Lamont Baldwin can't remember much about the accident.
Those nearby won't soon forget.
In a flash, Baldwin, a wide receiver from Washington (D.C.) Archbishop Carroll, went from a spry, healthy college football prospect to a comatose hospital patient.
Onlookers described it as a horrific collision when the three players slammed into each other during passing drills at a football camp on April 2, 2011. Baldwin took the worst of it -- by far. At first, he tried to deny the seriousness of the situation as he was on the turf.
"I remember being on my hands and knees and saying to myself 'I can't get hurt.' " Baldwin said. "My head was just pounding. I remember trying to get up, but I couldn't."
Panic ensued. There were screams when Baldwin, still somewhat alert, wasn't responsive to questions about his condition.
"He was looking at us in a cold stare," said Renee Hall, a family friend, who was one of the first to reach Baldwin. "We couldn't understand. He couldn't hear us. He started yelling at my son, 'I can't hear you. I can't hear! I can't hear!' "
Hall knew to try to keep Baldwin awake. She soon realized that that was a fruitless endeavor.
"His eyes just started dazing off," Hall said. "Eventually he just kind of like drifted off into a deep sleep. I was just trying to keep holding his hand saying 'Hang in there. Hang in there.' "
Baldwin suffered a fractured cranium and jaw as well as a life-threatening concussion. He was in a coma for two days with bleeding on his brain. Doctors were talking about performing surgery to release the pressure in his head, but then Baldwin came out of the coma. As he awoke, Baldwin remembers being strapped to the bed with family, friends and teammates nearby.
The support was as crucial as any procedure.
"That was big," he said. "It was huge. I didn't have to feel alone. That was one of the most down moments in my life. I thought my career was over."
His career should have been the least of his concerns. Over the next few months, Baldwin would have to relearn to walk, talk and write. He only started running again last September. His senior season, set to be in 2011, was over before it began. Baldwin was reclassified and will play football as a senior this fall.
The first step in his recovery was to be released from the hospital. That was no simple task. At first, Baldwin didn't respond to doctors' requests. Until he accomplished some rudimentary functions, he couldn't leave the hospital.
"I told him the only way you're going to come home is if you start moving around and do what they need you to do," Baldwin's mother, Robin Jones, said. "Immediately, he got up. He wanted to come home."
Jones wasn't using tough love. She was stating facts.
"That was just truth," she said. "Being a mother, you know what it takes to get your child to do what he needs to do. I know his willpower. I knew he wanted to come home, so I told him you need to do what they want you to do -- you need to walk."
On April 8, six days after the accident and his mother's birthday, Baldwin was released from the hospital.
"It was a happy day," Baldwin said. "She told me there was no better present I could give her."
Through faith, Jones said she never doubted her son would return to the football field and continue to chase his dream of being a college football player.
"I always believed he was going to come back and come back strong -- and be better than he was," Jones said.
Baldwin is, indeed, a college football prospect again. He secured his first scholarship offer -- from Hawaii -- in May. More are likely to follow. Toledo, Colorado and Kansas have shown strong interest, and Maryland, Florida, Texas and West Virginia have also shown interest. Hawaii, however, has the inside track, since its coaches were the first to offer Baldwin a scholarship.
"They're really big to me right now," said Baldwin, who added that distance from home will not be a factor in his decision.
Family and friends learned plenty from the accident. Some are now a bit wary of football camps they view as unorganized. They wonder why there were two passing drills running toward each other instead of running in opposite directions with the quarterbacks back-to-back at midfield, which is most common.
Jones also knows that the high cost of some camps and the promises of scouts in attendance should be taken with a grain of salt.
"People need to be educated on scams," she said.
Of course, the family wouldn't object to mandating soft helmets at seven-on-seven tournaments and camps. Some teams are already wearing the helmets, but that is up to others to decide.
These days, Jones is just happy to have her son healthy. Baldwin is just happy to have his career back and is anxious to get back on the field this fall, even if that may worry his mom just a bit.
"I won't be apprehensive," Jones said, "but I will be watching closely."