WQOW TV: Eau Claire, WI NEWS18 News, Weather, and SportsFall Creek basketball player undergoes surgery Friday

Fall Creek basketball player undergoes surgery Friday

Fall Creek (WQOW) - A local high school basketball player is in the hospital Friday night after being injured on the court. It happened Thursday night in Altoona.

Fall Creek senior Matt Dickinsen was driving to the basket when he collided with a videographer. He was then taken to Sacred Heart Hospital. Two vertebrae on his neck were dislocated and on Friday afternoon he underwent surgery to realign his neck.

In the second quarter of Thursday night's game between Altoona and Fall Creek, Dickensen goes up for a basket before he collides with a WEAU videographer under the hoop. 

Fall Creek's coach Rick Storlie knew something was wrong right away.

"Matt is a kid who is very tough and he'll get up right away and he didn't.  He had heard something crack in his neck," says Storlie.

Coach Storlie says Matt will be immobilized for six to eight weeks and will have to wear some type of neck brace or halo. 

"He will not be able to play basketball again. His career as an athlete at Fall Creek and boys basketball ended last night. He'll always be a part of it," adds Storlie.

Coach Storlie says the important thing now is to help Matt and his family. He says Matt is a positive role model and a great kid and that the whole community is behind him. 

"Once he's able to he'll be right along my side once again, helping these guys out and he's just a great young man and I'm gonna miss him on the floor a great deal but he'll always be right there with us," says Storlie. "Our kids of course are scheduled to play a ball game Saturday and that will be a big time chore trying to get up to play for that game. But, it might be one of the best things for us, to come together as a family, we're as much as a family as anything."

The collision happened right under the basket. Typically, most local photographers position themselves away from the hoop.

The last update News 18 had was that Matt went into surgery Friday afternoon but don't know how long that surgery would take.