The Hardest Mountain: New Jersey Lacrosse Player Comes Back from Broken Neck

SOMERVILLE, N.J. — It doesn’t get much more frightening. 

Peter Zaninelli of Branchburg was 14 years old, had just completed his freshman year at Somerville High School … and was lying prone in the woods, unable to move. It was June of 2020, and his friends were frantically calling 911 and Zaninelli’s parents. The boys had been in a park near the Zaninelli home, riding their bicycles, and Zaninelli had tried to execute a jump on a ramp. Approaching it too quickly, he’d be catapulted off his bike and flung to the hard ground.  

The next several hours and days were a hectic blur. As feeling returned to his body, Zaninelli experienced tremendous pain. He’d been rushed to Morristown Medical Center in the midst of the COVID pandemic, so only his mother was permitted to stay with him. His father was forced to wait outside, in the parking lot.

Eventually, a doctor informed Zaninelli’s mother that while her son wasn’t paralyzed, serious risk remained. In fact, he’d sustained a “Christopher Reeve break” — so called because a similar fracture of multiple vertebrae had resulted in actor Christopher Reeve becoming a quadriplegic.

“I wound up breaking my C3 and C4 vertebrae and having an obstruction in my right vertebral artery,” Zaninelli explains. “Looking back, I can’t recall what was worse — the pain or the fear.”

Zaninelli ultimately spent six days in the hospital. His ordeal was sufficiently harrowing to earn him the 2023 Kearny Bank Strength Award, which includes a $2,500 academic scholarship for one New Jersey student athlete who has overcome a significant injury. An annual award — developed in conjunction with the NJSIAA (New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association) — it was first presented in 2019.  

Slightly more than seven months after the accident, Zaninelli was able to return to the lacrosse field. That was on January 31, 2021, and just being out there, wearing an athletic pinnie over his sweatshirt, felt like an accomplishment. 

“Breaking my neck was, by far, the hardest mountain I’ve ever had to climb,” he says. “But it taught me a lot. I learned to try making good things come from bad situations. And I learned there’s so much good in the world. While I was healing, I was supported by my family, my teammates and friends, and our entire community in ways I never would have imagined.”

Once Zaninelli was able to resume competitive athletics, he managed to avoid additional significant injuries. He played varsity lacrosse for Somerville High School’s Pioneers as a sophomore, junior, and, in 2023, a senior. In addition, he was a member of a summer league team.

“Peter’s an inspiration — it’s that simple,” says Somerville High School Athletic Director Tim Davis. “He’s been courageous in the face of a huge challenge, he’s a terrific teammate, and he always works extra hard. And what’s really crazy is that, despite sustaining just about the worst injury imaginable, he never missed a single lacrosse season during high school — he played all four years.”

Perhaps it’s a side-effect of his devastating accident, but Zaninelli tends to be philosophical.

“There’s a silver lining to everything that happened, which is that I grew mentally throughout all the time I was in high school,” he observes. “And I’ve come to understand it’s totally okay not to be okay — there’s no shame in that. I mean, there are going to be challenges in your life — the key is making up your mind to face them and then beat them.”

This autumn, Zaninelli will attend the University of Delaware, where he’ll study education. While there, he plans to play lacrosse on the club level.

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