By Nick Pantages
After a practice following Pittsfield High School football’s 2021 season-opening loss to Wahconah, something felt different for Louis Rhodes. Rhodes, Pittsfield’s star performer in the game, had racked up 160 all-purpose yards (137 receiving yards and 23 rushing yards), along with finding the end zone.
The Generals were preparing for their matchup against Amherst the following Friday night, and Rhodes felt some chest pain after practice. He still showed up the next day, but the discomfort persisted. This was something that was so far out of the ordinary for Rhodes, who played football, baseball and wrestled growing up, but his pent-up and rowdy energy drew him to the gridiron over the years.
“I’m thinking that nothing can be wrong with me, I’m healthy,” Rhodes said. “I’ve been playing sports my whole life, I’m always active. So I wasn’t thinking much of it at first.”
On the third day, Rhodes felt the same pain in his chest. He knew he had to tell his coaches what was going on, but he just couldn’t describe how it felt.
“I told them, I was like, ‘Something doesn’t feel right, I don’t know what’s going on with me,’” Rhodes said.
Since he felt nothing seriously wrong, Rhodes played against Amherst—and played well. He caught a touchdown and added a 91-yard kickoff return score. The pain persisted for the rest of the year, but it didn’t impact Rhodes’ play. He racked up 649 combined rushing and receiving yards and eight total touchdowns in his senior season, helping Pittsfield to a 6-2 record.
After his season ended in the MIAA (Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association) Division V football tournament in early November, Rhodes was still feeling the residual chest pains that he experienced at that practice in September. He figured that at the least, he should get it checked out.
“I finished the whole sea- son, played all the way through November, and then I went to the hospital and got looked at,” Rhodes said.
After staying in the hospital for a few days, Rhodes underwent testing on his heart, including echocardiograms and electrocardiograms. Though the original tests came back inconclusive, Rhodes found clarity shortly after.
“They called me, I went back, and they kept looking,” Rhodes said. “And they found something wrong with my right artery.”
The doctor’s conclusion was that Rhodes had an anomalous coronary artery (ACA) affecting his right coronary artery. The right coronary artery arose from an uncommon place on the aorta, restricting blood and oxygen flow to the heart. ACA leads to increased rates of sudden cardiac arrest, with another common symptom being chest pain and tightness, similar to what Rhodes suffered. The diagnosis required open-heart surgery to relieve the stress on the aorta and allow regular blood flow to Rhodes’ heart.
After several more scans and tests, Rhodes connected with a heart surgeon in Boston. In April 2022, Rhodes underwent surgery to reposition his right coronary artery.
A New Beginning
Rhodes found out about Springfield College from his high school coach, Brian Jezewski, a Springfield alumnus from the class of 2000.
Growing up in Western Massachusetts, Rhodes was familiar with Springfield College. Jezewski, however, was persistent with his guidance about how Rhodes’ character and mindset would be a seamless fit into the Springfield football culture. Jezewski and Pittsfield High School had also sent a number of players down I-90, developing a bit of a pipeline between the two schools.
“He would always tell me, ‘Springfield’s a really good program, that’s a really good spot for you, you’re the right kind of guy for Springfield,’” Rhodes said.
Rhodes went through his high school recruiting process like normal at first, even going on an overnight visit to Springfield in December 2021. It was through this visit that he developed an affinity for the school and the program, and thought it was going to be his home for the next four years.
But after finding out he needed to get the surgery, his recruiting process changed.
At minimum, Rhodes would not be able to play in 2022, his first collegiate season. It made him step back and think a little more about what the future had in store, for both school and football, after the surgery.
“Obviously with the surgery, I was going to lose a lot of weight, I wasn’t going to be able to play, I was going to be sick for a little while,” Rhodes said. “I still get checked on sometimes, so I thought ‘How far can I be from home?’ There were a lot of things that played a factor on if I was going to keep playing football.”
After some time to think to himself, Rhodes knew he still wanted to go to college. However, he knew that to get through it, especially with the time he would miss due to the surgery, he needed the potential of getting a chance to play football again to push through it.
“I’m kind of just a normal kid,” Rhodes said. “I knew I wanted to go to college, but to really get through and be invested in college, I was going to want to play a sport. I love football, it’s going to keep me busy, I was going to meet people. I would have stuff to do and something to grind for. I thought if I stuck with football it was going to help me get through school.”
Rhodes’ No. 1 school in his recruitment, Springfield College, satisfied his requirement of being close enough to home to allow him to go home for his appointments and check-ups.
Springfield’s head coach and the main coach in Rhodes’ recruitment, Mike Cerasuolo, helped Rhodes recognize that Springfield would still be the right place for him, as Jezewski suggested.
“Coach C was great about it when he was recruiting me,” Rhodes said. “We talked about it, he knew what was going on.”
Cerasuolo’s acceptance of a complex recruiting situation made Rhodes feel very comfortable with him and the program as a whole, further solidifying why he thought Springfield was the place for him. Cerasuolo shifted his recruiting focus to making sure that Rhodes ended up at a school where he could thrive as a college student, not just as a student-athlete, and that really appealed to Rhodes.
“That’s another big reason I came here, because as much as it’s football, football, football for recruiting, [Cerasuolo] really recruits based off the kind of person you are,” Rhodes said. “A lot of things matter outside of football to him, and it was more about me getting healthy first and making sure I was okay to do regular life activities, and then worry about football after that.”
The interest that Rhodes showed in the program, including wanting to be around the team during his recovery process in his first year, was a trait that made Cerasuolo and the rest of the coaching staff’s decision to recruit Rhodes even easier.
“In our minds, we wanted him even more,” Cerasuolo said. “This is a kid that is not going to play a down of football [his first year], but he’s going to show up and do everything he can to show the other guys that it’s not just about playing, it’s about being around the game and being involved.”
The investment paid dividends, as on April 4, 2022, just before his life-changing surgery, he made another massive decision, committing to Springfield College to play football and major in sports management.
Dedicated to the program
The road to recovery for Rhodes was obviously not going to be easy.
As a natural competitor, being forced to sit and watch practice every day was difficult, but Rhodes was not remotely close to playing shape. His surgery still required months more rest before he would be medically cleared to run and lift, let alone take part in padded practices.
“I probably lost like 15 pounds from the surgery, maybe almost 20,” Rhodes said. “I was proba- bly like a buck-40.”
The good thing for Rhodes was that he was still able to be around the team. Although he was not close to being cleared to participate in football activities, Rhodes was with the team all the time, meaning he could attend his positional and team meetings and go to practices and games.
Despite having to travel for appointments and check-ups, Rhodes remained dedicated to a program that he couldn’t contribute to in the way he wanted to, and Cerasuolo believes his presence was more than enough of a help.
“When you talk about quality human beings and the people in this program, Louis is one of those,” Cerasuolo said. “He’s a guy that a lot of guys looked up to, because he did show up every day he could, and he wanted to try to be a part of this even though he knew he was not going to play any football whatsoever.”
But when the season ended, Rhodes was still not close to being able to practice or play. It took until after Springfield’s spring break in March 2023 for him to finally get cleared to take part in the Pride’s spring practices in anticipation of the 2023 season in the fall.
It was nearly a full calendar year post-surgery, and Rhodes had not played a snap of football since Pittsfield was knocked out of its state tournament 16 months prior. Even though the majority of spring practices are very limited contact, Rhodes still got to put his pads on and suit up on the field, crossing a major check off in his comeback.
The difference in speed and game pace from the high school to the college game is already difficult to adjust to, but the extended layoff Rhodes experienced, combined with the fact he was coming off a major surgery, made it a little more challenging.
“It was definitely hard,” Rhodes said. “But I adjusted quick. I learned from older guys, and then when it was my turn, just gave it everything I had.”
Another aspect that Rhodes attributes to making his return smoother was that he got the chance to adjust in the spring, instead of the preseason August training camp.
Although there is nothing near true game speed in spring practices, it gave him a little taste of the collegiate level and extra time to prepare, as opposed to just a month of practices before the season began the following September.
“I think it helped him build the confidence that he needed to be like, ‘Okay I can do this,’” Cerasuolo said. “Being able to get back into lifting and running, doing things you take for granted at times, the opportunity to put on a helmet and pads. You don’t even think about it, but in that moment, it was so cool for him.”
Return to the Gridiron
Six hundred and sixty-five days.
That was the amount of time between football games for Rhodes. On Sept. 2, 2023, Rhodes took the field wearing Springfield’s white road uniforms, his jersey, shoulder pads and undershirt covering up a scar running the length of his chest.
Not only was Rhodes just suiting up, he was going to play a significant defensive role in the Pride’s first game of the season, taking the field wearing number 30 against Western New England.
But on day 664, the night before the game, Rhodes’ nerves were beginning to get to him. He was sitting in the basement common room of International Hall with his teammate and fellow cornerback, Bryan Feliciano, and told him how he was nervous about playing after the surgery and adjusting to the speed of the college game. All of his classmates had a full season of practice and games under their belts, and Rhodes felt a little behind. Feliciano gave him the same advice everyone else around the team had given him over the course of his recovery—just go out there and be you.
“He just told me, ‘Believe in your ability and just go out there and play hard,’” Rhodes said. “Honestly the coaches, the players, they weren’t so worried about the football part at first, which gave me the confidence to play free when I came back, which was one of the big reasons I had success in that first game back.”
The Pride won thanks to a pair of long, fourth quarter rushing touchdowns, but Rhodes was able to get onto the field for the first time, giving him another victory on the day.
“It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen in coaching,” Cerasuolo said. “Guys come back from a lot of different injuries, but that injury was very unique, and to be able to come back from that when he didn’t have to, but he wanted to.”
Rhodes played in another seven games on special teams and at corner for the Pride.
At Pittsfield in high school, Rhodes had shined with the ball in his hands as an explosive athlete with a knack for finding the endzone. When he got healthy, Rhodes found himself on the other side of the ball, playing for one of the most dominant defenses in all of Division III at corner.
Despite not having any stats against the Golden Bears, Rhodes added two tackles in his first game on Stagg Field the next week, and had his best game to date in his college career two weeks later against Coast Guard, recording three tackles and three pass breakups as Springfield cruised to a 63-14 victory.
The matchup marked another milestone for Rhodes—his first collegiate start.
The comeback was very satisfying for Rhodes, but he credits his teammates for keeping him engaged when they didn’t have to, giving him the confidence that he was going to be able to contribute when he was healthy.
“Obviously it felt good, that’s why everyone comes here to do, we all want to play,” Rhodes said. “But the thing that really helped me was my teammates. When I was hurt, they would always talk to me and be like ‘Keep your head up, you’re going to get your time eventually to get back in pads and show everybody what you got.’ And ultimately that build up to having the team around me and just having everyone be so positive is honestly what drove me to play so confidently and just get out there and play free football.”
The time off also gave Rhodes extra perspective in life.
“It was scary, and I was nervous for a few months until the whole thing was going to get fixed,” Rhodes said. “But I’m honestly grateful that it happened, and my perspective on life is now like you never really know when someone’s going through something, so just kind of take everything day-by-day and be grateful.”
In his junior season in 2024, Rhodes played in four games as Springfield embarked on one of the greatest seasons in its history, reaching the Division III National Quarterfinals, eventually falling at the hands of national champions North Central (Ill.). In 2025, Rhodes’ senior season, he will have another opportunity to add to his journey.
“It’s an unbelievable story,” Cerasuolo said. “But it’s written by an unbelievable kid. And he’s still got some chapters left to write.”