Caslin’s football future in doubt

In early August, O’Shea Caslin was living on Easy Street. He was a rising senior, an above-average student and a football player being plied weekly with correspondence from college recruiters.

“He was getting mail from LSU and Auburn and a number of smaller schools. Lance Thompson was sending him handwritten notes,” East Ridge coach Mike Martin said.

Thompson, the University of Tennessee football assistant who recruits the Chattanooga area, hasn’t written lately, and Caslin’s idyllic life is miles away. His prospects of being a college football player, at least one with a scholarship, have been dashed.

The 6-foot, 270-pound defensive tackle was diagnosed with chiara malfunction, a condition that results in the downward displacement of some of the brain structures into the spinal canal. The condition can lead to cysts developing in the spinal cord.

Caslin underwent surgery on Aug. 19 to repair the problem, which is thought to be a congenital defect. It has varying degrees, and it appeared early that Caslin was afflicted by a related disease called syringomyelia, which causes growths in the spinal canal that can impair anything from swallowing to the use of limbs.

“My mom and I went to the doctor thinking I might need a little therapy and then I’d be good to go,” Caslin said. “When the doctor said surgery, we cried for about five minutes. After that I manned up. Crying wasn’t going to help my situation.”

That situation went from missing a few days of practice to missing at least this season.

“As I understand it, he had spinal fluid leaking into a cyst in his spine,” Martin said.

Caslin’s football future remains in the hands of his surgeon, Dr. Timothy Strait, and Caslin won’t get any kind of answer until Wednesday, and maybe not then.

“He said it was unlikely I could play this year but I’m still hoping,” Caslin said. “And he didn’t rule out playing next year. He said a lot of people have this surgery and go back to what they were doing before.”

Caslin wants to play college football.

“I haven’t played a down this year, so that’s going to make it hard to get a scholarship,” he said. “I think if I had played this season I could have gotten a scholarship to UT. They probably don’t want me now. They probably think I’m injury-prone.”

His mother, LaTarsha Watson, has tried to put him on a different track.

“The doctor has told us anything is possible, that [Caslin’s future] depended on the way he healed. He hasn’t said he couldn’t play again,” she said. “My kids love football. They’ve been playing since they were 5 or 6. They just don’t understand how I feel about their health issues. But we have always been strong around here on grades, and he will go to college with or without football.”

Caslin might call this a tragedy, especially if football is over, but the family’s problems didn’t end with the discovery of his woes. Just does into preseason practice, his brother, Brevante King, suffered a torn ACL. He’ll have surgery Thursday, the day after O’Shea meets with Dr. Strait.

“I’ll go to college someway somehow,” O’Shea said. “I want to better myself and be in a situation where I can take care of a family and my mom one day. There’s no question I’m going to college, because my mom said so.”

He said Brevante has had a similar mindset drilled into him, yet they are hoping to make the best of their misfortune.

“We’re hoping we can go to college and play football somewhere,” O’Shea said. “If nothing else, we may find a place where we can walk on, play together and earn ourselves scholarships.”

Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765.