CHANDLER, Ariz. — Gavin Stella was out cold and bleeding.
The Basha High School varsity goalkeeper had left the goal for a save, slid for the ball and hit a teammate's knee face first.
The medical staff was waved over, and Gavin's parents started to panic.
"We were like, why is he not getting up?" his mom Holli said. "'What's happening?'"
The longer it took for Gavin to get up, the worse the Stellas felt. They wanted to rush to the field and be there.
But they couldn't.
They were a 30 minute drive away, watching the game on a livestream because parents weren't allowed in the stands under the Arizona Interscholastic Association's rules for winter sports.
Gavin was taken to a nearby hospital then Phoenix Children's Hospital out of concerns that he might have bleeding on the brain, his parents said.
He didn't, but he did have a concussion, a broken nose and a broken orbital bone around his eye. His parents said surgeons put in a titanium plate.
Gavin's parents said he also has vision problems that may or may not get better.
"A parent's worst fear is to not be there when your kid gets hurt," Holli said.
The Arizona Interscholastic Association's rules for winter sports say that only parents of the home team are allowed to attend games.
In Gavin's game, Basha was the visiting team. The opposing side's stands were empty.
"Why not have one parent from the home team and one parent from the away team just have somebody there?" asked Jason Stella, Gavin's dad.
“You're talking about, what, 15 people on a team," he said. "You can't put 15 parents in the away stands?"
The AIA said it would not comment, but did say in a statement, "The sport modifications that are in place will not be changing."
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