Things seemed to be going well for David Steinberg '08 as the end of 2005 was drawing closer. Majoring in economics, Steinberg had also played a few good matches at No. 5 for the Big Green men's tennis team and had competed successfully at the Dartmouth Invitational in November.
"The team was doing pretty well in the fall. Our captain and top seed, Dave Waslen '07 was off, our No. 2 player [Mark] Brodie ['07] was off and No. 5 [Steve] McGaughey ['07] was also off, but we still managed to do pretty well," Steinberg said. "I was playing at No. 5, and I think I was playing some of the best tennis of my life at the time," he added.
After finishing with a 1-2 mark in the 2004 fall tournaments, Steinberg was on fire a year later. In the B flight of the Dartmouth Invitational Singles Tournament, he was seeded No. 2 and impressed by winning his bracket without losing a single set along the way. His almost-close quarterfinals match against Drew Balshi of Lehigh 6-2, 7-5 was his toughest of the tournament. In the semi-final, Steinberg smoked Sean Tully of UNH 6-2, 6-1 and met his doubles partner and classmate Robbie Lim '08 in the final. Lim, who played No. 6 for the Big Green in the fall, couldn't keep up with Steinberg. In the final, just five days after he turned 19, Steinberg won in two sets, 6-3, 6-2.
After such a successful start to the season, he could not have thought for a second that tennis would be the least of his concerns over the next year. However, Steinberg's life pulled a 180 on him on December 20, 2005.
"I was playing basketball with some friends back home [in Tucson, Arizona]. We were playing in a park, and there was a pool next to the park. We decided to jump in after the game; I guess I wasn't really thinking. I just dove in and didn't even realize how shallow it was," Steinberg said. "I hit my head on the bottom, I believe it was about two or three feet deep. Instantly, I knew something was wrong."
Steinberg, however, did not grasp the gravity of his situation.
"I couldn't move my neck much, but I didn't know how serious it was at the time. I thought I just had a sprained neck. I got to my friend's house and that's when I started losing consciousness and got scared; I realized things were going really bad," he said.
After his dad called an ambulance, Steinberg remembers going to the hospital, where he was "in and out of consciousness for hours" and "basically pretty messed up." David had broken two bones in his neck -- the C1 and the C7 vertebrae. "It turns out that the most common way to break your C1 is by diving in a pool, which I now find pretty funny, but it wasn't as funny back then," he said.
Steinberg had an emergency surgery and was placed in halo-style traction immediately afterwards. "When I woke up, the first thing I wanted to know was whether I was going to be able to walk again. At that point, I knew it was pretty bad, but at least I was not paralyzed," David said.
Knowing he would be in the halo for a while, Steinberg was not yet thinking about tennis. The memories of his successful fall disappeared as he focused on his recovery.
"I was just thinking about walking again and moving again. It was probably a month after the surgery that I first started thinking about playing tennis again," he said.
Steinberg does not want to rush things and return on the court before being 100 percent fit. "My return date is still up in the air and it still very much depends on how well I recover. I'm not even sure if I'll ever play tennis at the same level. I try to concentrate on just starting to hit the ball around," he said.
Head coach Charles Kinyon was a bit more pessimistic than David himself, saying "[Steinberg] really can't start hitting tennis balls until next October."
However, being on a sports team also helped Steinberg in his recovery, as his teammates were very supportive after the injury.
"I talked to the guys, talked to the coach, and being on the Blitz list also made me feel like I was still a part of the team," said Steinberg.
The unsuccessful spring season of the men's tennis program made it even harder for Steinberg.
"It was definitely frustrating, especially since we're losing so much," Steinberg said.
"It was a life-changing experience, something that you hope will never happen again, The one good thing I would take away from this experience is that I've become a lot closer to my parents."
