When he was a young, undersized and inexperienced freshman at St. Mary's High School in Annapolis, Jamie Romo told his family and friends and coaches he would become a very good high school offensive lineman – and eventually play Division I football in his hometown at the Naval Academy.

That indeed came to pass. As a much bigger and better lineman in his successful senior year, Romo hesitated to take an offer from Holy Cross while waiting and hoping that Navy would want him. Romo got his wish. He was offered a spot at the Naval Academy Prep School in Newport, R.I.

Romo quickly committed to Navy in mid-December 2017 then signed a few days later. Eighteen months later in 2019, Romo participated in plebe summer and went to his first fall camp with the Mids.

Over his first two seasons as a Midshipman, Romo, now listed at 6-feet-5, 275 pounds, learned Navy's spread option offense inside-out and toiled without seeing a lick of varsity action. His sophomore year was marked by the program's terribly challenging Covid season of 2020.

Still, Romo's self-confidence was unshaken. And sure enough, after plugging away as a backup lineman and special teams piece for much of 2021, Romo stepped up to help stabilize an injury-riddled line by starting the Mids' final three games at left tackle.

Romo performed well each time out, as the Midshipmen went 2-1 with a rout over Temple and a huge 17-13 win over Army to close out his junior season.

Romo prepared furiously in the spring and summer leading up to his final Navy camp. He was projected on the Mids' depth chart as the starter at left tackle, a senior who truly had earned that place.

"It was pretty awesome, almost like a dream, to contribute [as a starter] last year, to be out there for all of those snaps against Army," recalls Romo, who also started against East Carolina and helped the Mids amass 35 points, only to lose on a game-ending, 54-yard field goal to the Pirates in Annapolis. "The end of last year was a huge confidence boost. We had gotten a ton better  on the offensive line."

"[Jamie and I] worked out together a lot in the offseason, trying to get better. We talked all summer long about football, talked schemes, worked on the little things," recalls senior offensive tackle and captain Kip Frankland. "Jamie just has great energy. I still lean on him. He was so committed to having a great senior season."

Which brings us to yet another season of adversity for Romo – and an especially cruel and shocking variety of it. Romo, one of Navy's most respected, hardest-working, well-liked players, has not enjoyed the season he envisioned. Not after a freak, season-opening injury morphed into a gruesome setback that put his season on hold and briefly threatened much more than Romo's playing time.

There Romo sat, in the wee hours of Thursday, September 14 at Anne Arundel Medical Center, wondering how his senior season had reached this point, so early in this, his final go-round in a Navy uniform, in any football uniform. Wondering when this searing pain would cease.

The pain in his left leg had been a fluctuating level of soreness, dating to 11 days earlier in the season opener. A Delaware Blue Hens blocker had slammed his helmet into Romo's thigh early in the first half. The injury eventually sidelined Romo that day. It bothered him at times during the practice week before Navy faced Memphis.

During the Memphis game, the mysterious ailment flared up again, causing Romo to be removed from his second straight game.

"I didn't think much of it, thought it was a bone bruise that needed more time to heal or something like that," he said.

Following the Memphis game, Navy entered a bye week. The Mids had two days off then practiced that Wednesday. Romo recalls it as one of his better practices in recent memory.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, came a pain at a whole different level. While doing homework in his Bancroft Hall room late that Wednesday evening, Romo realized his aching thigh had swollen to nearly twice the size of his healthy thigh. He could not bend his left leg. He could not even walk on it.

Romo called his mother, Sharon, knowing that his father, James "Rusty" Romo, was busily running his renowned, fine-dining establishment of 43 years, Harry Browne's Restaurant, in historic downtown Annapolis. Sharon, who owns a boutique offering interior design services around the corner from the restaurant, told her son he needed to be rushed from the Yard to the hospital as soon as possible. Jamie contacted Jim Berry, Navy's associate athletic director for sports medicine.

By 2 a.m., he was being examined. The preliminary news was grim.

"The doctor started freaking out right away," Romo says. "He initially said, 'I don't know a good way to put this, but I don't think you're playing any more football this season.' At that point, I didn't know what was more painful – hearing that or actually being in the pain I was in."

Soon after that, Romo was diagnosed with "compartment syndrome," a rare and dangerous condition caused by pressure buildup from internal bleeding or swelling of tissues. That pressure decreases blood flow, depriving muscles and nerves of needed nourishment.

By the time Sharon got to the hospital, her son was being prepped around 5:30 a.m. for emergency surgery to relieve the pressure in his thigh. A team doctor made an incision and cut the protective fascia tissue outside of the quadriceps muscle, relieving the pressure that was triggering Romo's severe discomfort. The opening in his left leg drained for two days, before doctors closed it.

"I was lucky I caught it when I did," Romo says. "I was told if I had waited until the morning for standard treatment in our training room, they likely would have had to cut off a couple of inches of my quad muscle. Blood could have started clotting and they might have had to amputate part of the quad.

"I started seeing pictures of legs sliced open, legs possibly about to be amputated. Just awful," he adds. "But the prognosis for me changed for the better. It went from not being able to play again to hopefully a full recovery and an injury that should not be season-ending. I was not ready to hang up the cleats, especially that early in the season."

Weeks passed before Romo could begin any type of vigorous conditioning work. He dived deeper into football film study, scouting Navy's future opponents in 2022 that Romo might be on the field to face. He recently has transitioned from running on an underwater treadmill to doing so on a standard treadmill.

Romo could begin light practicing soon. He dreams about playing as soon as October 29, when the Mids face visiting Temple. Romo badly wants to play one last time against Army and at least one more time in Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, where he grew up attending scores of Navy football games with his father and younger brothers, going back to the early 2000s.

"Jamie is a very resilient, positive person who doesn't stress over things he knows he can't change," Sharon Romo says. "He is very grounded and focused in that regard. He's an extrovert and a natural leader."

Romo had no intention of leaving Navy during the Covid purge that sent a line of players into the transfer portal. He is one of nearly two dozen seniors remaining from the original 60 or so that arrived for plebe summer in 2019 as part of the incoming Class of '23.

"This is where I live. This is where I wanted to go. I did not have another option," Romo says. "I told myself that I'm staying no matter what is thrown in my way."

Jamie Romo is part of a larger family presence and history in Annapolis that is traced back to the mid-1950s and the late Leon "Red" Romo, father of Rusty. Red Romo fashioned a legendary, 41-year career (1956-97) at Navy as its head trainer. Romo treated stars such as Roger Staubach, Joe Bellino and Napoleon McCallum and turned down the New York Jets' offer to become their head trainer in the late 1960s.

Romo died in 1999, 10 months before Jamie was born. After his passing, Rusty Romo created an endowed scholarship fund in his father's name. Rusty and Sharon Romo have sponsored countless Midshipmen and have raised more than $300,000 over the past 20 years to finance athletic trainers' internships at Navy.

Jamie Romo is the oldest of four children, all brothers, each two years apart. Reed Romo is a sophomore at Navy who rows with the heavyweight crew team. Matthew Romo is attending Navy's prep school and is a walk-on who is making good strides at the striker position on the football team. Evan Romo is a junior at St. Mary's. He plays football, basketball and baseball.

"Jamie knows he has a name that a lot of people know in Annapolis, but he came in quietly, always early to meetings, early to lift with the other freshmen," Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo says. "There is no sense of entitlement with Jamie. He has given everything he has to this program."

Romo is known for being unfailingly respectful, a seeker of knowledge and a guy who is comfortable chatting up friends or strangers.

"Jamie is exactly what you want in a teammate or a student-athlete," says Danny O'Rourke, who coaches the offensive tackles at Navy. "He maximizes his ability in the classroom and on the field. He wasn't ready to perform until his third year, then we couldn't keep him out of the huddle because he always knew exactly what to do. He'd be a phenomenal coach one day if he ever wants to coach."

Lance Baird, who coached Romo on the offensive line at St. Mary's, recalls a raw football player who entered high school shy of six feet tall and pushing maybe 150 pounds. Romo, who loved baseball first as a youngster, did not play organized football until high school. Romo lettered twice for the varsity football and track and field teams.

"During the offseason after his sophomore year, Jamie was training and eating all the time. And he sprouted," Baird recalls. "As a junior, starting on the offensive line with the varsity, he was pushing around juniors and seniors. He had a real confidence. Navy was always his plan. He came in talking about going to Navy and playing Navy football."

Says Rusty Romo about his tested son, "Jamie is in the right spot [at Navy], with the right attitude. With everything he's been through, when he graduates, he's going to have the stamina and the fortitude to be a great person. That's what we are looking forward to."

With his days as a football player numbered, Romo, who wants to be commissioned a Navy pilot, is savoring each day he continues his recovery and gets closer to his return to the field in a Midshipmen uniform.

"I was relying on football working out [at Navy]. I did not have a backup plan," Romo says. "Being able to get back out there with the guys and represent the program, it just means the world to me."