Gridiron Heroes : Leveling the Playing Field

This post originally appeared at the Fort Worth Weekly's website. To view it there : https://www.fwweekly.com/2016/12/20/leveling-the-playing-field/

Saturday in Arlington, AT&T Stadium hosted a big high school football event – a tripleheader of state championship games in Texas’s largest classifications. For DeSoto High School supporters, the trip from south of Dallas to Tarrant County would prove especially rewarding. Not only did their varsity squad win the school’s first state title that afternoon, a former player on the Eagles’ JV squad scored an important victory of his own.

A 2009 practice collision cost Corey Borner the use of his legs. When his devastating injury happened, a charity called Gridiron Heroes reached out to Borner. Eddie Canales and his son Chris helped the then-teenager and his family adjust to his new situation, as they steadfastly do for any high school football player who suffers a paralyzing injury playing the game they love.

On Saturday, the Canales clan, including mom and wife Pita, got to award Borner one of the most important items a family in his situation needs : an accessible van. They did so thanks to a fundraising drive orchestrated by the Texas Association of Sports Officials. Game officials and sponsors from across the state raised funds to buy a discounted van from Alamo Mobility. Borner’s previous vehicle had worn out and the new one will provide him and his family needed mobility and independence.

The Schertz-based Canales family has a special frame of reference when it comes to helping former players in Borner’s situation, since Chris has occupied a wheelchair since his own in-game mishap in 2001. They now use their own hard-won knowledge about facing such situations to ease other families’ struggles.

A big part of their message involves keeping a positive attitude and Borner provides an example to point to. In fact, the former DeSoto Eagle helps the charity out by showing off his optimistic disposition in making outreach appearances on Gridiron Heroes’ behalf when the Canales men find themselves spread too thin. You can get a feel for Borner’s outlook and his thoughts on Gridiron Heroes in the accompanying video interview.

I’ve written about Gridiron Heroes before, and I probably will again. If you work in the sports business, as I do, or if you love sports, it’s not hard to muster deep appreciation for the work the Canales family does. You can learn more about the Gridiron Heroes mission in my previous interview with Eddie Canales or at their website at gridironheroes.org.




Rush Olson has spent two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns, television programs, and related creative projects for sports entities through Rush Olson Creative & Sports and FourNine Productions.

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Tackling More Safely

This post originally appeared at the Fort Worth Weekly's website. To view it there : http://www.fwweekly.com/2016/07/13/sports-rush-tackling-more-safely/

 Last week, we posted the first part of an interview with Eddie Canales of Gridiron Heroes (watch it here : https://youtu.be/nxInDMrb5kM). His charity helps athletes who have suffered paralyzing injuries playing high school football. They also work to prevent injuries through teaching safer tackling techniques. In this interview, Eddie explains their approach.

 
This video is an edited version. You can see the full interview, which includes Eddie Canales’ take on hawk-style tackling, here : https://youtu.be/5yMm-8u2tzA

For more information on Gridiron Heroes, visit gridironheroes.org.


Rush Olson has spent two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns, television programs, and related creative projects for sports entities through Rush Olson Creative & Sports and FourNine Productions.


RushOlson.com

Linkedin.com/company/rush-olson-creative-&-sports

Facebook.com/RushOlsonCreativeandSports

Gridiron Heroes

This post originally appeared at the Fort Worth Weekly's website. To view it there : http://www.fwweekly.com/2016/07/06/sports-rush-football-related-spinal-injury/


If your son suffered a disabling spinal injury playing football, what would you do? You would truly value the help of someone who knew what you’d face in the months and years to come. Eddie Canales would be the man to whom you would need to talk, and luckily for you, he and his son, Chris, provide exactly the sort of help such families need. Their charitable organization is called Gridiron Heroes and their journey is a remarkable one.

Eddie tells us the story in this video interview, shot at the Canales’ home in Schertz, Texas. We edited this video to about three minutes. You can view the full 7+ minute version here : https://youtu.be/ntPsirut5-c.

Next week, part two of the interview will discuss injury prevention through implementation of safer tackling techniques.

For more information on Gridiron Heroes, visit gridironheroes.org.



Rush Olson has spent two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns, television programs, and related creative projects for sports entities through Rush Olson Creative & Sports and FourNine Productions.


RushOlson.com

Linkedin.com/company/rush-olson-creative-&-sports

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The Coolest Thing in Athletics

This article originally appeared in the Blotch section of the Fort Worth Weekly's website. To read it on that site :http://www.fwweekly.com/2016/05/10/sports-rush-the-coolest-thing-in-athletics/

I just tried the hottest trend in sports recovery.

Or at least as hot as you can get at 240 degrees below zero.

When you play sports your whole life, you inevitably run (or stumble) into situations where you have to “put some ice on it.” We’ve all filled plastic bags from the freezer to place on sprained ankles and sore shoulders. The method I sampled is an ice bag on steroids (ok, bad choice of recovery metaphor there).

Wearing only gloves, socks, and a pair of plaid boxer shorts (your underwear selection may vary), one steps into a shoulder-high cylinder which floods with chilled nitrogen gas. Then the chamber gets cold. Really cold. Snow Miser cold.

I had my session at C3 Cryo Club in Burleson. Owner Lisa Flynn monitored the machine as it rapidly lowered the numbers on the attached thermometer.

“The cryotherapy starts to work on your body when the temperature reaches minus 166 in the chamber. The temperature will drop to minus 240, minus 250, sometimes minus 260 for about 30 seconds while you’re in the chamber,” Flynn explained.

I had played softball the night before and run more than usual (fallen over more, too). I hoped the cryotherapy would alleviate some of the inevitable muscle soreness. Flynn became aware of cryotherapy thanks to an injury of the diamond.

“My son was a freshman in high school, 14 years old. He rolled his ankle running to first base. The trainer told us we needed to take him to have an x-ray. It swelled up pretty bad. He had a high ankle sprain. The orthopedic told us he’d be out of playing three to five weeks. So he came to the trainer and he went and did cryotherapy every other for two weeks, so he did six treatments. After that sixth treatment, he was back on the field running, sliding, playing like he’d never gotten hurt before.”


Athletes at all levels have started using the procedure, most prominently in place of ice baths. After her son’s experience, Flynn, a nurse by profession, began to investigate the procedure before eventually opening her own shop.

“We discovered that cryotherapy was actually developed in the 70s in Japan and it was originally developed for rheumatoid arthritis patients. However, it had gotten popular here in the United States in 2011, actually in Texas in 2011, when the Dallas Mavericks used it for their winning season.”
Flynn’s cryo users consist of more than just players seeking a championship.

“A lot of people will come in with joint pain, inflammation, just in general throughout their body. They may be or may not be diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, (or) lupus,” she explained, “It has helped symptoms with those clients so they can have a better quality of life. It doesn’t necessarily cure it, but it does help with the inflammation they experience in their bodies.”

The science behind the treatment involves fooling your body into rushing blood to a core it believes is in mortal danger. Research is ongoing. How did it make me feel? I felt cold. Duh.

I grew up in Texas. I don’t like cold. I’d rather it be 100 every day than ever drop below 60. Luckily, the operator (Lisa Flynn in my case) talks to the subject the whole time to take one’s mind off one’s goosebumps. She also doesn’t leave the groceries in the freezer too long.

“We control the time that you’re in there. You cannot stay in there any longer than three minutes,” Flynn said. “Some people, two minutes, that’s it, every time they get in. The average time is two and a half minutes.”

It was hard for me to evaluate whether I felt better afterward than I would have otherwise after just a single cryo session. But the endurance athlete who recommended it uses it regularly and plenty of other sportspersons do as well. I may have a better idea after the next time I play softball and don’t use it. In the meantime, you can guess what I’ll be thinking about every time the air conditioner comes on.


Rush Olson has spent two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns, television programs, and related creative projects for sports entities through Rush Olson Creative & Sports and FourNine Productions.


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An Incredible Comeback

This post originally appeared on the Blotch page at the Fort Worth Weekly. To read it on that site : http://www.fwweekly.com/2015/11/25/a-west-texas-comeback/

A small-town Texas quarterback has two minutes to drive his team 58 yards for a touchdown. If he doesn’t do it, the playoff loss will end the season and his high school football career. For many kids, it would represent the most stressful situation of their lives. Friday night in Huntsville, however, a schoolboy QB and his teammates knew they had faced challenges far greater than those posed by onrushing defensive linemen. 

Two and a half years earlier, senior signal-caller Mason Tobola had seen his town put through stress that dwarfs that of even the most high-pressure football game. He witnessed a fertilizer plant explosion that killed fifteen people, injured scores of others, and damaged surrounding buildings beyond repair. That night, students had to help the injured, and in the intervening years, they’ve watched their hometown of West, Texas rebuild damaged structures and psyches. The experience has left those who made it through with valuable perspective.

“I think it opened up everyone’s eyes on the team. It made everybody realize how hard they had to work to accomplish the simplest tasks in life,” Tobola said.



Some three minutes of clock time before the West Trojans found themselves needing a touchdown to extend their season, the players had had a lot of work to do. They had just gone down by two scores. Their opponents, the Kirbyville Wildcats, had shown resolve of their own in overcoming a nine-point halftime deficit to post 20 unanswered points and forge a 32-21 lead with just over five minutes to go in the 4th quarter.

A coach could have found it a challenge to stay positive when his tired players missed tackles and lost control of their biggest game of the year. As his players trudged off the field following Kirbyville’s PAT, however, West Head Coach David Woodard remained relentlessly upbeat.

West Head Coach David Woodard

Coach Woodard also serves as the district’s athletic director and has kids of his own attending schools in the West ISD system. Since the April, 2013 tragedy, he has had to constantly find ways to keep himself and his charges looking forward, even as he dealt with the added challenge of rebuilding his own destroyed house.

“Kids feed off of you and they know how you feel and what you’re doing and what you’re thinking,” Woodard said. “You can’t let those negative thoughts get in your head.” He was talking about the football game, but he could have easily been referring to his responsibilities as an administrator, husband, and father.

The district has actually found a good bit of success recently on its fields and floors, many of which sustained damage in the explosion. West High School has fielded several playoff teams, including this fall’s girls volleyball squad, and the baseball team won the 3A state title this past spring. The football team, however, had not won a playoff game since 2007.

West has historically been known for strong baseball and softball teams, but football on Friday nights still matters a lot in a small Texas town. That medical personnel had to use the football stadium for triage in the explosion’s aftermath only heightened the sport’s symbolic importance. When the team won only one game in the fall of 2013, it created yet another obstacle to overcome. The way the team handled it set an example for more than just their peers.

“We all learn a lot from kids,” said Woodard. “What they’ve accomplished in these couple of years since the blast and going 1-9, it showed us adults that if you decide you want to do something and you want to work hard to get it done, then it can get done.”

A handful of today’s seniors played as sophomores on that one-win 2013 team, with underclassmen having watched it as JV, freshman, or eighth-grade players. Tobola, who started under center that year as a tenth-grader, explained that he and his teammates had turned things around “through experience and hard work, through 7-on-7, and lifting weights, just getting down and dirty and making it happen.”

The 2014 season saw the team go 7-3. They missed the playoffs after a final weekend loss to Comanche. The near-miss gave them added resolve headed into 2015.

“Everybody thought it was about time to step up and time to make playoffs and go into the postseason,” said Tobola.

They did it, too, losing only one regular season game en route to the program’s first 10-win season since 1992. In the opening round of the playoffs, Tobola kicked a PAT to defeat Troy by a point in overtime.



Playing on a neutral field at Sam Houston State’s Bowers Stadium in the area round, the Trojans found themselves down 12-0 early. It could have been worse save for a Kirbyville encroachment infraction that nullified a first-quarter pick six. Both teams, in fact, seemed a touch ragged in a penalty-filled first half. West overcame any jitters, however, to score three second-quarter touchdowns and take a 21-12 halftime lead.

Kirbyville, who had gone 10-1 on the season themselves, looked like the stronger team for most of the game’s final two quarters. When the Wildcats scored their third second-half TD with 5:38 left in the fourth quarter, the raucously supportive West fans quieted. Perhaps they thought about the season, that even it were to end there in Huntsville, they would fondly remember it as a marvelous experience for the school, the town, and the players.

But the season didn’t end there. The Trojans quickly drove 69 yards, with Tobola running the last four to cut the deficit to 32-27. The defense produced a three-and-out, and that’s when the Trojans found themselves with the ball and one chance to extend their season. Tobola threw to Bailey Horn in the left flat and Horn somehow eluded a horde of Wildcats to turn the short pass into a long touchdown. Kirbyville still had time for their own rally, and three quick first downs moved the ball into West territory. However, senior Trevon Harold, who had played on the 2013 varsity as a sophomore, tipped a second-down pass and junior Dawson Sulak intercepted it. The Trojans’ amazing season would continue. They will play Teague in Midlothian on Friday.

Tobola, who plays offense and defense, and kicks and punts, had fought through a fourth-quarter injury. His teammates overcame fatigue, nerves, pain, and everything else with which an athlete must deal to win a pressure-filled contest.

In the minutes following the game, as the players slapped hands with the students, parents, and neighbors who had driven more than two hours each way to support them, Coach Woodard explained what made the difference for his team. “To be able to battle back twice tonight, early in the first half and then the last five minutes, it just shows so much of what we’ve always been talking about – a kind of a never-give-up, that resiliency attitude. (I’m) so proud of them.”



Kirbyville could take pride in their players as well. The Wildcats deserved to win the game. They played their hearts out, showing skill and sportsmanship. They, too, had faced tragedy, as their coach had buried his brother earlier in the week. On the field after the game, one boy cursed his missed chances. Another wept. The loss will pain them for a long time, even as they proceed on through high school and into life, One hopes that the Wildcats will react to strife the way the West students have, and let the lessons of a setback set them up to succeed.

David Woodard understands the long-term importance of the lessons his athletes learned the hard way.

“They’re just a great group of kids that have their head on straight and that are successful in football and athletics right now. In three or four or five, ten years, you’re going to hear about them being really successful in life as well.”




Rush Olson has spent two decades directing creative efforts for sports teams and broadcasters. He currently creates ad campaigns and related creative projects for sports entities through his company, Rush Olson Creative & Sports.

RushOlson.com

Linkedin.com/company/rush-olson-creative-&-sports

Facebook.com/RushOlsonCreativeandSports