Michael Lois continues amazing recovery
Michael Lois continues his amazing recovery following a serious spinal injury in a pool accident that left him with three broken vertebrae last September. The 6-foot-4, 260-pound Iowa commit from Elkhorn, WI recently finished physical therapy and is back into workouts as he hopes to continue his football career if at all possible.
“Monday was my last day of physical therapy, so now I’m just really getting back into weightlifting and starting to lift heavier weights at NX Level in Waukesha where J.J. Watt trains with Brad Arnett,” said Lois. “I feel really good and everything is going well.”
Lois has not been cleared for contact at this point and still might not be this fall, but has no restrictions on his off-season training and is staying positive about the whole process.
“I have the weight restriction lifted, so now I’m going to ease back into heavier weights, but it’s pretty much just up to me and how I feel,” Lois said. “It’s not really the physical part of it anymore, it’s more just mental where I need to keep pushing forward and try not to think about it too much.”
Both physically and mentally, Lois is a long ways from where he was on September 16, 2018, when the initial fear was possible paralysis after he jumped off a trampoline and hit his head on the bottom of a friend’s swimming pool.
“It was really hard in the beginning,” said Lois. “I was kind of questioning God and why this had to happen to me, but the more I tried to fight it, the harder it was. So I just had to accept it for what it was and keep moving forward.”
“I mean people who are successful in life have to go through struggles to get stronger. If everything was easy, there’d be nothing to work hard for. The way I look at it is I’m not going to give up. I’m not going to quit.”
That includes continuing to pursue his dream of playing college football no matter the odds.
Last Labor Day weekend, just two weeks prior to the accident, Lois made a verbal commitment to the Iowa Hawkeyes after attending their season opener at Kinnick Stadium. Throughout the past year, the Iowa coaching staff has stayed in close contact with the Class of 2020 prospect and offered their support.
“The Iowa coaches have been awesome,” Lois said. “They never gave up on me.”
“I think if I would have chosen any other school I would have just been a number and they would have thrown me to the curb and said I’m done. But Iowa has always believed in me. They’ve called and sent texts and letters and it’s always been very positive. They told me not to worry and that everything’s good on their end, just keep getting better.”
“I’m still going to be a Hawkeye,” said Lois. “I still have the scholarship whether I can play or not.”
Lois was already working on graduating high school early before the accident and now looks forward to enrolling a semester early at Iowa even more so in January of 2020.
“I’m going to be graduating in December and moving down to Iowa in January, so I can start working with Coach Doyle and start taking classes,” Lois said. “We always wanted to do that, just to get down there because we love the city and the people there. Whenever I get to visit, it’s always a treat, so I just want to go down there as soon as possible.”
Next month, Lois plans to attend one of Iowa’s camps, as he did a year ago, which will give him a chance to work with the coaches, only this time with no contact.
“It will be no contact, but I’ll still do the drills and the footwork and all that stuff,” he said.
So that is the next goal ahead, getting ready for camp, as he continues his workouts with the dream to return to the football field someday whether that is this year or on down the road.
“I’m always pushing myself to work harder and get better,” said Lois. “I’m going to keep working even if the doctors don’t clear me this fall because I’ve got another whole year to get better and train for college.”
On the medical side, doctors have told Lois they want to see a full year of healing where they performed spinal fusion surgery before talking about the next steps in his recovery and if he could be eventually cleared for contact.
“We’ve gone to the neurosurgeon multiple times over the past month just getting X-Rays and MRIs to see the bone growth and they said everything is healing well and I’m ahead of schedule,” Lois said. “They’ve told us they need to see a year of healing, so that would be like mid-September, and we’ll know more then.”
Meanwhile, the accident has given Lois a new perspective and appreciation for life both on and off the field.
“It’s kind of pushed me into different avenues and shown me some different doors that have opened,” said Lois. “I mean it’s a freak accident, but I know there’s a purpose behind it. I just have to keep trusting God and he’ll take the wheel from here and show me what to do.”
At Iowa, Lois is interested in two fields of study as he would like to run his own business someday and also wants to stay involved in athletics down the road.
“I’m looking at studying sports science and business,” Lois said. “Even if I can’t play, maybe I’ll be a coach.”
As he continues to pursue his dream, Lois wants to make sure to thank everyone that has reached out and offered their support since last September.
“Honestly, if it wasn’t for my community, the Hawkeye fans, and my family, I wouldn’t have the same motivation to succeed and try to get better every day,” said Lois. “I just keep pushing and try to make them proud.”
