In August, nearly two years after a crippling car accident left him in a coma for nine days, Adam Dellinger ’10 became an Eagle Scout and a McDaniel freshman. When he woke up, he had to relearn how to talk, walk and write.

The lean and lanky three-sport athlete, who had banked on a scholarship in soccer, baseball or basketball, could only watch from the sidelines as he recovered from skull and collarbone fractures.

“One of the first days of soccer practice we were doing a drill that I always thought was easy, but I couldn’t do it and got so frustrated,” Dellinger says.

He endured physical, speech and occupational therapy but could not play at his previous level.

With the time he would have spent on the field, Dellinger decided instead to finish earning the rank of Eagle Scout, by organizing a community service project restoring five miles of hiking trails in a state park near his home in Boonsboro, Md. For two weekends, he led dozens of volunteers into the woods to clear brush, paint trails and restore water drainage.

“The park has a pond where I like to fish, so I wanted to show my appreciation for the place by restoring the trail,” he says.

Of lessons learned, Dellinger speaks of persistence and the need to adapt to new circumstances. His goals and style have changed. While he used to bang out heavy punk tunes on his guitar, now he prefers to play and listen to the mellower songs of Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix and Led Zepplin. Now soft-spoken and pensive, he says he talked loudly, clearly and fast before the accident. And instead of choosing a college because of the sports he would play, he says he chose McDaniel College for his future.