Sept. 26, 2011 will be a day that will always stick out in Barrington offensive lineman Mason Darrow’s mind.

That night, the fourth week of the regular season, Darrow went down with a season-ending foot injury in the team’s 37-14 win over Wheeling.

“It was disheartening for the injury to happen,” Darrow said. “We were playing so well, it was rough to go through just watching on the sidelines.”

Darrow fractured the fifth metatarsal in his left foot, requiring him to have surgery the week after the injury. Screws were inserted into his foot. He was on crutches for five weeks and a walking boot for one month. In January, doctors cleared him to play and it looked as if he would be back to lead the offensive line for the 2012 season.

Until the Boston College camp in June, where he re-injured the same foot.

“I was doing a cone drill and slipped a little, felt a pop, but didn’t think much of it,” Darrow said. “I was able to finish the camp because of the adrenaline rush I was on and it didn’t hurt as much as before.”

Unfortunately, the injury knocked Darrow out of offseason practice and didn’t allow him to come back onto the field until last weekend. He suited up for the first time almost a year to the date, when he took the field for the Broncos’ homecoming game against Schaumburg. While the game didn’t go as the team had hoped — Barrington lost 20-14 — it still was a success for Darrow.

“Being back was fantastic,” Darrow said. “It’s awesome going back to something you love and great to be with my teammates.”

His presence was felt by everyone, including coach Joe Sanchez.

“He’s a leader on the field, a great kid who didn’t make his injury all about himself,” Sanchez said. “He was at every practice helping out, almost as an assistant coach.

“Even though he had missed a bunch of time, he brought calmness, so much knowledge. He always gets to the right spot and has so much knowledge. We were lacking that.”

That leadership is not only seen on the field, but off of it as well. Darrow is a member of the National Honor Society; carries a 4.0 GPA; is part of a freshman leadership program called Colt Leaders; volunteers with HERE, a suicide prevention group; and a leader in Broncos Committed, a reality group that teaches kids to not drink and do drugs.

With those kinds of credentials, it’s no shock that Division I and Ivy League schools are looking at him. He currently holds offers from Ohio, Wyoming, Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan, Holy Cross and Colgate, while hearing from Penn, Harvard and Princeton.

“I’d like to study pre-med so the biggest draw for me is education,” Darrow said. “I’d like to be an orthopedic surgeon and feel my experience as an athlete will help.”

Darrow doesn’t know what he’d do if he wasn’t playing football.

“I’ve been playing since the second grade,” he said. “I love the physicality, the brotherhood, everything about it.

“Oh yeah, getting a chance to beat people up every week is kinda fun, too.”

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