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Toes forward, knees shoulder-width apart, Brandon Felder steps gingerly to his left, a grimace forming on his boyish face. His right knee, lined with blackened scars along either side of the kneecap, is tied to his left knee by a giant green rubber band. Long, glossy, braided hair falls over his face as he drops his head and counts the short, lateral steps. Ten to the left. Ten to the right.

This is the beginning of the comeback.

A wall of windows, blackened by the winter night, reflects a fluorescent room filled with weight training machines. Some nights, a coach from Penn State University comes in to check on his school's "investment," a 6-foot-3, 170-pound 17-year-old who was once among the best wide receivers in Maryland. But most nights it's just Brandon and a trainer – doing lunges, rocking from his heels to his toes. This is Brandon trying to get his wheels back.

The injury

In a preseason scrimmage on a cool August afternoon last year, Felder landed awkwardly on his right foot after running a route during a scrimmage game and limped off the field.

"I just thought, ‘no problem, just a knee sprain,'" Felder said. "'I'll be fine.'"

A week later, doctors told him he had torn both the lateral cruciate ligament and the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee. They said the injuries would require surgery that would force him to miss his senior season entirely. Brandon's mother Bobbi Felder feared her son would never play football again.

"We both cried for a week," Bobbi said. "Him because he was hurt and me because I couldn't help him."

When the emotions subsided, Brandon thought about Oxon Hill's football team.

Mom thought about the scholarship. In July, Brandon committed verbally to play football at Penn State, though he had not signed his letter of intent before the injury.

Penn State could have rescinded Brandon's scholarship. Thankfully, Bobbi said, they didn't.

"We're so grateful that they had faith in what he could do," Bobbi said. "They know he can fight back from this."

The recovery

Yesterday, on the National Signing Day for high school seniors, Brandon signed with Penn State. Tomorrow, he'll be back in the physical therapist's office.

Monica J. Clothiaux, a physical therapist at Orthopedic Medicine of Alexandria (Va.) who has treated Felder, said the nature of Felder's injury made creating an effective rehabilitation regimen very challenging.

"The lateral tear in addition to the anterior tear slowed down the tempo of recovery," she said. "He's been committed but he has a way to go."

Felder regrets not being able to contribute when his high school team needed him most. The season was especially turbulent for Oxon Hill's Clippers. With four games left to play, coach Kevin Wolfolk resigned after a conflict between him and principal Deborah Franklin. A 34-14 homecoming loss to Henry A. Wise on the final day of the regular season left the Clippers at 6-4, a win shy of a playoff berth.

"I was devastated mostly because I wanted to play my senior season," said Felder, who watched just two Oxon Hill football games from the sidelines this fall. "I just couldn't watch them play knowing I should've been out there."

For Brandon and his mother, the light at the end of the tunnel resides in University Park, Pa., the site of the school they fell in love with during a chilly Oct. 18 visit as the Nittany Lions throttled Michigan, 46-17.

Bobbi said during the game, fans young and old recognized Brandon and offered him congratulations. Bobbi Felder knew then that her son had arrived.

"He didn't get it," Bobbi said. "He was like, ‘How do they know who I am?' I said, ‘Baby, your face is all over the Internet. You're big time now.'"