- November 15, 2024
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Cary brings down the ball carrier during the Sandcrabs' game against DeLand.
Dylan Cary. Photos by Jeff Dawsey
Cary and the defense has kept the Sandcrabs in many games over the last two seasons.
Nick Zipperer and Braden Buswell sack DeLand's quarterback for a big loss.
From the time Dylan Cary ever graced a football field, he wore the red and bore the name “Sandcrab.” From rising up the Pop Warner ranks to now playing for the Seabreeze Sandcrabs, Cary shoulders that identity with dignity, even in the midst of losing seasons.
Take last year, for example, when he played the final three games with Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis (ADEM) – a brief but intense attack of inflammation in the brain and spinal cord and occasionally the optic nerves that damages the brain’s myelin – similar to multiple sclerosis.
“I woke up one morning and had no idea what was going,” Cary said. “I really noticed it when I was at practice and tried to catch a ball above my head, but it hit me in my stomach. I was seeing double and everything was blurry.”
Cary had suffered vision loss in his eye but still decided to play.
“It was really hard playing with one eye,” Cary said, “and it made me realize how lucky I am to be able to see.”
One might ask why he chose to continue to play in that condition, especially since the Sandcrabs were 1-7 with a slim chance of reaching the playoffs. For Cary, the answer is simple: He takes pride in playing Sandcrab football.
“I've always been a Sandcrab, from Pop Warner to now, so it’s different for me,” he said. “And my dad and both of my sisters graduated from Seabreeze, and I've grown up going to Municipal Stadium.”
Enduring these last two years have not been easy on him. Cary has seen many of his best teammates who are his friends transfer on to greener pastures.
“It's been hard to go through,” Cary said. “It sucks, because we were like a unit and worked well together, but I understood and we’re all still close friends.” Cary plans to watch some of them play this weekend during his bye week.
And finishing last season with a 2-8 record was the hardest for him, because he wanted more for the seniors.
“We’ve only tried to get this program back to the tradition it has had in the past,” he said, “trying to get back to the playoffs where we belong.”
Whether he and the Sandcrabs are able to turn this season around or not, Cary says he will enjoy the rest of his time donning the Sandcrab red, because he will get to “play with my family one more time, under the lights and for my school.”
An eye for the ball: Although Dylan Cary could only see with his right eye for the last several games of the past season, he was able to intercept a ball against Deltona. After locating the ball in the air, he dove for it, and, once it hit one of his hands, he was able to reel it in.
ICYMI: Sandcrabs fall to DeLand: The Seabreeze Sandcrabs fell to the DeLand Bulldogs 10-7 on Friday, Sept. 2, at Daytona Municipal Stadium. After going down early 10-0 in the first quarter, the Sandcrabs' defense held the Bulldogs scoreless for the rest of the game. With five minutes gone in the fourth quarter, Brevin Glaze turned the contest into a nail biter, when he connected with Breonn Stauffer-McCormick for a 38-yard touchdown pass. Noah Motto kicked the extra point to pull the Sandcrabs within three points. Isaac Mott intercepted a pass late in the game to put Seabreeze in field goal range for a potential tie, but Motto's kick was short and to the left.
