A standout football player at Quartz Hill High School is recovering at Antelope Valley Medical Center after he was seriously injured in a car crash this weekend, just hours after a six-touchdown performance in a Friday night football game.
Ashtin Dupleasis rushed for more than 400 yards on Friday, but after his football game he drove home on a rural road on the 138 in the Antelope Valley.
Dupleasis fell asleep at the wheel.
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“It’s unfortunate, it’s sad, it’s terrible timing,” said his uncle Anthony Dupleasis.
There were no witnesses but using the "Find My" feature on the iPhone helped his worried grandmother recognize something was wrong due to his location not moving.
“She seen the car stalled for 20 minutes and she knew, Grandmother’s intuition, she went out there and seen him upside down and he was like ‘help me’,” said his grandfather Calvin Dupleasis.
When his grandmother arrived on the scene, she quickly called 911.
Dupleasis was airlifted to Antelope Valley Medical Center. He suffered injuries to his neck, spine, and pelvis.
"He said ‘I don’t want to die’, I told him ‘You’re not going to die’. He said he didn’t want to be paralyzed, I told him ‘You’re not going to be paralyzed’, and sure enough he’s not,” Calvin Dupleasis said.
Dupleasis can now move parts of his body and his family is hopeful he can make a full recovery.
“He wants to lift his legs, he wants to work out, he wants to do stuff right now,” Anthony Dupleasis said. “It’s only been two days and I keep telling him relax and there’ll be time for that.”
As their star player recovers, his team is rallying around him. Dupleasis' coach visited him at the hospital on Monday.
“He’s just a hard worker, a caring human being, a great teammate,” said Quartz Hill Coach Russell Gordon. “He’s just a kid who if we had 25 of those kids in the state of California it’d be an amazing experience for all coaches.”
Dupleasis has dreams of playing in the NFL and his family believes those dreams can still come true, even after the crash.
“It wasn’t his plan, it wasn’t our plan, but it’s God’s plan and we’re going to get through it, he’s going to step foot on the field again,” Anthony Dupleasis said.
