Brainerd football player Conner Erickson improving as he recovers from brain surgery

Conner Erickson, the Brainerd football captain who had brain surgery after being taken from a football game by ambulance, is gaining ground, his mother indicated Monday night.

"Conner is making progress!" his mother, Brianna Erickson, said in a post on a CaringBridge page devoted to her son.

She said doctors had removed Conner from a ventilator and taken him off sedation Monday and that he was opening his eyes, was more alert and "surprised us by how well he did following commands. ... He worked so hard trying to move what he could."

"He seems to recognize us and is much calmer knowing we are at his side," she said.

Conner Erickson was taken by ambulance from the sideline during Brainerd's game Sept. 9 against Moorhead. He had brain surgery at Sanford Medical Center in Fargo. No specific play is known to have caused Erickson's injury; he was stricken while on the sideline.

Since then he has had visitors from his own team and coaches and received cards and packages from the Moorhead football team. The University of Minnesota football team got in touch with instructions to "keep rowing the boat."

A GoFundMe page set up to help Erickson's family with medical costs had reached $76,600 in donations Tuesday morning. The fund quickly surpassed its initial goal, $21,000, a number chosen because Erickson wears No. 21 for Brainerd. The goal was raised to $50,021, and it's set now at $100,000.21.