RUSTON, La. — You could feel the air leave the stadium the moment it happened.
On a routine play in the regular season finale in 2025, Ruston High School junior running back Dalen Powell went down with a fractured ankle. For Powell, the injury meant surgery, a long stretch away from the field and a rehab process that would decide how his season, and his football career as a whole, would look.
Powell’s father Donte was in the stands. His first thought, he said, was about the work his son had put in.
“I was hoping it wasn’t as bad as it turned out to be,” Powell’s father said. He said he wanted to make sure his son was comfortable and to keep his spirits up.
Dalen’s thoughts went somewhere else.
“I knew I was going to be out, but I was thinking, what can I do to get back as soon as possible, get back with my guys and be on the field with them again?” Powell said.
Enter Johnson Physical Therapy.
Bryan Moore, a physical therapist and clinical director at the Ruston clinic of Johnson Physical Therapy, was on the field that night. He said he saw the injury and saw how Powell responded before they had met.
“He was all business, and he was not even upset about the pain,” Moore said. “He was upset about not being able to be on the field.”
Soon after, surgery was required to fixate and stabilize the fractures, which allowed then therapists to begin work on range of motion, light mobility and non-weight-bearing activity once Powell was ready.
From there, Moore said, the process followed the surgeon’s timeline. Powell went several months in rehab, with X-rays every four to six weeks to confirm the bone was healing before he moved to the next stage and more sport-specific work.
Moore said Powell was punctual and professional, and that his progress did not stall as the work got harder.
“Every time we would progress to a different stage of rehab, whether it was running, jumping and cutting, his coordination and just skill set was through the roof,” Moore said.
Jereme Johnson, owner and physical therapist at Johnson Physical Therapy, said the clinic looks at the whole body rather than only the injured joint. That means considering the hip, knee and ankle together, he said, with the finished product in mind.
Johnson said Powell fit that approach from the start.
“The buy-in was instantaneous,” Johnson said. “He asked for feedback constantly and understood that recovery was a process.”
Powell said the daily push was what he wanted.
“I knew they were going to push me every day to try to get me back to where I was, and that’s what I needed at that time,” Powell said.
His father said he chose the clinic after learning about its work with athletes, and that he was at nearly every visit. Powell’s father said he has been pushing his son since he was a kid and wanted him to know the injury was not the end.
“I wanted to be there for him and get him through that situation, just to let him know that it’s gonna be alright and that he’s gonna return better than what he was,” Powell’s father said.
Powell’s father also said the clinic kept in contact with the school and with the surgeon, which made the process simple for the family.
Powell has since returned to competition. He got back on the baseball field in the spring and is playing football this fall. His father said that as people can see this year, he was ready.
Powell said he feels good about where he stands — and that’s reflected by a standout junior season campaign, complete with an invite to the Navy All-American Bowl.
“I’m confident in the work I put in at PT that everything’s going to be fine,” Powell said. “Everything’s been fine so far.”
Moore said it is gratifying to watch Powell play after the hours he put in.
“Seeing him on the field, being able to really get back to the player he was and then some, is just an awesome experience,” Moore said.
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