-White Syndrome, a condition in which an abnormal electrical pathway causes the disruption of the heart's normal rhythm, he would not let it ruin his final year.

"I found out the day before Valentine's Day so when I came to school everyone thought I was joking, telling me that I just had a broken heart," Smith said. "I never freaked out about it or anything like that. My first initial thought, and the thing that worried me the most, was that I wasn't going to get to play because of a complication I can't control."

Smith is a backup to start the season but having him suited provides motivation, Bulldogs coach Tony Harris said.

"As cliché as this sounds, he really is like the heart and soul of the team," Harris said.

His condition was never life threatening but could have been serious if he continued to play without getting rid of it.

"When a kid comes to me and tells me somethings wrong with a toe, we could deal with that," Harris said. "But Jordan said something was wrong with his heart. You don't mess with the heart."

Toward the end of last season, Smith couldn't perform any physical activity without experiencing shortness of breath or even vomiting. He initially thought it was asthma.

"This kid lives for football," Smith's father Heath said. "Everything was about getting his heart fixed so that he could play football. We put so much pressure on the doctors, it was ridiculous."

He was given a monitoring device to strap on him during practice but it was a nuisance. It was then surgically inserted near his heart but his stitches reopened. His second surgery proved too risky, and Smith seemed out of luck.

"He was pretty down when he found he might not be able to play," Bulldogs corner Isaac Canchola said. "Everyone wanted the surgeries to hurry and happen just so he can play."

Finally, a procedure called Cryoablation was used to freeze the abnormal pathway, which cleared him. After waking from the six-hour procedure, his first communication was to Harris.

"I was kind of out of it," Smith said. "I convinced the nurses to let me use my phone. I have great parents and a gorgeous girlfriend but my first text was to coach Harris. I don't remember what I exactly texted, but I know what I wanted to text him was ‘Coach they did it. It's fixed.'"

Peter Rasmussen covers District 30-5A for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can reach him at (956) 683-4448 or via e-mail at prasmussen@themonitor.com.