First I want to thank everyone for their prayers whether they be directed towards Hayley or Kevin we appreciate every single one of them. Please, continue to pray for Hayley. Please find somewhere in your heart whether you are religious or not to stop and say a prayer. Whether or not you despise myself or my family this is much bigger than that, I beg you to just stop for a second and say a prayer.
For those of you who do not know my Brother Kevin was accepted into Northern Michigan University on a USOEC Scholarship to go to school and skate short track ice. He graduated High School on Saturday and set sail Tuesday for Michigan. The woman my brother cares most about, his girlfriend, who also just graduated this weekend decided to ride along with him so he didn't have to drive by himself. He drove about 11 hours Tuesday before he stopped to sleep. He jumped back on the road around 6am Wednesday morning. Somewhere around 7:30 - 8am Kevin fell asleep behind the wheel of our Chevy Trailblazer. He was driving with the vehicle in cruise control set at the speed limit of 70mph. To the right of the road there is a ditch and then a field of grass. The vehicle hit the ditch and rolled multiple times after that. The vehicle behind them was already on the phone with 911 before the vehicle could stop rolling. Kevin and Hayley were both wearing seat belts, and were both asleep at the point of impact. Once the vehicle stopped rolling both were conscious but Hayley was in obvious and serious pain. At the hospital Hayley was diagnosed with a broken neck and taken into surgery immediately, she did not have feeling in her lower extremities.
After a four hour surgery Hayley is in an ICU room and is awake in stable condition. Tonight they have her on a ventilator for safety, they plan to take the ventilator off tomorrow. The only news on the surgery that we have is that it went 'well'. The Doctor who performed the surgery had already left the hospital for the day when Hayley's mother and my father arrived and the nurse's have very little information to give us. We wont know more until we speak to the doctor and until the swelling around the neck goes down which could take a few days. Hayley's injury is one that is commonly associated with the seat belt when it locks up during impact. Hayley has been sedated all day to keep her as immobile and calm as possible, the also have her arms strapped down on the bed so she stays as still as possible. She has been able to say a few words but it is difficult to speak with the ventilator.
Kevin has a bruised long and a lot of cuts and scratches. Physically he is okay but emotionally he isn't taking the situation very well.
I ask you to put yourself in Hayley's position of uncertainty or in Kevin's emotional position of responsibility and guilt. After doing so I hope you will say a prayer for these two young people that they may make a full recovery. Pray to give them the strength and courage to fight threw this physical and emotional battle. And pray that they can keep a good mind set because a strong mind and a strong outlook can go a long way towards a physical recovery.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Friday, June 3, 2011
Long Time No Write
Alright sorry for the long blogging absence. Lots to cover today so let's just jump into some of the stuff.
Before I talk about right now I need to talk about August, mostly because it effects right now. So we all know that the dates for trials have finally been set in stone. We also know that as of right now there may not be any funding for the Junior or Senior world teams. This directly effects me for multiple reasons. The first is obviously I will have to pay to go to worlds which I thought I finished doing when I became a Senior. The second is that I have to pay to go to worlds that there is not a residency training program which means that there is even less for a coach to choose who gets to race. This is a big deal because I don't want to go to a worlds and not get a chance to race especially if I am paying.
I'm 20 years old but I'm still the little kid. When you look at the names Joey Mantia, Justin Stelly, Will Bowen, Michael Cheek, Harry Vogel, and Keith Carroll you don't think of me having the same skill set or ability mostly because of my physical appearance, not my results. Coaches are just like normal people, and for the most part if anyone has to pick two of those six athletes for a given race they overlook my name because I may not have the starpower that some of the other names carry even though I qualified for last years team before four of them.
So what basically what I am saying is that there has to be a significant reason for me to pay to go to worlds. The simple idea of being able to say I went to Worlds isn't enough anymore. So based on the amount that we are expected to pay and the way trials pans on there is a possibility I will deny the 2011 World Team if I were to qualify, which is my full intentions.
So to the next part, this will not affect my training but it does make me think. I will not be skating pretty much any ice after Indoor Nationals until either after Outdoor Nationals or after Worlds whatever one is my last. This is my decision because short track and inline are very different and I will still be participating in a lot of the workouts that are off the ice and I will be able to skate at least twice a day heading into trials. With that being said I expect the first American Cup race of the ice season to be my worst race of the year even though it holds a significant amount of weight because I am focusing on inlines and will only have about a month back on the ice before the AmCup race. If I end up not going to worlds then it will be a little bit more frustrating because of how much I am putting off the ice training in August to fully focus on my inlines.
So right now we are focusing on a lot of technique, we are planning out the schedule until after worlds in terms of training. All of my training is set up to have me peak for worlds so that should be pretty awesome. I am patiently trying to get through the summer training for ice while waiting for my custom Marchese to be ready which should be around late July or early August. I've been on a few rides now and I've realized I'm actually not as bad as I thought I would be on the bike which is awesome. I haven't started my interval work for worlds yet but it is going to be coming shortly. I plan on training straight through indoor nationals mostly because it isn't a priority to me. I am looking more forward to the Chicago marathon after indoor nationals then I am for IDN.
Before I talk about right now I need to talk about August, mostly because it effects right now. So we all know that the dates for trials have finally been set in stone. We also know that as of right now there may not be any funding for the Junior or Senior world teams. This directly effects me for multiple reasons. The first is obviously I will have to pay to go to worlds which I thought I finished doing when I became a Senior. The second is that I have to pay to go to worlds that there is not a residency training program which means that there is even less for a coach to choose who gets to race. This is a big deal because I don't want to go to a worlds and not get a chance to race especially if I am paying.
I'm 20 years old but I'm still the little kid. When you look at the names Joey Mantia, Justin Stelly, Will Bowen, Michael Cheek, Harry Vogel, and Keith Carroll you don't think of me having the same skill set or ability mostly because of my physical appearance, not my results. Coaches are just like normal people, and for the most part if anyone has to pick two of those six athletes for a given race they overlook my name because I may not have the starpower that some of the other names carry even though I qualified for last years team before four of them.
So what basically what I am saying is that there has to be a significant reason for me to pay to go to worlds. The simple idea of being able to say I went to Worlds isn't enough anymore. So based on the amount that we are expected to pay and the way trials pans on there is a possibility I will deny the 2011 World Team if I were to qualify, which is my full intentions.
So to the next part, this will not affect my training but it does make me think. I will not be skating pretty much any ice after Indoor Nationals until either after Outdoor Nationals or after Worlds whatever one is my last. This is my decision because short track and inline are very different and I will still be participating in a lot of the workouts that are off the ice and I will be able to skate at least twice a day heading into trials. With that being said I expect the first American Cup race of the ice season to be my worst race of the year even though it holds a significant amount of weight because I am focusing on inlines and will only have about a month back on the ice before the AmCup race. If I end up not going to worlds then it will be a little bit more frustrating because of how much I am putting off the ice training in August to fully focus on my inlines.
So right now we are focusing on a lot of technique, we are planning out the schedule until after worlds in terms of training. All of my training is set up to have me peak for worlds so that should be pretty awesome. I am patiently trying to get through the summer training for ice while waiting for my custom Marchese to be ready which should be around late July or early August. I've been on a few rides now and I've realized I'm actually not as bad as I thought I would be on the bike which is awesome. I haven't started my interval work for worlds yet but it is going to be coming shortly. I plan on training straight through indoor nationals mostly because it isn't a priority to me. I am looking more forward to the Chicago marathon after indoor nationals then I am for IDN.
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