Clay football coach Mike Donnelly was counting on senior Rex Carlo to be one of his better players on the Eagles’ offensive and defensive line in 2010.

“He would have been a starter,” Donnelly said. “He is really good. He was one of our top two players on the offensive and defensive line. He was one of the real leaders on the team.”

Carlo, however, played in just one game for the Eagles this season, through no fault of his own.

On Aug. 22, the 5-foot-11, 240-pound Carlo felt some pain in his chest. He was feeling better the next day, but he was awakened by more chest issues around 2 a.m.

“I thought I ate some bad food and I asked my mom (Angel) for some medicine,” Carlo said. “I went to St. Charles Hospital, to the ER, and got hooked up to an EKG. The nurse ran back to the nurse’s station and called somebody, and she came back and said the tests showed that I was having a heart attack and they wanted to re-test me real quick.

“I didn’t know what was going on,” he said. “It was confusing. I thought, ‘How? I didn’t do anything.’”

At around 5 a.m., Carlo got an ambulance ride to Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center. When he got there, doctors inserted a catheter into his leg.

“That was an experience,” Carlo recalled. “They drill a hole on the inside of your leg and use a camera to go up your artery to your heart, or wherever they need to go, and they take pictures of what’s going on.

“After a while, they figured I had a viral infection, but they’re still not sure,” he said. “They ran tests and the only thing that popped up was streptococcus, like a strep throat virus. It’s still kind of a mystery. There are a hundred different things that could cause it.”

Doctors determined that Carlo was suffering from myocarditis, an uncommon disorder usually caused by viral, bacterial or fungal infections that reach the heart. Myocarditis weakens the valve in the heart and can damage the muscles that keep the heart beating.

“More than anything,” Carlo said, “I was just a little more tired than usual.”

Clay High School senior Rex Carlo’s athletic activities were sidelined after being diagnosed with myocarditis, an uncommon disorder usually caused by viral, bacterial or fungal infections that reach the heart. Doctors cleared him to play in the final game of the season at home against St. Francis de Sales – Senior Night.

Carlo’s family had reason for concern. In 2006, Carlo’s father, Tony, 45, had heart surgery that required five heart bypasses.

“The doctors said that with Rex, there were no pre-existing conditions,” Angel Carlo said. “The doctors figured that what Rex had was unrelated.”

A cardiologist told Rex that he would need at least five weeks to rest, depending on how his heart healed, before he could resume any physical activity. Football was definitely out of the question.

“An infections specialist originally said I would be out of sports for six months and out of school for two months,” Carlo said. “He thought it was a certain bacteria, but it wasn’t. I was still upset. Not going to school would have been a lot worse.”

Carlo, 17, who has a 3.83 GPA, had counted on having a big senior year at Clay. He was a returning starter at defensive end and was planning to earn his fourth varsity letter on the Eagles’ wrestling team. Carlo also throws the discus for the track and field team.

Myocarditis officially shelved those plans, at least during football season.

“At first I was kind of upset,” Carlo said. “At the same time, I was happy. It could have been a lot worse. It turned out fine, which is all right. Watching the game gave me a different aspect to it.

Even though he couldn’t practice or play in games this fall, Carlo remained a team player.

“I missed maybe five practices,” he said. “I went to all the games. I even went to the Saturday practices. They’re my best friends and I couldn’t just abandon them.”

Donnelly said, “He was there every day. Was I surprised? Yes and no. He was holding onto hope that he would get an opportunity to play again. I think he liked being around the guys.”

Carlo said he dropped about 10 pounds while undergoing tests to pin down what caused the myocarditis. Every test proved to be inconclusive.

“His cardiologist and the infections specialist at St. V’s have been very good at monitoring him and checking up on him,” Angel said. “There’s damage in the septum between the two ventricles, but they are in a small enough area so that he can return to whatever level of activity he wants.”

Carlo was finally cleared the play the week of Clay’s final game of the season, on Oct. 29 at home against St. Francis de Sales. On Senior Night, no less.

“It was exciting,” he said. “There’s 10 weeks of football energy pent up in there, a lot going on. It made me appreciate the time I did have to play.”

Carlo made a few tackles in the Eagles’ 56-30 win over St. Francis. Carlo’s mother said it was an emotional night for the entire family.

“I didn’t cry, but I tend not to,” she said. “I know my husband cried. After the game, all the kids were hugging on the field and Tony was down there with him. During the last two minutes, Rex got dumped on his head and he had to come off the field, looking injured. The coaches were with him and the trainer and my husband went down to double-check on him.

“All of his friends and the parents of his friends were excited he was able to play. They’ve all been together, a good portion of them, since the first grade and they’ve been playing football together since they were in seventh grade.”

Carlo, who plans to own his own accounting firm, said he isn’t worried that the myocarditis will return.

“I feel fine,” he said. “I’ve been running and lifting and I feel pretty much the same from before it happened. It should be a one-time thing.”

Clay High School senior Rex Carlo’s athletic activities were sidelined after being diagnosed with myocarditis, an uncommon disorder usually caused by viral, bacterial or fungal infections that reach the heart. Doctors cleared him to play in the final game of the season at home against St. Francis de Sales – Senior Night.

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