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Just three weeks into his freshman year of high school, 15-year-old football player August Borden should have been looking forward to Homecoming.

Instead, people in his hometown of Tuscumbia, Alabama, were praying that he would come home at all, after he was severely injured walking between the stadium and the fieldhouse with his teammates on Aug. 19. 

Some claim he fell down a short flight of stairs. Others say another player grabbed him in a “bear hug,” causing the teen to gasp and lose consciousness. 

Some say he went limp, some say he was stiff, but what happened next led to him being taken by life flight to a Level 1 Trauma Center hospital in Birmingham, AL. 

It was discovered that August had two fractured orbital bones and multiple skull fractures and a face that appeared to be pummeled. 

The injuries left him unconscious in the hospital for two days. 

Although the incident is now being investigated by police at the urging of August’s dad, his parents say they’ve had to push for answers because school officials and coaches, who are said to have been just 10 feet away when August was allegedly dropped or heaved to the ground, have not been forthcoming. 

According to his family, August is home and beginning to recover but it’s not an easy road and it’s certainly not how the family expected his freshman year of high school would begin to play out. 

Join us for the latest episode of the Gulf Coast Confidential podcast, “Traumatic injury or accident: Tuscumbia divided over battered 15-year-old football player August Borden.” 

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