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• BHSU head football coach John Reiners, who drove to Rapid City as soon as he heard about Scott, went home late that night after the surgery. In the morning he realized that he couldn't focus at work even though Trent had called him first thing to tell him the good news.
• "Finally, I called my wife and I said, 'I'm driving down, I have to see him,'" Reiners said. "When I go to his room, he gives me the biggest smile and the biggest handshake. I thought, 'that is a miracle.' He defied it. He fought it."
• After several days of testing, Scott was transferred to Denver's Swedish Medical Center and then to the nearby Craig Hospital for rehabilitation. He was told that there were several things that could have gone wrong in his recovery -- particularly that he might not be able to move his right side very well.
• As it turned out, he was in good shape physically, but his vision and speech patterns needed a lot of work. It was a frustrating early start to rehab as one of the things he had a hard time with early was identifying objects, even though he knew what they were.
• "I was like, I know this is a bottle, but I couldn't say it was a bottle, or a table or whatever," he said. "I just couldn't spit it out."
• His right peripheral vision wasn't very good, but through hard work each of those problems became easier and less frustrating as time went on.
• "I started noticing differences," Scott said. "My language was getting better . less and less frustrating, so I was starting to figure it out."
• After a month in Craig, Scott continued his rehab at home and three times a week in Casper, Wyo. After a couple more checkups, he was given the OK to return to school. He has also begun some light workouts.
• But no more football.
• Before his medical incident, Scott said he was like a lot of people; he would get upset with the little things, things that he thought were important. Now, those little things aren't nearly as important.
• "I almost think that I am lucky in that way, that at this age, I realize what is important," he said. "Some people don't ever get that figured out."
• Reiners said Scott's condition gave him a perspective on life for his family and his team.
• "I'll never forget the look of devastation on his parents' faces throughout the surgery. The next day, they hadn't slept, they hadn't showered, they were wearing the same clothes and they looked glowing," Reiners said. "Now you go from desperation to hope. That's when you realize that there is more to life than football and so many other things in life."

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