Cedar Grove HS Football Player Overcomes Pain, Joint Condition

CEDAR GROVE, NJ — When he was in eighth grade, life was simpler for Andre Scivetti, a senior offensive lineman on the Cedar Grove High School football team. Mostly, he’d just think about football and friends… the normal concerns of a teenager in suburban New Jersey.

And then came the pain in his knees.

Scivetti, a nominee for the 2018 USA Football Heart of a Giant Award, recently capped off an inspiring comeback to the gridiron after being diagnosed with Osteochondritis Dissecans (OCD), a serious medical condition in which bone underneath the cartilage of a joint dies due to lack of blood flow.

The cause of OCD is unknown. The condition occurs most commonly in children and adolescents between the ages of 10 and 20 who are highly active in sports, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Scivetti recalled his comeback story with award organizers, which can be seen in full here.

“When I was in 8th grade, adversity decided to knock on my door… At first the doctors could not identify what was wrong. I decided that I would push through the pain as I was so excited to start those summer workouts with the high school football team. It was the team, especially the seniors, that got me to work past the pain and motivated me to work harder than anyone else. I wanted them to be proud of me. Then the end of freshman year hit and the pain was only getting worse and worse. I realized I could no longer walk without pain. My knees would not bend. My parents, in hysteria, brought me to a hospital. I ended up getting my first of many MRIs. After they got those MRI's back the doctor was shocked and told me and my parents that the pain in my knee was not growing pains it was a lot worse and that I had something called Osteochondritis Dissecans, or better known as OCD, in the knee. It was only for the Doctors at The Hospital for Special Surgeries that I may walk pain free again. OCD in the knee is when pieces of your knee, or lesions, are slowly decaying because they aren’t getting enough blood flow. This disease is found in around 30 kids out of 100,000 but that is only for one knee and one lesion.”

Scivetti said that the road to recovery wasn’t easy:

“I had three lesions in my right knee and another three forming in my left knee. Although this was and still is a part of who I am, dreaming about being back on the football field once again gave me the will to work even harder. If I was able to complete all those morning workouts and late practices I was not going to let knee surgery take my dream away. Today, I am a senior and I am back in the game living my dream.”

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Photo: USA Football Heart of a Giant Award (used with permission)