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STORY BY CHRIS MOORE

Almost a year ago, Bridge City wide receiver Abraham “Mungy” Munguia laid on the football field paralyzed from the neck down after being shoved out of bounds and landing on his head.

He was life flighted to Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, where doctors performed multiple scans. At the time, now-Bridge City Head Coach Josh Smalley was coaching at Orangefield and reached out to the BC staff to see how Munguia was doing after hearing the news.

Ten months later, Smalley celebrated on the sideline as Munguia scored his second touchdown of the night in the coach’s Cardinals debut, a 54-6 win over Buna. Munguia recorded three catches for about 50 yards and two touchdowns.

Smalley said the play call came in and he knew there was a chance the ball would go Munguia’s way. In the first quarter, Munguia scored for the first time since that October night.

“You hear the OC call the play,” Smalley said. “Hutch throws him the ball and he makes an unbelievable move on a kid and gets in. The kids were excited for him. That was what I loved about it. The kids were happy for him.”

The coach said Munguia is more than a feel-good story.

“I don’t think I realized how good he really is,” Smalley said. “He took a ball about 50 against Silsbee without getting caught. He took a ball about 40 against Newton without getting caught. He is strong. He is small, but extremely strong. He is a 260 (pound) bench press guy. He is a 400 (pound) squat. Does it surprise me he had a good day? No.”

Munguia had come along way from not knowing if he was going to be able to walk again, let alone step back onto a field.

“I remember not being able to move my body for a night. It was really scary,” Munguia said. “I worked hard to get back where I am right now. Hopefully, I am better than I was last year and hopefully, we are better than we were last year.”

Munguia said he had doubts on his road to recovery.

“There was a part where I didn’t know if I wanted to play football again,” he said. “I was just thinking about my teammates and wanting to be back with them on the field. A lot of people wouldn’t want to go back to playing after something like that, but there is just something different about me. I don’t want to quit.”

Munguia said his mother was hesitant to allow him back on the field but said she eventually came around to the idea.

The receiver said it felt good to put pads on in August, which was the first time he had done so since the incident.

“It felt good to be able to run again and hit people,” he said. “It felt good to have contact and be out here.”

Smalley said Munguia has put in the work to get back to field.

“If you stop by on a Sunday, you will probably see him on the field running routes and just trying to get better,” the coach said.