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By MATT SCHUCKMAN
Herald-Whig Sports Writer

Kramer Barnes didn't want to sit out, not even for a minute.

So as doctors and trainers examined his dislocated left elbow, the Quincy Notre Dame junior quarterback crossed his fingers, praying the injury wasn't as bad as the pain.

"I was hoping it was one of those things where you could just pop it back in, it was good to go and then worry about it later," Barnes said. "It obviously wasn't one of those deals."

Injured late in the first quarter of the Week 5 victory over Peoria Woodruff, Barnes was sidelined for three weeks, finally getting back under center in the regular-season finale against Canton.

But it wasn't until last week's 42-0 romp of Harrisburg in the first round of the Class 4A playoffs that Barnes looked completely comfortable. He ran with reckless abandon, picking up 65 yards on six carries. And he remained calm in the pocket and delivered crisp, on-the-money passes, connecting on 7 of 11 throws for 151 yards.

"He's amazing how he can fit that ball in there sometimes," wide receiver Brandon Ley said.

It isn't luck. It's hard work and dedication, the same attributes that got him back on the field so quickly.

Barnes suffered the dislocated elbow at the end of a 30-yard run in which he tried to extend the arm to get the ball across the goal line. Coaches and trainers were waved onto the field and a stretcher was brought from an on-scene ambulance.

However, Barnes walked to the ambulance before being taken to Blessing Hospital.

"The only time I think I was worried was when they hauled him from the field in an ambulance," QND coach Bill Connell said.

For Barnes, the worry didn't come until the shock wore off.

"I had never broken anything, never dislocated, never sprained, not anything," said Barnes, who has completed 62 of 94 passes for 939 yards with 11 touchdowns and four interceptions. "It was a shock to my body and to me. It was something different."

It made it hard to hide the hurt.

"I was pretty upset about it," Barnes said. "I was kind of ticked off a little bit. I talked with family a lot about it. ... After it sunk in, my main goal was to put it behind me and move forward to get back as quick as I could."

It happened quicker than you might expect.

Dr. Adam Derhake, a board-eligible orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine physician at the Quincy Medical Group, put the elbow back in place and fitted Barnes with a brace designed to keep the elbow from dislocating.

"I'm going to be flat honest with you, he deserves a lot of the credit," Connell said.

Meanwhile, Jay Zanger, a certified trainer with Advance Physical Therapy, worked with Barnes throughout his rehabilitation to strengthen the arm muscles and get complete range of motion back.

"Give Jay credit, too," Connell said. "He does so much for our athletes."

Nothing helped more than the brace, physically and mentally.

"It's precautionary ... the doctor wants to make sure I don't overextend it and knock it back out," Barnes said. "It doesn't hurt anymore, but he doesn't want a freak accident to happen."

The thought of that happening has never crossed Barnes' mind.

"Part of it is I have the brace on, so the mindframe is, 'It's not going to pop out,'" Barnes said. "I can focus on running the ball, throwing the ball and getting hit. It's second nature now."

What he had lost was his timing and connection with the receivers. So together, they put in the extra effort to get it back.

"I thought I was going to be slow," Barnes said. "The first practice, I was slow and I didn't have my timing. One of the ways that helped was staying after practice with a couple of receivers, working on my timing, working on my fakes, working on getting to where I left off before I had the injury."

Not once has he had to beg for help.

"The few times I've asked, they've stepped up and stayed behind," Barnes said. "I usually don't have troubles getting people to stay after. They have the same goals I do, and that's to win a state championship."

-- mschuckman@whig.com/221-3366