NEW BRAUNFELS — On Nov. 3 last year, Leighton Adams was leading New Braunfels High School to a win over Converse Judson in the final regular season football game of the year. The junior QB tossed three touchdowns passes that night to help the Unicorns pick up the win and build momentum, heading toward the playoffs that started the following week.

But exactly one week after that game, the night before the playoffs started, Adams had his life changed in an instant.

“My little brother was having a basketball game and during halftime I got bored,” Adams recalls. “So I was just walking outside and saw a pole that I thought would be a challenge to climb. I wanted to get up there and look over the city and thought that would be fun.”

So Adams, who’s always been adventurous, did just that. He climbed up an electrical pole that was just outside the basketball gym at New Braunfels Christian Academy.

“Right about the time halftime was ending the lights flickered and then went out,” says Cole Adams, Leighton’s father who was at the basketball game. “I was just thinking, Leighton goes all out, there was a thought. I hope there wasn’t something with Leighton going on.”

His thought, unfortunately, proved to be true.

“I touched something at the top that had all the electricity passing through it,” says Adams. “I learned afterwards that it was between 7,200 volts and 12,000.”

Adams fell 20-30 feet from the pole straight to the ground. People outside alerted the family that he was hurt and they came running out.

“When I got back to the back of the gym where the pole is, I saw Cole over Leighton and could hear Leighton making just these guttural, groaning sounds,” says Jennifer Adams, Leighton’s mother. 

Adams says he couldn’t see anything in the moments after the fall, but he could hear his dad and recognized his voice next to him. 

“It was the only comfort there was,” says Adams.

“I said what hurts, he said my leg,” says Cole. “That’s when I looked down and saw his ankle was displaced.”

Adams also was complaining that his arms were on fire.

“I said you’re not on fire and help is on the way,” says Cole.

There were some anxious moments as Adams laid there, and his parents waited for the ambulance to arrive.

“I remember thinking, God we have got to have your help right here,” says Jennifer. “I don’t know if this is the last we’re seeing this son of ours alive.”

“My prayer was, ‘Lord, either heal him miraculously or take him quickly,’” Cole recalls. “I didn’t want him to suffer.”

When Adams got to the hospital, they determined he had broken a few vertebrae in his lower back, had a dislocated ankle, and had suffered burns up and down his arm. But he was ultimately going to be OK.

“We can’t come up with any other reason. I’m not dead but God,” says Adams.

“I kind of pushed back early on using the language of a miracle,” says Cole. “But there’s just no other explanation.”

Not only did Leighton survive, but a few months after the accident, he’s pretty much back to normal. He’s able to be active and adventurous again and he’s able to play his senior football season.

“I never thought that I wouldn’t get back to playing football,” says Adams. “Nobody ever told me that, so it was just a matter of time.”

Leighton has been working out with the New Braunfels team all summer and can’t wait to be back on the field.

“I’m so excited he gets a chance to do the things that he loves and those aren’t limited because of this,” says Cole.

“So much easier to be thankful for every little thing we get to do because when it’s stripped away from you, you realize what you have,” says Adams.

What he has is a second chance and one more season of high school football. That season and Leighton’s return will be on Aug. 24 when New Braunfels opens the year against Denton Ryan.