Christ School loses top running back for the season

ARDEN - Christ School senior running back Sidney Gibbs will miss the rest of the 2018 season after breaking his right leg during Saturday's home game against Houston Episcopal. 

Gibbs, who rushed for over 2,000 yards in 2017, broke the leg in the first half. X-rays showed he sustained a tibial shaft fracture, an injury his doctor said will take 12 to 16 weeks to fully heal.

He is expected to make a full recovery. 

"It's a sickening feeling," Christ School coach Tommy Langford said. "He's worked so hard for this moments and to have it taken away is such a sad thing, not just for football, but on a personal level. He's one of the good ones. He doesn't deserve this."

Langford said Gibbs plans to get pins in his leg sometime this week.

"You can't replace someone like Sidney," Langford. "It's going to be very tough without him."

It's a sad ending to Gibbs' high school career. He rushed for over 1,700 yards as a sophomore at Owen. He missed his junior season with a knee injury and transferred to Christ School in 2016 to reclaim that year.

In 2017, he rushed for 2,029 yards in nine games - an average of over 220 yards a game. He ran for 241 yards in the Greenies' 2018 opener.

He had already rushed for two scores against Houston Episcopal before the season-ending injury. Christ School lost 28-21 on Saturday. 

"He was looking even stronger this year," Langford said. "It's going to really hurt his recruiting. He was on the cusp of some big things. I hope he still gets his chance."

Gibbs currently has offers from Shaw University, North Carolina Central and Winston Salem State University.

Gibbs is the second top running back to go down this season. 

Senior running back Elijah Sutton - who rushed for 1,300 yards last season - injured his knee in the Wolverines' season-opening victory at Chase and faces a recovery period of at least 6-7 months, according to a report from PolkSports.com.

Sutton is scheduled to have surgery on Monday. Sutton told PolkSports.com that he suffered a partially torn meniscus and the tibia bone was crushed into the femur.