High School Football: Donovan’s road took detours

Karl Donovan is grateful to have the chance to represent Corona del Mar High one last time. He gets to do it on a big stage, in the Brea Lions Club Orange County North-South Prep All-Star Football Game for recent graduates at Orange Coast College on July 8.

A couple of years ago, Donovan never could have imagined he would be in such a game. He said injuries to his right thumb and both his hips left him feeling as if maybe his playing days were numbered after his sophomore year.

“I felt like I was 80 years old,” Donovan said.

Surgery was next for Donovan, as were long roads to recovery.

The first surgery was to repair a broken thumb Donovan suffered in a scrimmage before the start of his sophomore season. Donovan doesn’t remember how he hurt it, but he hasn’t forgotten how the injury forced him to miss most of that 2013 season, a historic one for CdM.

That year the Sea Kings went 16-0, won a third straight CIF Southern Section Southern Division title and claimed their first CIF State Division III title. Donovan made it back for the postseason, and he even played in the final game, a 27-15 win against Atherton Sacred Heart Prep at the StubHub Center in Carson.

But Donovan wasn’t himself, the ferocious linebacker of whom coaches expected a lot on varsity. Physically, Donovan said, he was slow and weak when he returned.

Once his thumb started feeling better, Donovan said his hips worsened. He always thought he had hip-flexor issues, so he just wrapped up his hips and played through the pain.

After seeing a hip specialist during his sophomore season, Donovan said he learned he had the hips of an old man. Donovan was just 16 years old.

“I knew I was going to have to go [through with the hip surgeries],” Donovan said. “Being out my sophomore year definitely made me a more timid football player.”

Tentative is how Donovan played the following season. He didn’t have the usual offseason to prepare for his junior year because of the hip surgeries.

As a result, Donovan, who shared playing time as the fourth linebacker, said he didn’t play up to his expectations. He played in a dozen games that year, finishing with 26 total tackles.

Something had to change in order for Donovan to perform at the level he and the coaches believed he was cable of on the field. He discovered the problem.

“Just looking back at my junior year and realizing how I was playing was all mental,” Donovan said. “It didn’t have anything to do with how strong I was, how fast I was; it had to do with my mindset.”

Donovan’s older brother, Sean, offered advice. He understood what his younger brother was going through.

Sean was a standout basketball player at CdM, earning the Daily Pilot Newport-Mesa Dream Team Player of the Year award as a senior seven years ago, and he had to overcome injuries as well. Sean averaged 20 points, six rebounds and four assists per game during the 2008-09 season.

“He just told me to fight through it,” Donovan said. “He went from like tearing his ligament in his thumb to having one of the best seasons in CdM history.”

Now it was time for the next Donovan to stand out as a CdM senior.

While Donovan wasn’t able to avoid the injury bug completely in his final year — he suffered a concussion in the third game of the season, a 13-7 loss at El Toro — the middle linebacker excelled. He totaled 72 tackles and made the Daily Pilot Dream Team and the All-Pacific Coast League first team.

In the CIF Southern Section Southwest Division playoffs, Donovan played his best. He finished with 12 tackles in CdM’s 42-17 win against Trabuco Hills in the first round at Jim Scott Stadium, and in the next round, Donovan came up with 11 tackles in a 35-17 loss at Buena Park. The CdM season ended in the quarterfinals for the second straight time, but Donovan played a big role in the team’s success, which included a fourth consecutive undefeated Pacific Coast League crown.

“After my senior year, I felt like I was happy with where I got to, how I played, and [how the defense improved] under Coach [Dan] O’Shea,” Donovan said.

Donovan is the lone CdM player in the OC All-Star Game. The other three Sea Kings who made the South team, offensive lineman Mitch Dean, defensive lineman Joe Anderson and safety Sutty Barbato, opted out for different reasons.

There was nothing that was going to prevent Donovan from playing one more football game with his CdM helmet. He wants to have fun before he heads off to Syracuse University to study business.

“We’re going to beat the North,” Donovan said. “We’re celebrating the fact that we all had successful seasons, we tried hard, we put in the work, and now we’re being recognized for being good players.”