The date was Saturday, Aug. 23, 2025.

The place was Wilson Area High School in Easton.

The event was a football game between the Northwestern Tigers and the Wilson Warriors.

On the second play of the second half, and in his very first varsity game, sophomore wide receiver Lucian Sterling ran a jet sweep around the left end.

He got past the edge and was making a nice gain before he was tackled from behind. That’s when he felt something terrible happen to his leg.

The fear factor

“I felt immediate and intense pain in my left leg and at my hip,” he said. “I could not get up.”

That’s the bad news. The good news was that Dr. Ajay Kanakamedala had been assigned to cover the game by St. Luke’s Hospital and was on-site.

On the field, a stretcher was brought out.

“I had no idea what was going on, but when I saw the stretcher, I got pretty scared,” Sterling said.

Dr. Jay, as he is called, consoled Lucian’s mother and told her after his observation of the injury that he was nearly certain it was a dislocated hip.

A hip dislocation is a severe medical emergency where the ball-shaped head of the thighbone (femur) pops out of the cup-shaped socket in the pelvis. It causes intense pain, a visible leg deformity, and total inability to move or bear weight on the leg.

Sterling was ambulanced to a nearby St. Luke’s Hospital.

“They gave me pain killers because it hurt so much. They did X-rays to see if I had a broken pelvis. Then they got me ready for the procedure.”

Sterling was not awake for the short surgery, and was glad about that.

“The doctor described the procedure to me as ‘violent’; he had to jam the bone back into the socket,” he said. “I felt immediate relief.”

Sterling was released from the hospital about three hours later.

The long road ahead

Everything in Sterling’s world was about to change.

Two days after the surgery, he returned to school on crutches and wearing a full leg restrictor brace.

This would be Sterling’s mobility mantra for the next three months.

Northwestern coach Josh Snyder recalled the injury.

“It was tough to see Lucian go down,” he said. “It was an awkward injury. We were relieved when we found out there was no major damage.”

Sterling was told he would need six to eight months of rehab.

“I was determined to get cleared for sports sooner than that, so I did therapy three days a week and I lifted weights.”

“He attacked rehab like he attacks everything else,” Snyder said. “When Lucian has a task at hand, he gets very motivated.”

Sterling was cleared for the baseball season at Northwestern last spring and for summer football training.

Studies show that there is a one in three chance that a hip displacement can happen again. Still, that did not deter Sterling from wanting to play football again.

“There was no doubt in my mind,” he said, “In fact, I wanted it more.”

Back in black and gold

One season later and now a junior, Sterling stepped into a football game. He even ran a couple of jet sweeps this year.

“I never let that play get in my head to bother me,” he said.

For the 2026 undefeated Tigers, Sterling is back at his wide receiver position. After eight games, he has 90 yards receiving with two touchdowns through the air and one more on the ground.

“Lucian works very hard in practices and learning the complex offense we run,” said Snyder.

“He not only helps us score points, but he’s an excellent blocker.”

When Lucian Sterling engages in football contact, his mind blocks out the trauma he experienced last August.

Once he was down, but now he’s back out playing the game he loves.