After Cal’s second consecutive victory, a 49-17 triumph over Washington State at Memorial Stadium last Saturday that evened the Bears’ Pac-10 record at 2-2 (5-2 overall), sophomore kicker David Seawright was feeling pretty upbeat. Then real life intervened – a Cal lacrosse player became severely ill, and a family, as Seawright reports, was shaken to its core.
This week was supposed to be different.
After a few consecutive serious dispatches, two consecutive Pac-10 wins had my sights set on a more humorous delivery.
Perhaps I would have shared that Jeremy Ross’ freestyle raps are as hysterical as he made Washington State tacklers look Saturday. Or, instead, I might have boasted of my superior talent on the ping-pong table – just ask Jahvid Best and Shane Vereen.
But all that changed on Saturday. Tighe Hutchins, a senior on the women’s lacrosse team here, was home alone save for the mother of one of her roommates when she had a seizure.
After being taken to the hospital, doctors discovered massive internal bleeding and were forced to perform numerous surgeries over a couple of days. Late Monday night, things got bad enough that a pastor was called to the hospital.
Yet Hutchins kept on fighting. Even with at least three more weeks in intensive care ahead of her, her family and closest friends tell of astonishing courage and high spirits.
The response from my fellow athletes at Cal has been utterly remarkable. After word spread that Hutchins, who has the rare O-negative blood type, was going through blood faster than her hospital could supply it, some teams canceled offseason workouts so their athletes could donate blood in Tighe’s name. The support allowed the Hutchins family, with the help of the Cal athletic department, to use blood reserved for other patients with the assurance of more to come.
On Wednesday night, a crowd of more than 300 athletes, coaches and even athletic director Sandy Barbour gathered on campus for a candlelit prayer ceremony put on by Athletes in Action.
This week, I was more proud to be a Cal athlete than ever before. And with weeks of fighting ahead for Hutchins, she can be sure that her fellow athletes will continue to fight for her, both on and off the field.
More blood is needed and can be donated to the Red Cross specifically for Tighe while prayers, positive thoughts, and support from the Cal community will continue to flow freely.
I guess this week was different after all.
From Michael Silver's The Game Face Yahoo Sports "Dispatches from the Lair of the Bear"