Hesmer to Miss Remainder of the Soccer Season
11/6/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Nov. 6, 2003
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Wake Forest senior All-American goalkeeper William Hesmer will miss the rest of the season after undergoing surgery on his right thigh late Wednesday night. Hesmer suffered the injury during Tuesday night's game in a collision with a Davidson player.
Hesmer was evaluated on Wednesday by numerous team physicians at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and underwent an MRI on both legs. The test revealed a hematoma in his right thigh. Consequently, Hesmer was rushed into surgery, performed by Dr. Robert Teasdall. The hematoma, essentially a large collection of blood within the muscle, resulted from a muscle bleed that occurred during the collision.
Also during the collision, Hesmer suffered an injury to the posterior cruciate ligament of his left knee. That injury will be evaluated in the coming weeks.
Doctors have put a timetable on Hesmer's recovery to be at least six months.
"It's a tremendous loss for our program and our family. Will is a great competitor, a great leader and a great teammate to everyone. We will miss him on the field and in the locker room," tenth year coach Jay Vidovich said. "Now, our team is being presented with a new challenge. We will have to elevate our play in the coming weeks. We have to rely upon each other."
The Wake Forest coaching staff hasn't made a decision about who becomes the starting goalkeeper in Hesmer's absence. One option is fifth-year senior Brad McEachern who has played in 14 career games with four starts. The native of Arcadia, Calif., has played 582 career minutes with 20 saves, five goals against and a career goals against average of 0.93. The other candidates are both true freshmen, Brian Edwards, out of Charlotte, N.C.., and Paul Slocum from Slidell, La. Neither have seen any game action as a Demon Deacon.
Hesmer is a two-time All-ACC selection at goalkeeper and was named an All-American as a junior. He is a two-year captain of the Demon Deacons and has led Wake Forest to a 28-5-4 record during his captainship including an undefeated regular season in 2002 and a first place finish in the Atlantic Coast Conference. With Hesmer in goal, the Demon Deacons have been ranked in the top ten for the past 22 weeks.
The native of Wilson, N.C., is Wake Forest's career leader in goals against average (0.83) and shutouts (20) and third in save percentage (.807) and fifth in saves (201). On Wednesday, Hesmer was named to the Verizon District III Academic All-America team.
This season, Hesmer ranks among the nation's leaders in goals against average and was the starting goalkeeper in seven shutouts for Wake Forest. He recorded clean sheets against nationally-ranked teams including Connecticut, Virginia Tech, South Carolina and North Carolina.
As a junior, Hesmer had the best season by a goalkeeper in Wake Forest history. Soccer America chose him as a first team All-American. He was selected to the second team by the NSCAA and ranked second nationally in goals against average. Hesmer was chosen to the All-ACC Tournament team as a freshman in 2000.
