IRON MOUNTAIN, Mich. (WJMN) – For Iron Mountain Quarterback Ian Marttila and his dad, Iron Mountain’s head coach Robin Marttila, an ordinary day back in July of 2022 is one that would have greater long-term consequences for them and their family than they could’ve imagined.

I get a call from my wife. She can’t really talk, then she broke down,” Coach Marttila said. “I knew was very serious at that point and she said ‘Ian has been in an accident. It’s very bad’. So, long story short, he got in a lawn mower accident, went to the hospital here in Iron Mountain, got airlifted to Milwaukee Children’s Hospital that day. Over the next five to six days had three surgeries, had a bunch of broken bones. Big gash in the top of his right foot. And that was just the start of a long journey that we knew we were in at that point in time.”

While cutting the grass at his grandpa’s home in Iron Mountain, Ian’s foot slipped beneath the blade of the lawn mower.

“In his front yard, he has this this steep hill and I was pushing the lawnmower up and my arms and everything was getting tired,” Ian said. “So I decided to just go up the hill and bring the lawn mower down and pull it back up. As soon as I did that, my accident happened. My foot went under the lawn mower, sadly. I kind of slipped back on my on my right side, and my left hand kind of went up that led the lawn mower to lift up a bit. So, I guess my foot kind of slipped under.”

While Ian was on the way to the hospital in minutes, the damage was serious. In the moment, it wasn’t clear how it would impact him in the long-run.

I just remember looking down on my foot and I just saw this big gash,” Ian said. “I know it didn’t look good. I didn’t really I didn’t know what it was at the time, but I can just remember seeing a big gash. I started yelling from my grandpa and two of his neighbors heard me and they came over and kind of calmed me down and helped me. My grandpa called 911 and they were there in two minutes, so that was nice.”

“Very lucky to have his foot or keep his foot, all his toes down there,” Coach Marttila said. “It was just a freak accident that happened as he was cutting grass. You know, 15-year-old kid cuts grass in the summer and freak accidents happen. I guess people were looking out for us and it turned out to be a long road, but a road we got through. and now we’re moving on to bigger and hopefully better things.”

While the worst case had been avoided, it was still unclear if Ian could return to athletics, which had been a huge part of life throughout his childhood.

“A lot of things go through your mind, a lot of people reach out,” Coach Marttila said. “You don’t know where the journey is gonna take you, but at that time you know it’s going to be a long journey and the support we had from our community, from our family, from our friends, just tremendous. Absolutely tremendous.”

“It motivated me to be a better athlete, be a better person, do things I didn’t think I could do before, work harder,” Ian said. “I just think about what happened that day and just use that as motivation to do something that I really want to do.”

Now over a year later and back on the gridiron, Ian and the Mountaineers have big goals for the 2023 season. While his personal journey is one for the storybooks, the Marttila’s are happy to have it in the rearview mirror while Ian can be back as part of the team, part of the collective group working together towards a common goal.

“He’s played quarterback since fifth grade. You know, he’s done well with it,” Coach Marttila said. “He’s handled it well and we’re hoping that continues. We’re trying to put him in a position to be successful, just like every every other kid we have. “

“I was really, really excited. I didn’t really seem to have any nerves. I was just really pumped up. Just happy to be back out there with my friends,” Ian said. “They’re there for me every day. Pat me on the back and say ‘Hey, you got this’ or something like that and it just encouraged me to do better.

“He handled it better than I did, handled it better than his mother handled it, and he’s a kid,” Coach Marttila said. “He’s resilient. He cares, and we’re proud of him.”