THE RIVALRY of the hometown teams charges the Friday night air. The center snaps the football, and the quarterback slides the ball into the running back’s hands, consistently moving the chains downfield and into the end zone. For 16 carries, No. 19 picks up yardage and charges head-on into his opponent. Cascade High School senior Sawyer Lovvorn rushed for 273 yards and six touchdowns on 16 carries in a 68-0 win and received The Tennessean Small Class Boys Athlete of the Week award in September 2023.
His football opponents aren’t the only thing Sawyer’s hit head-on. On another September day in 2018, a simple river outing turned tragic for Sawyer and his friends, Marquis Wilson and Isah Alexander. Their leisurely day on the Tennessee River quickly became a nightmare as their innertube, pulled by a jet ski, collided with a concrete bridge support.
“I just remember crying out to God, saying, ‘Lord, thank you for the 12 years I’ve seen,’ because we know our kids are a blessing from God,” said Sawyer’s dad, Mike.
The collision injured Marquis, and Sawyer sustained severe injuries, including a cerebral spinal fluid leak, leading to a race against time for medical intervention. Isah jumped before the impact, swam to shore, climbed the rocky embankment, and flagged down a car whose driver called 911.
Marquis went home from the hospital seven days later. In intensive care, Sawyer’s recuperation hinged on carefully managing the healing of fractures and controlling the continuous fluid leak. Finally, after 17 challenging days, Sawyer returned home, scoring a hard-won touchdown in his recovery journey.
It’s a score the Lovvorn family attributes to the hand of God.
“The way the community rallied around those boys, the things that happened behind the scenes, and the stories that came from it — it was horrible, but you see God’s hand in the whole thing. Isah wasn’t hurt, but he is the hero in the story because he was 13 years old, and he went up there and flagged somebody down. With all that happened, he didn’t freeze up. He just did what needed to be done,” said Sawyer’s mom, Chastity.
“That was one of the incredible things about the accident — just the amount of prayer from our community. We felt those prayers. We know that God hears our prayer,” Mike said.
Sawyer’s brother, Sanders, wasn’t with the family the day of the accident.
“I love my brother very much, and I always have. The accident made me realize just how much I loved him and would have missed him if he hadn’t made it. Our relationship is even stronger now; he’s my best friend,” Sanders said.
Sawyer missed the 2018 football season but played the next season and each after. Also a baseball player, Sawyer missed most of his sophomore year of baseball with a torn UCL, the Tommy John ligament, in the fifth game of the season. Last summer, a Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital doctor diagnosed him with superventricular tachycardia (SVT), which is when the heart beats fast and is induced by adrenaline. An ablation corrected the SVT, and Sawyer hit the football field running.
The Lovvorns, a sports-loving family, have boldly weathered each medical issue, buoyed by their faith and the community’s support.
Sawyer said, “One of the biggest things the accident and some of the other injuries taught me is that nothing in life is guaranteed. You can’t take anything for granted. Every day, you have to make the decisions you know you need to make and that you know God wants you to make, and do it to the best of your ability because you don’t know how much longer you have.”
Although his life is packed with sports, Sawyer maintains a 4.0 grade point average. It’s another side of the competitive coin. But as important as those things are, they’re not everything.
“As much as I love playing football, baseball, or basketball, and as much as I love competing, I love making good grades. There are so many things I love to do. But at the end of the day, none of it really matters as much as having a relationship with my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I sometimes lose sight of that because it’s hard when you’re competing, and you love it so much,” Sawyer said.” But it’s so important to stay grounded in your faith and let that be the main goal, and then sports. It’s just a blessing you get from God that you use to give glory back to Him. At the end of the day, have fun and play sports. Do your best at it, but as Colossians 3:23 says, ‘Whatever you do, work heartily as to the Lord and not to men.’ It’s hard to make this the main focus, but I try to give glory back to God in everything, to know where it comes from, and try not to take the glory for myself because I know I don’t deserve it.”
Chastity said, “We just know God’s got a plan.” Mike agrees. “The verse that comes to mind for us as a family is Romans 8:28. ‘And we know that all things work together for good to those that love God and are called according to His purpose.’ We know that everything we’ve been through hasn’t been good. But we look back on it now, and we see so many blessings — even how good things came from the bad times. That gives us even more faith in knowing that the creator of everything looks at us, and He sees and cares about us.” The Lovvorn family faces life headon, fortified by unwavering faith and a strong family bond. As they continue to lean on their belief that God has a plan, Sawyer’s unshakable spirit serves as a testament to the transformative power of faith and perseverance as he moves the chains further down the field of his journey into adulthood. He knows who’s making the calls! GN
