LIZTON – The night of May 13, 2023, Wendy Hiland received a phone call every parent dreads. Her son, Nate, had been in a car accident on a Hendricks County road between Lizton and North Salem.
“There’s no words to describe that feeling,” Wendy said. “That feeling where your stomach drops and you just kind of panic. Then the anticipation of not knowing what’s going on.”
Nate Hiland, Steve and Wendy Hiland’s teenage son, was thrown from the vehicle when the driver attempted to swerve to miss an opossum, ran into an electrical pole and the car flipped a couple of times. The Hilands were relieved to find out — arriving seconds ahead of the ambulance at Riley Hospital for Children — that Nate had not suffered a head injury or internal bleeding.
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Nate, now an 18-year-old senior at Tri-West High School, remembers only the moment when the car swerved off the road. He does not remember being ejected from the vehicle, or how it happened. He does not remember the ambulance ride. But he does remember waking up, looking at the wounds on his left arm and both legs that resembled a bear attack, and hoping he could play football again.
“It made me kind of appreciate everything a little more,” he said.
The good news for Nate was he, somewhat miraculously, did not suffer any broken bones when he was thrown from the vehicle into that dark night. But there were major injuries to his left arm and both legs, where the wounds were deep and open. The tendons on his left forearm were torn and required surgeries, one to repair the tendons and one for a skin graft, taking healthy skin from his thigh to replace it on his arm.
Due to the nature of his injuries, Nate was treated in the burn unit at Riley for eight days.
“Some of those first days, you could see what those injuries were causing him,” Steve Hiland said. “It would take him 15 to 20 minutes to get out of bed. That first week he couldn’t get out of bed at all. Then walking down the hallway twice in one day was a big win.”
Steve Hiland, who coaches the wide receivers at Tri-West, becomes emotional when discussing these moments. Not just because they happened to his son, but because of the reaction from Nate’s close friends and teammates. They made several visits to the hospital to see him, then kept it up when he returned home and started his outpatient rehabilitation.
“I’ve been there since they were little, this whole group,” Steve said. “It’s had its rollercoaster moments but it’s rewarding. (Nate) has always been kind of the runt, a smaller guy. We knew all along by the time he got to this age, he’d be fine. The accident happened. But in a way, the setback may have made him stronger.”
It certainly made him more focused. Nate, who had broken his left arm returning a kickoff and missed most of his sophomore year, was cleared to return to football the day before practice started in August of 2023. It was only three months after the accident, though, and the now 5-6, 140-pound Nate was barely 120 pounds. When he did return, he played on the junior varsity team as a junior.
“Really, I’ve always known I had to step up because I was smaller,” he said. “Lots of people doubted me, I feel like. Hopefully I prove them wrong.”
When he did return to the football field, Nate wore a sleeve over his left arm and sleeves over his legs. Wendy, who worked as an intensive care unit nurse for 20 years and has been a case manager for the past seven years, said she was worried about Nate returning to football at first. But through a lot of Papa John’s pizza, visits from his friends and a fortunate landing on that May night, he came out of it in a much more positive state than it could have been.
“It really is a miracle,” Wendy said. “To come back with minimal damage to his arm, a full range of motion and be able to run and play again is a blessing.”
Tri-West coach Jason Ward was not sure what to expect from Nate after last season ended. Ward challenged him over the summer about playing like he needs to earn his spot.
“You always like to be on the field,” Nate said. “It’s kind of hard to be the ‘next guy up.’ So I just watched Noah (Noah Lien, now a freshman at Taylor University, led Tri-West last year with 45 catches for 546 yards and six touchdowns), tried to get better and always knew next year would be my year.”
Nate, who had only caught two varsity passes prior to his senior year, earned a starting spot going into the season. In the first game, a 43-7 win over Western, he doubled his previous varsity total with four catches for 30 yards. So far this season, Nate has 24 receptions for 265 yards and five TDs.
Ward calls him “Mr. Consistency.” Nate, an inside receiver, sometimes runs routes knowing he might be the fourth or fifth option on the play. But he is the best route runner for the Bruins (6-4), who will host eight-ranked Cascade (10-0) in a Class 3A Sectional 29 semifinal on Friday night.
“Nobody took his starting spot away from him,” Ward said with a smile. “He knows what he’s doing when it comes to catching the ball. He’s definitely not going to run over people, but he’s going to run around people. He brings consistency. Half the battle is knowing what you are doing out there. He’s consistent every game, every practice. That’s what he brings.”
Nate’s route running might be a genetic thing, too. His father and position coach was a receiver on Tri-West’s 1989 Class 2A state finalist team under coach Mike Gillin, earning honorable mention all-state honors.
“He can help me out with stuff at home, which is kind of nice,” Nate said. “He can coach me up wherever we’re at.”
Steve is appreciative of the chance to coach his son, especially after the accident. He said Riley surgeons Joshua Adkinson and Brian Gray and physical therapist Mary Carter were especially helpful. He also credited the North Salem Fire Department for their quick action.
“Unsung heroes,” Steve said. “People don’t realize how important rural fire departments are. There are great people out there.”
There are a couple of tendons in Nate’s hand that are unable to repaired. But otherwise, he is able to do everything on the football he did before — and some. After his accident, he is thinking about getting into a physician assistant program after he goes to college.
But first he would like to help Tri-West make a run like his dad’s team did 35 years ago.
“You always think about your senior year being so far away,” he said. “You want to make the most of it.”
Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.