Tragedy strikes high school football player Fear teen will be paralyzed from neck down after injury suffered in last game of season By: Joshua Frey-Sam Posted: 6:54 PM CDT Monday, Oct. 20, 2025 Last Modified: 1:01 PM CDT Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025 Updates

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Doctors fear a Winnipeg high school football player will be paralyzed from the neck down after sustaining a severe neck injury during a game last Friday.

The crushing prognosis was delivered to the family of Darius Hartshorne, who underwent an emergency surgery that required a spinal fusion and decompression of his vertebrae Friday evening.

In what has been described as a freak accident, the Grade 12 student, who plays on the offensive and defensive line for the Sisler Spartans, received a short opening kickoff before awkwardly colliding with a tackling player of the Tec Voc Hornets.

Paramedics were sent to the scene and rushed him to Health Sciences Centre for an emergency procedure that lasted more than six hours.

The surgery was successful, but it remains too early to tell if he will ever recover enough to have feeling in his arms and legs.

“I don’t want to say never, because I still have hope that he’ll eventually be able to feel again,” an emotional Stephanie Ciaralli, who, along with her husband Jesse, are raising Hartshorne, told the Free Press through tears Monday.

Hartshorne, who turns 17 on Saturday, is in intensive care and has mostly been heavily sedated since arriving. Ciaralli said there have been periods where the teenager could communicate with family members by blinking — a small win in a horrifying weekend.

“We don’t even know what to think right now. We feel like we’re still in shock, and we have a lot on our plate,” said Ciaralli.

“As a parent, you want to be there for your kids, but it’s hard to be there when there’s so many of them. We’re just hoping that he can recover quickly, and that he’ll be able to soon communicate with us, and that we can start working with him to get better.”

“We’re just hoping that he can recover quickly, and that he’ll be able to soon communicate with us, and that we can start working with him to get better.”

The Spartans and Hornets played out the remainder of the game. WHSFL commissioner Jeff Bannon said no one knew the severity of Hartshorne’s injury at the time — it’s more than possible that the team would’ve suspended play had it known the gravity of the situation.

“No doubt, this tragic accident is life changing and we are all still in shock and thinking, praying and hoping for a miracle of recovery,” Bannon wrote in an email Sunday. “We don’t know what the future will hold, all we know is that we’ll be here for him, his family and his teammates.”

A GoFundMe was set up on Saturday with a goal of $26,000 to help the Ciarallis with immediate costs — such as hospital parking and travel — and future expenses, including rehabilitation, therapy and full-time care for Hartshorne.

“We don’t really know what his future entails, but whoever decides to help support him, we’re very, very grateful,” said Ciaralli.

“We never expected to have the amount of people, the outpouring of support for him, but it goes to show what kind of a person he is and what kind of a community we’ve helped build. For people that are thinking of donating, I just want to say thank you, because they’re able to take a little bit of stress off our plate, give us one less thing to worry about right now.”

“We don’t really know what his future entails, but whoever decides to help support him, we’re very, very grateful.”

Friday was the final game of Hartshorne’s high school career, but he had plans to play at the major level for the North Winnipeg Nomads or tryout for the Winnipeg Rifles after graduating.

“He’s an amazing kid,” said Diamond Bernier, a family friend whose son plays for Tec Voc.

Hartshorne is already an active volunteer for the Nomads. The Ciarallis serve on the board for the club, while Hartshorne does everything from coaching young players to prepping food for home games, and even filling in as an announcer and spotter during games.

“He’ll be there a full day if we have games that are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., he’s there helping wherever he can,” Bernier added. “His teammates are are devastated. They all love him very much. It’s really hard to see these teenagers you’ve known since they were nine be so hurt.”

Inside the schools, Winnipeg School Division superintendent Matt Henderson said coaches of Sisler and Tec Voc met with their players Monday morning to discuss the incident.

“There’s been communication from the school to all staff and all students,” Henderson said. “We’ve had our clinical support staff there all day, so social workers and psychologists for any learner or staff who might be having difficulty processing this.

“That’s always our protocols to make sure that we have lots of support and that we’re just keeping an eye on everybody in the school community.”

Numerous coaches and teachers visited Hartshorne Friday evening, but were only able to stay for a brief time due to the risk of infection while he is on a ventilator. Their next opportunity to visit him is unknown at this time.

“I’ve been in contact with the principal and the the administrative team there, and people are really shaken up — not only at Sisler, but at Tec Voc, as well,” Henderson said. “And because it’s a really, really scary incident, right now, our priority is just making sure that learners, families and staff have the supports that they need.”

Henderson said the school division will visit with the family at a later date to learn how it can be supported further.

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca