Former EMU soccer player uses near-death experience to inspire others

After a car crash last year derailed his playing career and nearly took his life, Joel Spalding is sharing his story to spread God’s love

Last September, Joel Spalding woke up in a hospital bed from a monthlong coma. It was then, as the medication fog began to lift and his mind started to make sense of his surroundings, that he discovered that one of his legs was missing.

Spalding was a first-year computer science major at EMU during the 2023-2024 school year and played as a forward on the Royals soccer team. The Alexandria, Virginia, native had been playing for a semipro team in Northern Virginia over the summer to stay in shape for the upcoming college soccer season. During a rainy night on July 31, 2024, he was driving home from a practice when his car hydroplaned and crashed into a tree. Spalding lost consciousness in the crash and was taken to Inova Fairfax Hospital, where he was placed into a medically induced coma. 

While he was sedated, his left leg was amputated above the knee. “They told me later that my leg was barely hanging on by a thread,” said Spalding, who now wears a prosthetic leg. 

It was far from the only part of him that needed mending. “I broke both of my femurs, I shattered my pelvis, I damaged my bladder, lungs, liver, and diaphragm, and I had a traumatic brain injury and brain bleed,” he said.

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In the months that followed, Spalding underwent more than 30 surgeries. His days playing soccer for EMU were over. Both college life and the future he had imagined were suddenly put on hold.

“It was really tough, both physically and mentally,” he said. “I struggled with depression, feeling like I lost everything that mattered. 

“Soccer was literally everything to me. It was what I lived and breathed. I would wake up every morning and my first thought would be, ‘What time is practice?’ And then I couldn’t do that anymore.” 

During his long recovery, through painful rehab sessions in the hospital and the feelings of depression that gnawed at him, his coach and teammates from EMU were there to rally around him in support.

In addition to their frequent FaceTime calls, Justin Carey MBA ’21, head men’s soccer coach at EMU, regularly made the two-hour drive to visit Spalding in the hospital and at his home. “Coach was there for me and my family and helped in any way he could,” Spalding said. “I also knew I could count on my teammates to lift me up. They would come by the house and we’d hang out and watch football and get something to eat. They’re a real stand-up group of guys.”

Carey said that the players took it upon themselves to organize trips to see Spalding. “They spend so much time together,” Carey said. “These relationships can transform your life, so when something like that happens to a friend like Joel, you drop everything to be there for him.” He added that the soccer team worked with the EMU Counseling Center to talk through their feelings of grief and uncertainty.

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It was during the recovery process, Spalding said, that he started “locking in with God” and growing deeper in his faith. Spalding, who was raised Christian, was able to visit the junkyard in Maryland that held the wreckage of his car. Looking at the mangled mess of metal, all he could think was, “Nobody should be able to survive that.”

“I should be dead right now, like super dead, but I know that God saved me for a reason,” Spalding said. “I know it’s a miracle that I’m here, that I’m still able to talk, and that I’m mentally capable. 

“I know God saved me so that he can use my testimony to inspire and help others. Ever since I realized that, I’ve decided I’m going to live the rest of my life for God and do everything I can for him.”

Spalding has been sharing his testimony about how his faith carried him through his recovery. He’s spoken at his home church in Northern Virginia, and in July testified at a conference in Tampa, Florida, where he now lives and attends Bible college. 

Carey said he’s been inspired by his former player. “For Joel to process, grieve, and find something he can be passionate about, at just 20 years old and all within a year of the accident, is incredible. Not many people could do that.”