Ethan Pritchard has had a long rehabilitation journey, beginning with 39 days at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital before moving to Jacksonville and then in November back home to Sanford. Since Nov. 15, Earl has driven his son Ethan five days a week down to Kissimmee for physical therapy. There are also doctor visits, but there is optimism.

“Therapy's going good,” Earl told the Osceola and the Front Row Noles just days before Christmas. “Just got to get back to walking. Those therapists down at Brooks (Rehabilitation), they're really making it happen for him.”

Ethan has a schedule for six weeks of rehabilitation until Jan. 6, a day before FSU’s spring semester classes are set to begin. Earl says Ethan intends to take classes at FSU, in person or virtually, beginning on Jan. 7.

“His right leg is kind of — it's like a stroke,” Earl said. “You have a stroke on the left side of your brain that affects the right and vice versa. So that's where he's at. Where he got shot on the left side, and it's affected the right more than the left. But he's going to get it back. He's determined to get it back.”

Appreciation for a quick response

The Pritchard family was just three blocks away in Havana, Fla., on Aug. 31. Earl Pritchard’s uncle was cooking on Sunday night, often a family tradition, and they were celebrating Ethan’s first game at Florida State — he enrolled early in January 2025 as a freshman linebacker — as well as an upset of Alabama a day earlier.

Gunshots interrupted the celebration between 9:30 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. After initially dismissing the gunshots, a phone call prompted Earl and the family to drive over.

“We were up the road in 45 seconds,” Earl said. “It happened just that fast. It was him.”

Ethan had driven his aunt and a 3-year-old back to their apartment. A bullet hit Ethan on the left side of his head, and Earl praises Gadsden County EMS as well as TMH for their immediate care in stabilizing his son.

“Besides Florida State being who they are, TMH is the best also. I got to give them all thanks to them — and the man upstairs,” Earl said.

FDLE and local law enforcement announced four arrests — three men and an unnamed minor — in the case in September.

A journey back: Therapy, walking

Every question Earl answers is met with a positive response. There is an understanding of what has happened to Ethan but a determination for him to take slow steps back in life.

Ethan’s relationship with FSU goes way back. He was born in Tallahassee before the family moved down to Sanford. And Ethan built an early connection with coach Mike Norvell, who offered him as a high school freshman.

“Those two never fell out of touch,” Earl said. “Not a week passed, Norvell didn't reach out. And then just him being born up there, before we moved here, that meant something to him.”

Earl has consistently been appreciative to everyone at FSU, from the coaches, teammates and trainers who have helped along the way. Ethan was able to return to Tallahassee to watch an FSU practice the Friday before the Virginia Tech game, connecting with his “brothers,” as Earl calls them, and then spending time pregame on the sideline with the Seminoles before moving upstairs to watch in a box.

Ethan is walking, with help from therapists, and is also doing squats. Big steps on his journey back, a grind that Earl acknowledges is similar to that of a preseason camp.

“That's what they refer it to,” Earl said. “They're always asking, 'Man, you should be used to this. It's football.’ … They're working on that with him every day we're there. The physical therapists work on that every day we're there, his walking. Today was big because he stood up between the parallel bars, just in case he went side to side or front to back. But he did some squats.

“He's going to be back.”