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Rockville High football coach Mark Maradei might have gotten frustrated with senior Westin Hayden if last year's starting right tackle wasn't such a workhorse.

The Rams were just starting their offseason workout regimen last November and, though Hayden was one of the hardest workers, he couldn't seem to get into better shape; he was always panting for breath and tired.

By winter break he couldn't walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded. That's when Hayden found out he wasn't out of shape; he had a pulmonary embolism.

Hayden, 17, was getting interest from such NCAA Division I football programs as Syracuse, Georgia Tech, Illinois and Tennessee. But instead of gearing up for his senior season on the gridiron, he spent the first two weeks of his winter vacation in the hospital getting poked and prodded for medical tests.

His dreams of playing college football no longer seemed relevant.

A pulmonary embolism is a blood clot in the lung. Symptoms include difficulty breathing and chest pain, and the condition can be fatal.

The embolism requires Hayden to take blood-thinning medication. He can't play football, because if he got cut while on the anticoagulation medication, his blood wouldn't clot and he could bleed to death.

"When I was in the hospital, I kept asking about football and when I could play again, and they were like, ‘You shouldn't worry about football, this could've killed you,'" Hayden said. "It's like, I'd rather just have torn my ACL or something, because that's something that you just rehab and it gets better. It's really disappointing. I was really looking forward to playing in college, but it's like, I could've died."

It's been an adjustment for Hayden to adhere to his new, more tranquil, lifestyle. He loved the physicality of football. He was a gym rat. He finished in the top 25 in the shot put event at last year's county indoor track meet. To stay in shape now, Hayden swims — that's about all his body allows him to do.

"From a coaching standpoint, kids come and go each year," Maradei, entering his third year as head coach, said. "But this breaks my heart. He had so much potential and high hopes to go on and play. He's a high-caliber, high-character person. And we'll miss him on the field. Losing him will impact our overall depth, experience and team character. He is so well-respected and so well-liked."

Hayden was a big part of Rockville's 2007 campaign, when the team went to the Class 2A West Region semifinal. The Rams ran the ball behind him, and he was a playmaker on the defensive line, fast enough to get upfield and make big tackles.

Though he can't suit up and play in 2008, he's not willing to fully separate himself from Rams football. He's on the sidelines at practice several times a week, as hard as it is for him to just stand and watch. And he's ready to do whatever Maradei needs him to do to help the team.

Hayden hadn't really considered coaching children before, but he joined the Rockville Football League's 6th-to-8th-grade team's coaching staff this summer, and is eager to continue on that path this fall.

"I didn't want to just give up football altogether," Hayden said. "It's fun to watch these kids learn. It's kind of my way of helping the Rockville team. These kids are going to go into ninth grade prepared. Maybe one of these kids I coach will be able to go on and get a college scholarship."

Pulmonary embolisms aren't curable, but in the coming weeks Hayden is going to have an operation in which doctors are going to look into his lungs and see where the clots are. If they're not too deep in the lungs, he will have surgery to remove them.

That might allow him to go back to a somewhat more active lifestyle. Hayden has accepted that he won't be able to play football competitively again; he's thankful to be alive and living a fairly normal life.

"It's hard, because I used to be a part of the team, and now it's like I'm more a spectator," Hayden said. "I'll watch them and I'll see a good hit and just be like ‘Oh, I want to do that.' But it's OK, because the doctors told me I could've died. So, I'm lucky."