Plant’s Ely day-to-day with stress fracture

Posted Sep 2, 2009 by Katherine Smith

Updated Sep 2, 2009 at 12:07 PM

For the second-consecutive season, Plant has lost its starting quarterback to an injury, for awhile.

Junior quarterback Phillip Ely is day-to-day after after sustaining a stress fracture in his lower back at some point this summer. The injury flared up on Ely last week and he underwent a series of tests to determine the extent of the injury. A back specialist broke the news to Ely on Wednesday.

Sophomore James Few will continue to take over for Ely as the Panthers prepare for Friday night’s regular-season opener against Tampa Bay Tech.

“It’s not something that looks like it will be a long term thing,” Plant head coach Robert Weiner said. “He’s been resting it for 10 days now and the pain has started to subside, so this is good news. I feel like we actually won a game today.”

Ely was held out of last week’s Kickoff Classic loss to Bradenton Manatee because of the injury. In that game, Few threw for 188 yards, including two touchdowns and two interceptions. He also ran in for another score.

“When there’s a little blip on the radar and something goes wrong on our team, I expect the rest of our team to pick it up and find some new energy,” Weiner said. “James is very capable and young and learning every day.”

Last season, Ely played in seven games, filling in for Aaron Murray when the starting quarterback broke his leg in the Oct. 16 game against Hillsborough. The then sophomore quarterback helped lead the Panthers to a Class 4A state championship, a title run that included a regional final victory against Armwood.

“He’s such an amazing kid,” Weiner said. “A lot of people got to see what he was all about last year. People in the whole community and the whole state fell in love with him just by watching him play. He’s one of those kids you can see on the field that his heart and his passion and his spirit just bleed out of his uniform.”