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From the Mat to the Mind: How a Career-Ending Injury Transformed a Duke Wrestler’s Future
5/7/2025 10:55:00 AM | Wrestling
DURHAM, N.C.-- Upon recruitment to Duke, many Division I student-athletes dream of their first game, breaking collegiate records and even becoming an All-American. However, for junior Cameron Morgan the day of his first match changed the course of his athletic career.
During Morgan's freshman year while warming up for his debut match with the Duke wrestling team at The Citadel, an impact on his head aggravated a familiar spinal cord pain – a pain that had started during his senior year of high school.
In a high school wrestling practice, Morgan landed hard on his head, triggering a wave of pain that spread to his arms. After the incident, he visited a doctor, who couldn't identify the exact cause of the pain. The injury was classified as a "stinger," a condition where nerves in the neck and shoulder compressed upon impact. Despite this injury, Morgan persevered, underwent physical therapy and was recruited by Duke.
On campus, he continued preventative rehab as a freshman. However, at practice early in the season, another wrestler caught Morgan in a throw called the "fireman's carry" move. The move slipped and Morgan landed sharply on his head. Following the impact, Morgan experienced immediate tightness in his back and lost sensation in his arms.
"What I could feel was white hot pain going down both of my arms," Morgan said
Given Morgan had better access to healthcare on campus than back home in South Jersey, he decided to get checked out at Duke. Initially, Duke Medicine told him his spinal cord was skinny. It was about 0.01 millimeters away from being hyper-prone to paralysis. The word paralysis was alarming for Morgan since his grandfather was paralyzed and couldn't walk for the rest of his life.
Duke Medicine mentioned that he should be okay, but to keep an eye on it. Yet after doing rehab for a year, while at practice prior to the Clemson football game in 2023, a teammate came from across the room and landed on Morgan's head. The same pain happened again - Morgan couldn't feel his arms.
The doctor said he had never seen an injury like Morgan's before, diagnosing him with Spinal Stenosis—a condition that makes him highly susceptible to paralysis if slammed on his head again, according to Zach Scherwinski, Duke wrestling's assistant athletic trainer.
"You have to stop wrestling or you will become paralyzed." the doctor said.
In Morgan's mind, all he could think about was the doctor saying you can't wrestle anymore. The doctor noted other "cants" that he couldn't go skydiving or on rollercoasters. But those "cants" didn't have the same impact.
"That was really tough for me because I've been wrestling since I was three years old, it's all I've really known," Morgan emphasized.
"Obviously, I think Cam would have been a huge contributor at 133 for us," said Duke wrestling head coach Glen Lanham. "We were slating him to be the guy for the next four years. This is one guy that tried to wrestle through it and then we're up in the office and we're talking about, hey, you know, you could be paralyzed. You need to really think about this and every doctor was saying no. So finally, we just got to a point where we knew the guy loved being involved in the program so much that we couldn't take that away from him."
Morgan is named after Cameron Indoor Stadium, Duke Basketball's iconic indoor arena. Though his parents never attended Duke, they are passionate fans of Duke men's basketball, particularly the teams from the era of JJ Redick and Christian Laettner. Both Morgan and his parents dreamed of seeing him wrestle in Cameron Indoor Stadium. Sadly, he never had the chance to step onto the mat.
The heartbreak extended beyond Morgan himself. Scherwinski, his athletic trainer, was also deeply affected.
"For me personally, I was devastated for Cam during that appointment as I knew how much he just wanted to wrestle, so that really hit me hard as well, especially because I saw how hard he worked to get back to wrestling," Scherwinski shared.
This marked a pivot both in his athletic and personal career. Morgan's injury doesn't affect his daily life because the likelihood of his neck getting hit is small.
"If you see me walking around you wouldn't see that there is anything wrong with me," said Morgan. "You wouldn't think I have a career-ending injury. It's really weird to tell people about it."
Through Morgan's search for his identity outside of wrestling, he was reminded of what his parents preached to him when he was younger, academics. When referring to how he'll navigate life post-wrestling, Morgan's mentality was based on the infamous metaphor "sink or swim." He quickly decided to keep swimming and to take advantage of the opportunity of having a world-renowned education. He mentioned he didn't want to look back at his four years at Duke and have regrets.
"It thinks right now but maybe it's a blessing in disguise," added Morgan.
Morgan is currently pursuing a degree in Computer Science with a focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI), alongside a minor in Economics. He plans to work for a med-tech company, AI company or Space X post-graduation. He hopes to develop code for spaceships to land themselves. He is also passionate about making a difference in education and aims to use AI to create lesson plans for teachers in underprivileged areas.
Even though Morgan may not be seen competing for Duke wrestling, he continues to contribute to the team. Morgan is often seen with a camera in his hand capturing photos and video for team members. His goal is to market the Duke wrestling team as much as possible through pictures and YouTube videos.
Head coach Glen Lanham praised Morgan's contributions as he remains a valuable member of the program.
"We met with compliance and we came up with a way that we could get him to be involved. We didn't want to call him a manager, because we felt like no slight to managers, but we wanted it to be more than that," said Lanham. "We got him into the coaching aspect. I said, look, you can put this on your resume, but he's been huge for us. He does some videos for us. He'll come in the room and work with some of the lightweight guys, talk to them, coach them and that kind of stuff. But he's been really great for us to have. It's a special position and a special situation and we're not going to have it for everybody, but for Cam, obviously, somebody who loves the program and went out like that, it was just tough. But he's been huge for us. He goes on road trips with us and he handles per diem on the road trips - he does a lot of things like a coach would do for us so yeah he's been great to have around. It was sad to see him injured, but he's filled this role very nicely."
He also strives to be a supportive social presence, recognizing the challenges of the sport, from cutting weight and training to managing academics, all while sometimes eating less. One of his favorite things is to play Mario Party, a Nintendo Switch game, every night with some of his teammates.
When discussing his teammates, Morgan said, "We're like a family."
Morgan finds joy in watching his teammates compete. Two teammates he is close to are Aiden Wallace and Connor Barket. When referring to these teammates, Morgan said, "I don't know a life without wrestling. It means a lot for them to keep me going."
When asked about Morgan, redshirt sophomore Conner Barket said, "He is a huge part of the team still. Coach Cam, which is who we refer to him as. He's like, a good voice to have that is our age. He has the hindsight that it's not that deep when it's so easy to get caught up in this sport. But then just outside, all the videos he makes are fun. He's just fun to be around the locker room, a good glue guy for the team."
As Morgan reflects on the challenges he's faced, he's reminded of a piece of advice his parents have told him; "Don't be too high with the highs and too low with the lows."
Morgan claims if he had let his wrestling status get to his head, he would not have been able to pivot when life threw him a curve ball.
To stay up to date with Blue Devils wrestling, follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook by searching "DukeWRES".
#GoDuke
During Morgan's freshman year while warming up for his debut match with the Duke wrestling team at The Citadel, an impact on his head aggravated a familiar spinal cord pain – a pain that had started during his senior year of high school.
In a high school wrestling practice, Morgan landed hard on his head, triggering a wave of pain that spread to his arms. After the incident, he visited a doctor, who couldn't identify the exact cause of the pain. The injury was classified as a "stinger," a condition where nerves in the neck and shoulder compressed upon impact. Despite this injury, Morgan persevered, underwent physical therapy and was recruited by Duke.
On campus, he continued preventative rehab as a freshman. However, at practice early in the season, another wrestler caught Morgan in a throw called the "fireman's carry" move. The move slipped and Morgan landed sharply on his head. Following the impact, Morgan experienced immediate tightness in his back and lost sensation in his arms.
"What I could feel was white hot pain going down both of my arms," Morgan said
Given Morgan had better access to healthcare on campus than back home in South Jersey, he decided to get checked out at Duke. Initially, Duke Medicine told him his spinal cord was skinny. It was about 0.01 millimeters away from being hyper-prone to paralysis. The word paralysis was alarming for Morgan since his grandfather was paralyzed and couldn't walk for the rest of his life.
Duke Medicine mentioned that he should be okay, but to keep an eye on it. Yet after doing rehab for a year, while at practice prior to the Clemson football game in 2023, a teammate came from across the room and landed on Morgan's head. The same pain happened again - Morgan couldn't feel his arms.
The doctor said he had never seen an injury like Morgan's before, diagnosing him with Spinal Stenosis—a condition that makes him highly susceptible to paralysis if slammed on his head again, according to Zach Scherwinski, Duke wrestling's assistant athletic trainer.
"You have to stop wrestling or you will become paralyzed." the doctor said.
In Morgan's mind, all he could think about was the doctor saying you can't wrestle anymore. The doctor noted other "cants" that he couldn't go skydiving or on rollercoasters. But those "cants" didn't have the same impact.
"That was really tough for me because I've been wrestling since I was three years old, it's all I've really known," Morgan emphasized.
"Obviously, I think Cam would have been a huge contributor at 133 for us," said Duke wrestling head coach Glen Lanham. "We were slating him to be the guy for the next four years. This is one guy that tried to wrestle through it and then we're up in the office and we're talking about, hey, you know, you could be paralyzed. You need to really think about this and every doctor was saying no. So finally, we just got to a point where we knew the guy loved being involved in the program so much that we couldn't take that away from him."
Morgan is named after Cameron Indoor Stadium, Duke Basketball's iconic indoor arena. Though his parents never attended Duke, they are passionate fans of Duke men's basketball, particularly the teams from the era of JJ Redick and Christian Laettner. Both Morgan and his parents dreamed of seeing him wrestle in Cameron Indoor Stadium. Sadly, he never had the chance to step onto the mat.
The heartbreak extended beyond Morgan himself. Scherwinski, his athletic trainer, was also deeply affected.
"For me personally, I was devastated for Cam during that appointment as I knew how much he just wanted to wrestle, so that really hit me hard as well, especially because I saw how hard he worked to get back to wrestling," Scherwinski shared.
This marked a pivot both in his athletic and personal career. Morgan's injury doesn't affect his daily life because the likelihood of his neck getting hit is small.
"If you see me walking around you wouldn't see that there is anything wrong with me," said Morgan. "You wouldn't think I have a career-ending injury. It's really weird to tell people about it."
Through Morgan's search for his identity outside of wrestling, he was reminded of what his parents preached to him when he was younger, academics. When referring to how he'll navigate life post-wrestling, Morgan's mentality was based on the infamous metaphor "sink or swim." He quickly decided to keep swimming and to take advantage of the opportunity of having a world-renowned education. He mentioned he didn't want to look back at his four years at Duke and have regrets.
"It thinks right now but maybe it's a blessing in disguise," added Morgan.
Morgan is currently pursuing a degree in Computer Science with a focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI), alongside a minor in Economics. He plans to work for a med-tech company, AI company or Space X post-graduation. He hopes to develop code for spaceships to land themselves. He is also passionate about making a difference in education and aims to use AI to create lesson plans for teachers in underprivileged areas.
Even though Morgan may not be seen competing for Duke wrestling, he continues to contribute to the team. Morgan is often seen with a camera in his hand capturing photos and video for team members. His goal is to market the Duke wrestling team as much as possible through pictures and YouTube videos.
Head coach Glen Lanham praised Morgan's contributions as he remains a valuable member of the program.
"We met with compliance and we came up with a way that we could get him to be involved. We didn't want to call him a manager, because we felt like no slight to managers, but we wanted it to be more than that," said Lanham. "We got him into the coaching aspect. I said, look, you can put this on your resume, but he's been huge for us. He does some videos for us. He'll come in the room and work with some of the lightweight guys, talk to them, coach them and that kind of stuff. But he's been really great for us to have. It's a special position and a special situation and we're not going to have it for everybody, but for Cam, obviously, somebody who loves the program and went out like that, it was just tough. But he's been huge for us. He goes on road trips with us and he handles per diem on the road trips - he does a lot of things like a coach would do for us so yeah he's been great to have around. It was sad to see him injured, but he's filled this role very nicely."
He also strives to be a supportive social presence, recognizing the challenges of the sport, from cutting weight and training to managing academics, all while sometimes eating less. One of his favorite things is to play Mario Party, a Nintendo Switch game, every night with some of his teammates.
When discussing his teammates, Morgan said, "We're like a family."
Morgan finds joy in watching his teammates compete. Two teammates he is close to are Aiden Wallace and Connor Barket. When referring to these teammates, Morgan said, "I don't know a life without wrestling. It means a lot for them to keep me going."
When asked about Morgan, redshirt sophomore Conner Barket said, "He is a huge part of the team still. Coach Cam, which is who we refer to him as. He's like, a good voice to have that is our age. He has the hindsight that it's not that deep when it's so easy to get caught up in this sport. But then just outside, all the videos he makes are fun. He's just fun to be around the locker room, a good glue guy for the team."
As Morgan reflects on the challenges he's faced, he's reminded of a piece of advice his parents have told him; "Don't be too high with the highs and too low with the lows."
Morgan claims if he had let his wrestling status get to his head, he would not have been able to pivot when life threw him a curve ball.
To stay up to date with Blue Devils wrestling, follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook by searching "DukeWRES".
#GoDuke
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