CHATSWORTH, Ga. — He never saw the other player coming.

One moment, North Murray High School football player Hayden Hulett was running down the field hunting for the Calhoun High School kick returner. The next he was on the ground, writhing in pain, his jaw shattered.

“As soon as I went down I knew there was something wrong,” the sophomore receiver said. “I didn’t think it was as bad as it turned out to be, but I never lost consciousness. I remember it all the way. It hurt, it hurt very bad.”

The injury happened on the opening kickoff of a September game on the road at Calhoun. As Hulett searched for the ball carrier, a Yellow Jacket blocker peeled back and blindsided him from the left. Leading with the crown of his helmet, the Calhoun player drove it up under Hulett’s facemask.

The hit resulted in a fracture of the left side of Hulett’s jaw, a broken temporomandibular joint (TMJ) and significant damage to the right side of his jaw.

“After watching it on film, it was a tough hit,” North Murray coach Preston Poag said. “Any time you break your jaw like that and have surgery like that. It was tough. It wasn’t good.”

“I wasn’t sure what was wrong with him,” he added. “I was one of the first ones out there and all he said was ‘It’s my jaw.’ I knew when I looked at him and the pain he was in — because he’s a tough kid — I knew it was pretty bad.”

Hulett was quickly taken to the sideline to be tended to by Dr. Mitchell Frix of Dalton’s Associates in Orthopedics & Sports Medicine Clinic. Though he was conscious, everything was so sudden that it’s hard for him to explain what was happening.

“It was all so surreal,” Hulett said. “I didn’t really know what was going on. It all happened so fast, I couldn’t explain it if I wanted to. (Dr. Frix) said he’d normally seen it in car accidents, but he’s never seen it on a football field before.”

Hulett endured a seven-hour surgery where 13 screws — six on the left side, seven on the right — were inserted to secure the jaw. His jaw was also wired shut so the bones could heal.

Hulett, who is pretty talkative, was now unable to talk, reduced to mumbles, and could only eat through a straw.

“It was very rough and very hard,” Hulett said. “For three weeks my jaw was wired shut and I could eat liquid food only. I had to grind up like chicken salad and my mom even made me meatloaf one night. It was awful. I tried to lie and say it was good.”

Hulett was also stuck in the house, unable to exercise, for the duration of the three weeks. With the lack of food, he lost 25 pounds. When he was finally able to eat solid food again, Taco Bell was his first stop.

“I still couldn’t open it (the jaw) as wide. I could only open it a certain width,” Hulett said. “I got those little quesadillas and just slid them in my mouth and tried to chew on them.”

Worse than the grueling recovery or immense pain was the inability to be on the field with his teammates. As soon as he was able he was back out with them to support them anyway he could.

“He was at everything,” Poag said. “Sometimes you get hurt like that and they might not come to every practice. He came back out there quick. Those kids saw that. We’re a tight-knit team. We put his number on our helmets and he did a lot. I watched him on the sidelines. When we won, he celebrated just like he was playing, and when we lost, it really hurt him, too.”

Hulett sat out the rest of the football season, but before long he had to begin the process of reconditioning himself for basketball.

“The conditioning aspect was probably the hardest to overcome, but not coming back 100 percent was never an option,” Hulett said.

North Murray boys basketball coach Tom Ellis kept Hulett out of any contact drills for a good portion of the preseason, not wanting to risk any sort of re-injury. Hulett spent much of his time running. It took eight weeks for the jaw to heal, but another four before it was solid.

“He’s definitely tough as nails,” football and basketball teammate Chaisen Buckner said. “I don’t think I could say that I would have come back to sports so quickly after an injury like that. It’s pretty incredible to see how quickly he’s recovered and how he’s playing at a high standard on the court right now.”

Buckner said Hulett, a guard, came back a bit timid in the early stages of the basketball season, but soon regained his confidence.

“How could you not be after something like that happened?” Buckner said. “Yeah, he lacked some confidence earlier in the season, but after a couple of good games he’s back to playing like I know he can.”

Hulett has been an important player for the Mountaineers this season, driving into the lane with the expectation of getting contact. He’s been one of the team’s leading scorers and scored a game-high 17 points in a win over Coahulla Creek on Jan. 9.

Hulett’s Mountaineers will return to their home floor tonight against Murray County High School beginning at 7:30 p.m.

It’s been a long road to feeling 100 percent again, but after such a traumatic injury, Hulett attacked his recovery and is back to his old self.

“It was really just a big relief to me and to everybody who’s been praying for me,” he said. “I was able to get back out there and play normal again.”