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| (above) Jesse Martin's story is chronicled in the first of a three part story on the front page of Sunday's Denver Post |
"Denver Post reporters Terry Frei and Mike Chambers spent the past year chronicling the recovery of college hockey standout Jesse Martin following a life-threatening injury. During that time, they stayed in contact with Martin and his family and talked to teammates, coaches, doctors and friends while reporting for this project." [read entire article].
15 comments:
Nice job on a major, feature story by Chambers. Could be the biggest he's ever done in the Denver Post, in terms of word count. And I would call it a human interest story; not a sports story. Good work, Mike
Front page feature article. Excellent detailed writing.
DG's site is the only place I read comments because you Pio people are cool cats and keep it real. Thanks for the kudos and, indeed, this is the biggest story (and only series) of my career. Truth is, though, my colleague/mentor Terry Frei was the lead writer. He went to Edmonton in July and produced most of the copy. I lived this story. Terry captured it.
Needless to say some people over at DU are not going to be too pleased with Part One of this article. I can only imagine how Parts Two & Three will be received over on East Asbury Avenue.
What happened to Jesse is a terrible tragedy and as they mentioned, an incredible miracle.
Hopefully Jesse & Gwozdecky can mend fences if there is friction between the two camps as it appears from the article.
Luckily it sounds from Jesse's tweets that he still has a strong bond with his former teammates. Perhaps those same players can mediate some closure on this dark chapter for DU hockey.
I'd still like to see some rule changes in college hockey to reduce full speed frontal collisions and rough play around the boards that has led to countless concussions, shoulder injuries and in this case a broken neck.
The long term value of these articles may be that it will lead collegiate athletic departments to examine how they handle a catastrophic injury situation that occurs to a student-athlete.
Hard article to read. I had to pause to compose myself more than once. We're so lucky and thankful this young man is still with us and functioning on such a high level. The post injury "friction" between the Martins and Gwoz was news to me, but hardly a total shock. They were thinking primarily about the son they almost lost, while Gwoz had to consider that and keeping his team from unraveling. I take no side in this, but suspect these good people, with their different perspectives, reacted differently. And that nobody is "right" or "wrong." Like DG said, there's no handbook on how to respond to this kind of event, particularly when it occurs on the road.
Going forward we should continue to rejoice for Jesse, and make certain he understands that graduate school option is open and encourage Gwoz and Jesse to patch things up. Perhaps one way to do it is to establish some sort of post-season award named after Jesse (we already have a lot, I know) and have him involved in the presentation, at least the first time.
If there is a rule or enforcement change that might reduce these kinds of injuries, I'm all for it.
The bottom line for me is that in addition to surviving this injury, jesse has shown qualities that should make us all very proud he's a Pioneer.
It's interesting to note that the print version of this story also has a well-chosen photo of Brad Malone taking out a player from an opposing team along the boards, with his stick clearly cross-checking the guy right across the head. Malone could be living and working (as in playing) in Denver some day.
Malone is a goon and he will get his ass kicked now that he is up where fighting is enchouraged. His 220 pounds won't work against the 250 pound assigned goons in the pros. His hit on Jesse was a clear charge,and even worse ,he went up high.
Fascinating read--I found this article completely engrossing. It's still mind boggling to me that aside from an athlete suffering a freakish and nightmarish injury, a kid almost died out there that night. Gut-wrenching. I saw Jesse on campus a while back and remember thinking he's lucky to be alive.
The other takeaway from this article for me was thinking how sad it is if indeed Jesse and DU/Gwoz parted ways on sour terms. You just hope that all parties can reflect on the whole incident together and come to an understanding that everyone acted in Jesse's best interest, or at least had that intention.
It's easy to jump Jesse's side as the injured player who nearly died for his school and lost his pro hockey dreams, and to now see Gwoz and DU as some kind of monolithic obstacle in Jesse's way. Jesse is an awesome role model and I will always be proud of how he handled himself.
But I am sure that Gwoz and DU have done many things for Jesse and his family that weren't reported. And after the Hank Gathers' death and lawsuit that cost Loyola Marymount millions and forced out his coach years ago, I can easily see why Gwoz and DU needed to protect the school and the program by bowing to the lawyers. At the end of the day, we live in a litigious society and no one player can be above the needs of the program.
It's sad for everyone...
I was at a game at the Arena in the 80's the night after a DU player suffered a serious neck injury (not as bad as Jesse's) as a result of a CFB from Wisconsin. I apologize for not remembering his name. IIRC he ultimately wanted to get back on the ice, but DU said no. On the other hand, two seriously injured recent UND players did return. I think it would be unfair to suggest DU's only concern in these matters is to limit liability. I certainly wouldn't want to greenlight a kid's return only to see him paralyzed, or worse. If I were Jesse's dad and he had recovered to the point of thinking he could play hockey again, I think I'd do everything in my power to dissuade him. He had God on his shoulder that night in Grand Forks, and I wouldn't want him to tempt fate.
Old Pio-
Mike Aikens was the DU player. Sean Hill was the culprit.
Thanks. You'd think I'd remember wouldn't you? My excuse is I never got to see him play. My only connection to the event was hanging out in the press box for the Saturday night game. And some Wisconsin whelp assumed I was some sort of DU wheel (probably because I was wearing a tie) and asked me why people were so upset. I responded that it was just a guess, but probably because your goon very nearly killed one of our players.
In these kinds of deals the coach is only one of numerous people involved in deciding whether a player can return. As I say, liability issues can't be overlooked, but neither can the moral question of responsibility for a 20 year old facing life in a wheel chair or worse if things go wrong. I'm guessing some of the friction between the Martin family and Gwoz is in some way related to the almost certain fact that Gwoz was under some considerable pressure from the administration to play this a certain way. He may have agreed, or perhaps not. But he was being "advised" throughout.
The Martins may hold a grudge but I'm guessing in the fullness of time Jesse will come to realize that Gwoz was doing the best he could under very tough circumstances.
I read the first part of the article and the feeling that I was left with is that it is time for Jesse to move on with his life and realize that he was able to play and produce at a level that few achieve but the risk vastly outweighs the reward at this point in this young mans life. DU should support and fund whatever academic aspirations that Jesse might seek at DU as a matter of honor.
Important to note that Gwozdecky and DU not only honored David Carle's scholarship but gave him an opportunity to participate in the hockey program off the ice.
Like Jesse, I believe that David hoped that his medical condition would improve to the point that he would be able to participate on the ice at some point.
Gwozdecky is easily one of the best coaches in college hockey and we are so lucky to have him at DU.
Jesse's father, Terry, was incredible throughout the entire ordeal as I'm sure Fry and Chambers will detail in parts II & III.
Jesse has shown incredible bravery, class and courage in the past year. I hope he returns to DU at some point in the near future to see his friends on the ice.
DU did offer to pay for graduate school, but Martin declined, preferring to do his further schooling in Alberta, his home province.
If Jesse plans to live in Alberta for the rest of his life, he's probably better off getting his grad degree there, where Canadian degree programs are more recognized locally than most US university degrees.
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