Land O’ Lakes senior’s speedy recovery from torn ACL, meniscus
By Kyle LoJacono
Four months ago, John Kranendonk was preparing to start his second season as the starting center for the Land O’ Lakes football team.
He had just completed his junior campaign, where he also played defensive tackle and served as the squad’s long snapper, and had high hopes for his senior year.
Then it happened in an intrasquad game at the end of May.
“I thought my season was over,” Kranendonk said. “I just planted wrong, my teammate stuck me while I was off balance and my leg came down wrong. … My whole knee popped. I knew it was bad.”
The 5-foot-9, 220-pound Kranendonk tore the ACL and meniscus in his right knee. His doctors told him it would be difficult to get back at all this season.
Anna Griffiths, the head certified athletic trainer at Land O’ Lakes, said the injury generally comes with a six-month recovery period following surgery.
“It’s not uncommon for players to be cleared for some athletic movement in less than six months,” Griffiths said. “That’s because surgical techniques and crafts have been so improved over the last few years.”
Kranendonk said hearing that there was any possibility of coming back this year drove him, regardless of how remote.
“I’ve been doing rehab as much as I can as soon as I could,” Kranendonk said. “I walked the first day after surgery and was running again about a month after. I basically have been going after it since June 5 when I had the surgery.
“It was a little stressful the first month,” Kranendonk continued. “I thought that I could pull through if I worked really hard. I knew the only chance was to work as hard as I could, so I just kept pushing every day.”
Gators coach Brain Wachtel said Kranendonk’s work ethic has been exemplary.
“Here’s a guy who gets in his truck, drives to rehab and drives back to practice,” Wachtel said. “He helps us film. He’s a team player. He helps tremendously, and he’s been doing that ever since he’s been hurt.”
Kranendonk’s efforts recently started paying off. He was cleared to snap for extra points and field goals for Land O’ Lakes’ game at Hernando Sept. 21, less than four months removed from surgery.
He executed snaps on two field goals and a point after touchdown in the contest, all of which were converted. Kranendonk added another successful snap on an extra point against Springstead Sept. 28 and two extra points versus Mitchell Oct. 5.
“He got cleared to snap on field goals and extra points, which is a great thing for him,” Wachtel said. “He’s a senior and blew out his knee, tore his ACL in the spring, so it’s nice to see him out there smiling. We’ll wait and see what the doctors say about anything else, but at least he’s out there doing what he loves to do.”
Griffiths said Kranendonk is able to snap for extra points and field goals because that does not require lateral movements.
“For now he’s running straight ahead and progressing really well through his rehab,” Griffiths said. “He can run to his heart’s content straight ahead.”
Being cleared to long snap on punts would require him to be healthy enough to run down the field and make tackles.
“Right now he’s just limited by time, in that there’s a certain amount of time needed to heal and recover and allow the surgery to do what it needs to do,” Griffiths said. She added, “Everything that he’s cleared to do he does every day.”
Kranendonk’s long snapping, which he started doing in eighth grade, has started to get him noticed by colleges. He recently took unofficial visits to Georgia Southern and Stetson universities.
“At the end of last season I started to see long snapping as my way to get to play in college,” Kranendonk said. “Every team needs a long snapper, and I’m kind of too small for the line.”
Kranendonk said he never got too down about the injury despite it limiting his time on the field as a senior.
“It’s all about keeping a positive attitude,” Kranendonk said. “Every day I wake up with a smile on my face. I go to school, come to practice and run, snap the football. Really everything is just great. … I never really got down about it. You just have to overcome everything that comes at you.”
Kranendonk and the Gators (1-4) play at Nature Coast Oct. 12 at 7:30 p.m.
—Follow Kyle LoJacono on Twitter: @Kyle_Laker
