You know a football season is moving along when the number of players on the sideline not playing begins to grow.

The guys in jerseys and shorts or jeans.

Not unlike many other teams across Texas, the Wylie Bulldogs have had their share of injuries and/or medical setbacks this season. Coach Clay Martin’s team limped - literally, in some cases - into its bye week. Few players on the team weren’t banged up in some way but the Bulldogs were missing, at some point, Blake Frailing, Aaron Edwards, Cooper Jones, Dean Harrison, Daniel Haynes, Carter Nelson, Landry Pate, and Benjamin Vail.

That’s quite an assortment of talent.

The “next man up” philosophy has trickled down to the high school football level. How a team pivots when injuries mount likely will determine how the season plays out.

In District 2-5A, injuries have been critical to Lubbock-Cooper. The Pirates, a playoff team last year and every year going back to the 2013 season, are 0-5. Already, hobbled L-C has lost more regular season games than any Pirates team in that successful stretch.

Wylie enters Friday’s home game against Wichita Falls Memorial with its healthiest roster since the season opener. The Bulldogs are 3-2 thanks in no small part to other players stepping into major roles and healthy key players performing at a high level.

Frailing, a versatile senior who contributed on both sides of the ball, will be ready to go for the Bulldogs. He hurt his shoulder against Lubbock Coronado and joined Jones on the sidelines with shoulder pads off and attention given to their upper body injuries.

Jones also may be able to go against the visiting Mavericks.

Getting players off the sideline and onto the field definitely will boosts the Bulldogs as they push for the playoffs.

SOS! HE HAS EOE

Frailing is no stranger to missing games.

He was out last year much of the non-district schedule, and then not at 100 percent when he returned because of an uncommon ailment.

“Eosinophilic esophagitis,” he said after practice this week, rattling off the tongue twister with ease. He probably can spell it in his sleep, too.

“Yeah, I’ve done a lot of research on it,” he said, smiling.

The inflammatory disease literally had a chokehold on him a year ago.

Known as EoE, the disease festers when white blood cells called eosinophil populate the esophagus to the point a person finds it hard to swallow. That means eating is difficult or impossible.

Frailing got it scoped to get a better look at what was going in his throat but the youth version didn’t work because the inflammation was so severe, he said.

“So for four weeks during football season, I was on a liquid diet,” he said.

Frailing dined with a straw instead of a knife, fork, and spoon. He lost weight when he needed every pound to play his linebacker and receiving positions..

“The short of it is that certain foods, or liquids, cause my throat to become inflamed,” he said.

Frailing said his condition blew up last year. It didn’t just happen but had been building. It’s serious when a young man who has his eyes set on breaking the school shot put record this spring is reduced to “eating” his meals in liquid form.

“My pregame meal was spaghetti blended up with some protein powder,” he said. Not exactly Olive Garden.

“Or chili, or any kind of slop I could come up with,” he added, chuckling.

Yum.

At one point, he lost 15 pounds in one week.

“I can say it’s one of the hardest things I’ve been through,” Frailing said. The toughest game was his first game back, on the road against Wichita Falls Legacy.

“That was the week that I had my first scope and I was under anesthesia. I was already loopy from that Tuesday and not having any real food in my system … that was a struggle that whole week,” he said.

High-calorie drinks helped him through the next few weeks. But steak and potatoes would’ve been the bomb.

But at least he was playing.

AND THEN A FOOTBALL INJURY

It was hard but Frailing stuck to it.

“It definitely helped me grow, not only as a football player but as a human. I did get closer in my faith with God because the whole time I was wondering, ‘Why me? Why now?’”

Frailing said he had choking problems in the past “but parents thought it was because I was eating too fast.

“I was diagnosed with it my eighth-grade year because I kept choking on pills. We thought maybe we should get this checked out. I got it stretched (an outpatient procedure to narrowed areas of the esophagus) and didn’t have a problem with it until our Brownwood game last year,” Frailing said.

He leaned on his parents, his pastor, and coach Lee Fletcher during the tough stretch.

“I got over it and, personally, I think I finished the season well,” he said.

“He’s a tough kid,” coach Clay Martin said. “He has a lot of mental toughness, and he carries himself in such a respectful and professional way.

“When you get to coach kids like Blake, it makes this job really fun.”

He worked to gain weight during the offseason, participated in optional workouts during the summer, and returned to the Sandifer Stadium turf “to grind it out in practice every day now.”

And then he sustains a football injury.

Against Coronado, Frailing sprained his acromioclavicular joints (AC) near his collarbone and left the game.

“The bye week came at a perfect time for me to heal it. It’s still not 100 percent but I am full go for Friday,” he said.

Frailing is not clear of the esophagus issue. He may never be.

“I still have to take daily medicine for it and a weekly injection, Dupixent, which is the best thing ever for me because I would have to eliminate dairy, peanuts, eggs, and fish,” he said. “Dairy, that’s the main food that causes the inflammation."

Those foods are the strongest triggers for any EoE patient.

“I will take it the rest of my life but that’s way better than it was,” Frailing said.

In return for the encouragement he received last year, Frailing has worked to be a team leader as a senior and also to boost his teammates who have dealt with their own medical setbacks.

“I think with Carter and all the other injuries, I’m just giving them words from God, that He does everything for a reason and just trust him and you’ll get through it,” Frailing said. “Obviously, injuries are bad for a team but if you can overcome them, it builds this chemistry that will help us later on down in the season.”

Martin obviously is a big fan of the young man wearing No. 5.

“He is an exceptional young man. Blake is one of the most trustworthy people we have,” Martin said. “Showing up to work every day and knowing what to do. He is a great asset to our team.”

Frailing said the team is turning a corner from an injury setback standpoint.
“We’re as healthy as we’ve been since Week 1,” he said. “It’s very exciting because we know what kind of team we have. “

The new season after the welcome bye week and 15-day stretch without a game begins against Memorial.

Wylie lost handily last year, 45-14, and its opponent rubbed it in at Sandifer after the final play of the game. Frailing recalled the Mavericks players and coaches “storming the field and doing all these hand gestures at us, the first time we’ve ever seen a team do that to us.”

And it was on the home turf. Motivation is not in short supply for those in the purple and gold helmets.

“We want revenge, that’s all we’re saying,” Frailing said.

WHO YA GONNA CALL?

Blake Frailing is the kind of a player that coaches would love to clone. He is not a superstar at one position but he is versatile enough to have an impact at several.

He is playing defensive end this year after playing previously at outside linebacker. He was good enough to earn all-district honors for defense and his role on offense.

He was needed this year to play a new position.

Previously, he was a safety and middle linebacker.

On offense, he will start at tight end but also set up as the H back (the player who lines up in the backfield to help block like a fullback but also is a target as a receiver)

“I can go wherever they tell me to,” Frailing said.

Martin and his staff take advantage of the senior’s versatility.

“He plays a lot of roles for our team,” the head coach said. “He is really, really good at a lot of things. He has the size to do some things, and the speed. We have moved him around. He is a big part of what we do.”

Does Frailing have a favorite position?

“Well … I really miss outside linebacker but I’ll say tight end and H-back because that is where I’ve gotten the most snaps at this year. A few times I get the rock and try to make the most out of it,” he said.

His dad, Mike, passed on the cliche that the best ability is availability.

“If any injury pops up, like we’ve had this year, they plug you in at any spot,” he said. “That’s a good quality to have.”

Thankfully, he’s able to play.

“Since junior high, we’ve known this is our best shot, our senior year, to making a long run in the playoffs,” Frailing said. It’s been about hard practices and as the season goes on, eliminating mental mistakes that have hurt the Bulldogs at times.

He remembers his first play on the varsity, during a scrimmage. He was flagged for a false start and demoralized. His teammates picked him up, and he tries to do the same now for those who make mistakes

“As we clean that up, we have a really good shot at what we want to do,” he said.

Looking farther down the road, Frailing, who also is a good student, wants to set the WHS record in the shot put. He was four feet shy of 56 feet last spring and has improved by five feet each year, he said.

“So that’s my goal,” he said.

After that, he wants to be a firefighter.

It would seem that as of now, he has the “fighter” part of that career choice down pat.