THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Five months after suffering extensive facial injuries in a rugby game, Post Falls High senior Cash Preston is making an impact on the football field

It was a normal-looking tackle in a late Saturday afternoon rugby game in early May. 

Until Cash Preston didn't get up. 

"He didn't do anything bad, I didn't do anything bad, it was just what happens," recalled Cash, now a senior in his second year as a starting defensive end at Post Falls High. 

Playing for the Liberty Lake Warriors high school-age team in a game against the Skagit Valley Rugby Club from western Washington in a league game at the Ellensburg Rugby Field in Ellensburg, Wash., Cash chased after a Skagit Valley player running laterally across the field with the ball.  

Cash grabbed him around the waist and rolled to the ground on the tackle, pulling the player with him. Cash was on his back looking up as the opposing player fell. 

"And he fell straight on my face, and I fractured my jaw (in four different places," Cash recalled the other day, prior to football practice with the Trojans. "His right hip bone hit me right in the face." 

The cell phone video shot by the dad of a teammate shows play continuing, the opposing team racing down the field as many of Cash's teammates stopped playing, concerned for their fallen teammate on the pitch. 

"I felt a crack," Cash said. "I fractured my upper jaw; my lower jaw was fine." 

Soft scrum caps that cover the head and ears are permitted in rugby. Unlike football, face masks are not. 

Cash suffered a blowout orbital fracture and broke his right eye socket, and a blowout of his right cheekbone. 

"I knew my nose was broken, because I was pouring blood. I knew something was pretty bad," he said. "I felt like my jaw was pushed back in my head. If I ran my tongue across my teeth I could feel it was pushed back." 

FROM THE sideline, Cash's mom and dad, Molly and Daniel Preston, were watching. 

"I always joke, it's not a sport for moms to watch," Molly said. "It's pretty brutal. Lots of tackling, and no helmets and no pads, nothing." 

But she eventually warmed to watching her son — the oldest of three siblings — playing a sport he loved. 

"You watch with that 'eek' face," Molly said. "I never thought about a face (injury), but I thought about a broken arm, or a broken leg.  

"Facial injuries never crossed my mind, honestly." 

Earlier in the game, Cash was attended to by the athletic trainer on site, who thought he had suffered a likely bruised rib. 

When he went down the second time, mom thought maybe his rib was bugging him again. 

"Then you heard the screaming," Molly said. "She (the athletic trainer) went running, and I went running behind her. And that's when you knew it was not good.  

"One of the players said it looked like Cash's nose got severed off," Molly said. "So I didn't even look at him, I just stood behind him." 

As it turned out, Cash's nose was "just" broken, not severed. 

911 was called, and Cash and Molly rode in the ambulance to the hospital in Ellensburg. 

"They took him in for a CT scan," Molly said, "and the doctor said he had very extensive facial fractures that were beyond repair for him at their hospital." 

Doctors suggested transporting Cash to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, a Level 1 trauma center. 

Molly asked if Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, closer to home, was an option. 

But Sacred Heart said, after seeing his X-rays, his injuries were too extensive for them. 

So Cash was life-flighted to Harborview, with mom riding along in the fixed-wing plane for the roughly 37-minute flight to an air strip in Renton. They flew fixed-wing because the cabin could be pressurized so there wouldn't be pressure on his injured face, which couldn't be done in a helicopter. 

As for mom's emotions ... 

"It's really terrible," Molly said. "They're always your babies. I am actually a NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) nurse at Kootenai Health. So I have sent plenty of babies via Life Flight, and I have a whole new perspective for kids who have to put their kid on that airplane. It's scary; it's really scary." 

There was only room for mom on the plane, so Daniel jumped in the car for the concerned drive across Snoqualmie Pass to Seattle. On the way off the field, he handed the family's dog, Kevin, a 5-year-old French bulldog, to one of Cash's teammates, who transported the dog back to the family home in Post Falls. 

From Renton, Cash and Molly hopped into another ambulance for the ride into Seattle. At one point Daniel, in the car, was right behind the ambulance on the freeway. 

"We didn't really know what was going on until we got to Seattle and they fully explained it to us," Cash said of his injuries. "In Ellensburg they just told me it was extensive facial fractures."

The injuries weren't considered life-threatening, he was told. 

At Harborview they did more MRIs on Cash, who would spend the weekend there, on pain meds. 

"My jaw was completely displaced; it was like floating in my head and got shoved back and lodged," Cash said. "So I was still able to eat food. In between when I broke it and had surgery, my jaw was technically floating in my head." 

The injury took place May 2. Cash returned for surgery on May 14, after the swelling had gone down, spending three days and two nights in the hospital. 

"I have four plates in my face now, and I had my jaw wired for four weeks," said Cash, describing the plates as little "bicycle chains." 

"Sometimes on this (right) side, if I eat something cold or drink something cold, the whole right side of my face gets cold." 

The plates, inserted through a cut in his upper lip, will stay in his face forever, he said. 

Cash, listed at 5-foot-10, 207 pounds, lost 30 pounds during the ordeal. 

He did not suffer a concussion during the mishap. His tear duct on his right side was severed, "so I cry a lot from that side," Cash said. "All the time, 24/7, all of a sudden a tear will roll down." 

He plans to have surgery to fix that. 

"He broke his upper jaw on his left side, and pretty much the whole right side of his face was basically shattered, up to his eyebrow and his eye socket," Molly said. "All the way down, his cheekbone, shattered, his jaw, everything, shattered.  

"His jaw was just shattered.  

"And his nose was broken.   

"My nurse role goes out the window when it's my own kid," mom added. "And they're your babies, even when they are giant, 200-pound 17-year-olds." 

DID WE mention that Cash is a Type 1 diabetic? 

Diagnosed at age 9. No big deal, he says. 

Also, Cash is a cadet firefighter, for the Northern Lakes Fire District. Been doing that since last December, when his schedule allows. He had his first ridealong in September. He hopes to be a paramedic someday, and plans to go to Spokane Falls Community College next year and pursue a degree in fire science. 

"We call him the bionic kid," Molly said. 

He's not sure if he'll return to playing rugby when the season resumes in February. He might help coach. Besides, he wants to help fight wildland fires next summer. 

ORIGINALLY, CASH Preston didn't know if he was going to be able to play his senior season of high school football for the Post Falls Trojans. 

It took some three months to get cleared from his injuries, so he missed the first part of fall camp. 

But his eyes were fine, his breathing OK. As a precaution, he wears a guardian cap over his helmet. 

Once he returned to football, Cash said he was a little apprehensive at the beginning, mostly of re-injuring his face, but "my fear went away that first day of pads," he said. 

"It felt very scary to let him go back out and play (football)," Molly said. "But, also, as his mom, he loves sports, and I didn't want his sports to end on that note ... I hope he gets to end sports on a good note." 

Dylan Ledbetter, an assistant coach at Post Falls since 2020, is in his first year as the Trojans' defensive coordinator. The former defensive lineman at Eastern Washington University coached the Post Falls defensive line the past three seasons; this year, he coaches linebackers. 

"He is an anchor for us," Ledbetter said of Cash. "He knows everything. He knows the calls, he knows the run strength, where we want to set our defense to. He's able to make checks on our own. 

"He's been a huge asset ... leader," Ledbetter added. "Really happy he was able to play with that injury and get through it." 

Last Friday, in its next-to-last game of the regular season, Post Falls played Timberline of Boise at Dona Larsen Park in Boise. Late in the game, with the Trojans trailing, the shotgun snap to the Timberline quarterback caromed off his hands and hit the ground. The ball bounced to Cash, rushing from his left defensive end spot, and he fell on it. 

Post Falls drove for the go-ahead touchdown. 

On the next drive, Cash sacked the Timberline QB, the clock ran out and the Trojans celebrated their first victory of the season. 

"To see him recover that fumble, and get a sack, and be so pumped was the best," said Molly, who was in the stands in Boise for the game. "It was everything I could have asked for. Just to see him succeed, and see him play like his old self was really great." 

This Friday is senior night, when the Trojans play host to Coeur d'Alene. 

"It's going to be too much, too many feels," Molly said. "We're very lucky; we know we're very lucky that he gets to get out there and we get to watch him. We're very lucky. We know it." 

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 1205, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @CdAPressSports. 

    Cash Preston

    Courtesy photo Cash Preston of Post Falls waits to be life-flighted from Ellensburg to Renton, Wash., after suffering extensive facial injuries in a rugby match in May.