To this day, Lake senior Will Mercure can’t recall the most traumatic moment of his life.

Mercure, a 5-foot-10, 160-pound wide receiver/cornerback for the football team, suffered a fractured skull when he overshot the mats and hit the floor headfirst as he practiced the pole vault before an indoor meet on March 8, 2024.

“I was delirious,” he said. “I had amnesia, so I don’t remember it. I was unable to formulate sentences or anything like that.”

As Mercure had done countless times before, he sprinted forward, planted the pole in the ground and launched himself into the air. But he flew over every mat and descended at an awkward angle, and his head hit the hard track surface.

Lakes assistant Dan Jazo, Mercure’s coach in the pole vault since sixth grade, was among the people who rushed t

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