BOSTON GLOBE: Work-ethic sets up happy return for Hounds Mark Cinar

September 14, 2006

By Marvin Pave

Boston Globe Correspondent

Assumption College lost its season-opening football game to C.W. Post two weekends ago, but the game was still a triumph for senior linebacker Mark Cinar.

Two years ago, the former Watertown High star suffered a broken neck in a game against Iona College. He actually played in Assumption's next two games that fall to finish the season, but later underwent surgery that had him miss all of last season and playing a limited role in the team's workouts this spring while recuperating.

Cinar was able to resume contact on the field just last month, during Assumption's preseason camp. But despite the long layoff and the severity of his injury, Cinar has been outstanding in the Worcester school's two games this season. In the 28-7 loss to C.W. Post, he led the defense with 11 tackles and set up his team's only touchdown with an interception, and last weekend added four tackles (three solo) in Assumption's 16-3 victory over Stonehill College.

"Ordinarily, I'd call a comeback like that amazing, but I wasn't amazed because Mark is the hardest-working player I've been around," said Assumption linebackers coach Jeff Moore. "To bounce back from an injury like that you have to be physically tough, but more importantly you have to be mentally tough."

Cinar's injury occurred when the sophomore left his feet to deliver a helmet first tackle on an Iona player.

"Right after the hit, I couldn't feel my body and I couldn't hear much," recalled Cinar, "but after I was checked for a concussion and the pins and needles went away, I went back into the game. I started the next two games right to the end of the season, but I didn't know the severity of the injury."

After the 2004 season, Cinar felt stinging sensations while weight lifting and even while washing his face. Eventually, there was constant numbness in his fingers.

"Maybe I was stubborn, but my roommate finally convinced me to get checked out by our team doctor," he said.

A series of examinations led him to a spinal specialist, and surgery was performed at UMass Memorial Medical Center in March 2005. A doctor told him that the severe herniation of his third and fourth vertebrae resembled an injury one would suffer in a 50-mile-per-hour crash.

"He said he couldn't believe I was walking," said Cinar.

The damaged vertebrae were replaced with titanium plates held together by screws. And the recuperation was long and initially painful.

"My neck was killing me, and my throat was sore because of the stitches," said Cinar, who never gave up hope of returning to football, a game he first played in the Watertown Pop Warner program at age 9 . "I remember one of the nurses remarking that this would mean football was over for me, and I just said that it was too soon to tell."

Three months after surgery, Cinar was cleared to resume his workouts, and he remembers "doing push-ups and sit-ups by the hundreds and running miles and miles. By September of last year, I was given permission to lift again, and my range of motion was coming back."

It was still several months of hard work and waiting before his injury had fully healed and Cinar could get back on the football field. He took part in spring practices, but head coach Cory Bailey kept him out of contact drills. At preseason camp last month, Cinar was able to play in an intrasquad scrimmage, and his standout plays included a pass interception that he returned 60 yards.

"I can't remember ever making a play like that before," he said. "I'm definitely in my best shape ever now, and I have to be. I can't play scared or be hesitant, because that's when I could hurt myself more."

Bailey said prior to the injury Cinar was developing into a first-string linebacker, but since his return he's also become a defensive leader.

"The doctors say he's as good as new, and we're thrilled to have him back," said Bailey. "It was tough on him last year when he couldn't play, but now he's the guy we rely on at strong-side linebacker as our run stopper.

"I just love him as a person and as a football player. He's fiery and intense, and he's in phenomenal shape. Once he got back in the mix, he's been fine. He was nervous at first; now he's fearless. He's got all the physical tools to play linebacker, and also the instincts, which you can't teach."

Cinar, whose father, Gerry, was a professional soccer player in Turkey and Greece, played several sports growing up in Watertown. While he had talent for baseball, football became his favorite.

A three-year starter at Watertown High and a Middlesex League All-Star, Cinar had aspirations to play Division 1 college football (Assumption is in Division 2) but at 5-foot-10 he may have been too short for the recruiters from the bigger schools.

"But I'm really happy here at Assumption; it's been a great experience and I've had lots of support," said Cinar.

He added that his parents and sister have also been encouraging during his comeback. "My family was nervous at first, but always there to motivate me."

A marketing major who has a year of college football eligibility beyond this season, Cinar would like to run his own sports-related business someday, perhaps after attending graduate school.

For the present, he is devoting himself to his studies and to his sport, because, he said, "I know now that it can all be taken away. It has made me work harder than ever."

? Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.