National Football League

A LITTLE COMFORT FROM CADILLAC

Published Oct. 15, 2010 10:11 p.m. ET

foxsports

Mitchell running back Ricky Trinidad, who tore his ACL in the Mustangs' third game and is out for the rest of the season, recently heard from someone familiar with season-ending knee injuries.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers player Cadillac Williams called Trinidad last week to offer some words of encouragement. The two met during a photo shoot for the Tampa Tribune earlier this year, and when Williams heard about Trinidad's misfortune, he got in touch with the senior running back's father.

"My dad told me Cadillac's on the phone, and I was like 'Cadillac who?' " Trinidad said. "I didn't think he would call me. I was kind of star struck that he would take time out from his busy schedule."

Williams can share in Trinidad's pain, having gone through two knee injuries that kept him out a majority of two seasons (2007, 2008) and threatened to end his career. Williams returned to the NFL in 2009 and was named the Associate Press Comeback Player of the Year.

"He just told me that rehab's hard and to have faith in God and to never give up," Trinidad said. "He kind of knew where I was coming from, and he just wanted to let me know that I could come back from this. He gave me his cell number and told me to call if I ever needed to talk about anything. I thought that was really nice of him."

Trinidad said he's ahead of schedule in his rehab. He should be jogging again in four months and back to 100 percent in six months.

"My physical therapist and my doctor say my range of motion is good," Trinidad said. "I'm not killing myself to the point where I'm going to hurt myself again, but I've been rehabbing really hard so I can get back to playing."

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Mustangs smash swim records

Districts are still two weeks away but the Mitchell swim team is already rounding into postseason form.

Six Mitchell swim records have fallen this season, the result of a strong senior class combined with a talented crop of underclassmen.

"This year we really seemed to luck out as far as breaking records," Mitchell head coach MaryJo Artura said. "We have several swimmers that are breaking their own records."

Mazie Siddens was the latest Mustang to put together such a performance. On Oct. 6 at the New Tampa YMCA, Siddens, a sophomore, established two records in the 200 IM (2:16.46) and 100 fly (59.95), breaking marks she had set a year earlier. In a meet against Fivay on Sept. 22, Siddens shattered the Mustangs' previous record in the 500 free (5:59.69, Megan McCaffrey, 2006), taking nearly 23 seconds off after touching the wall in 5:36.19.

"She's phenomenal to watch. She's like a dolphin in the water," Artura said. "When that last 50 comes, she really picks it up."

For the boys, Devin McCaffrey, another sophomore, bested his mark set in 2009 in the 200 free (1:52.87) after swimming 1:48.15 against Ridgewood on Sept. 15.

The boys 400 free relay team of McCaffrey, Gavin Hunt, Ian Ondrejka and Anthony Chang swam 3:36.43 against River Ridge on Sept. 1 to shave more than eight seconds off the previous mark (3:44.93) set in 2008. Also against River Ridge, Hunt, a senior, set a school record in the 100 back (58.60). The previous record of 1:01.65 was set in 2006.

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