Leading off today: A prep-school basketball player in Columbia County is alive today thanks to the quick action of his school's athletic trainer.
Jamison Thrower, 18, had his heart stop beating twice after being struck in the chest during a scrimmage at The Darrow School, a stone's throw from the Massachusetts border, on Oct. 1, according to The Times Union. Trainer Allison Pritchard revived him twice before EMTs arrived and transported Thrower to Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, Mass.
Thrower is a transfer from Louisiana looking for a Division I college opportunity via Darrow, which plays in the New England Preparatory School Athletic Council.
The sequence began when a teammate blocked Thrower's dunk attempt, knocking the ball into his chest.
"I had a quick shortage of breath," he told WNYT-TV. "And the pain was going down the right side of my chest to my stomach. I was like, 'I can't breathe, I can't breathe,' and I was trying to walk it off for a little bit. But everything went black and I collapsed."
Pritchard arrived on the court to find the player kneeling with his head resting on the floor and in a trance-like state. She moved Thrower onto his side, then his seizing and moaning suddenly stopped.
Thrower had gone into cardiac arrest, but the trainer revived him with a short set of chest compressions. "I probably did 10, and on the 10th one, he jumped back to life," Pritchard said.
Shortly afterward, the player's heart stopped again and Pritchard brought him back with more compressions. He remained stable until the ambulance arrived.
Thrower said he arrived at the hospital with no memory of what happened and a pain in his chest.
"It was so surreal," he said. "When I woke up ... it was like someone was sitting on me -- I was just looking at the wall for so long, just thinking about how grateful I was to be alive."
Thrower was transferred to a Springfield, Mass., facility and then cleared to return to the campus after three days. He's awaiting further tests before he'll be able to return to the court.
Passings
Joe Roach, who rolled up 433 boys soccer victories while coaching Jamesville-Dewitt from 1974-2016, died Saturday after a battle with Cortical Basal Degeneration. He was 74.
The Chester native and Ithaca College graduate coached J-D to nine league titles and three Section 3 championships.
• Longtime NYSPHSAA boys swimming coordinator Peter Hugo died on Sept. 25 after a battle with cancer. He was 73.
Hugo retired in 2009 as a Great Neck physical education teacher, coach, and athletic director but remained active in swimming, including roles as president of the National Interscholastic Swim Coaches Association and Long Island Youth Swimming leader.
Venue change
With its men's soccer team positioned to host NCAA Division III playoff action that weekend, NYSPHSAA girls soccer semifinals and finals originally slated to be played at SUNY Cortland have been moved to local high school sites.
Final four contests will be spread accost Homer, Dryden and Cortland high schools Nov. 15-16.
Coming attractions, perhaps
In the course of preparing for next week's NYSPHSAA quarterly Executive Committee meeting in Albany, I saw a couple of interesting updates from other committees:
• When the NYSPHSAA Handbook Committee met on Sept. 24, members discussed the possibility of allowing boys lacrosse teams that receive a forfeit victory to attempt to schedule an additional game during the regular season to make up for the lost opportunity to play.
It sounds like a sensible idea -- so sensible, in fact, that the question arose as to why the issue was being raised for just one sport.
While there's always concern about potential additional expenses to schools, what was being suggested is strictly optional. So, look for idea to make its way back to the various sections directors and sport committees this fall and potentially come up for a vote at next summer's Central Committee meeting.
• The Sportsmanship Committee also met late last month, and discussions about lopsided scores -- notably some girls basketball contests that left a stench -- have progressed to the point where a policy statement was shared for review.
Section 8 has had a policy in force for several years that can lead to suspensions for coaches whose teams run up scores, and the NYSPHSAA committee plans to examine it in the spring. Whether its a rule or just a recommendation that evolves from the conversation, look for something that gets voted on next summer or fall.
