Max
06-03-2003, 04:39 PM
For paralyzed player, graduation means even more
By Rick Cantu
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Monday, June 2, 2003
BELTON - Fellow graduates and well-wishers rose to their feet and cheered for the popular senior and star baseball player - a young man now unable to stand on his own. Fittingly, it was the only standing ovation of the ceremony.
Jack Noyes, wearing a red cap and gown and a nervous grin, savored the moment. Flash- bulbs popped from the rafters. Friends yelled his name. A near-capacity audience at the Bell County Expo Center erupted as he accepted his high school diploma from a wheelchair Sunday afternoon.
Jack was an immensely popular student at Harker Heights High School long before he was paralyzed while diving into third base during a playoff game May 3, just hours before he would've been dancing at the senior prom.
On Sunday, nearly a month after his injury, Jack arrived at graduation in a medical helicopter soaring through a sunny sky. Paramedic Joe Aguinaga rode along to care for the 18-year-old, whose post-graduation plans now center on rehabilitation measured by one small movement at a time. The medic sat next to Jack during the ceremony and pushed his wheelchair across the stage when his name was called.
Jack was the last student introduced. He received a two-minute standing ovation before Principal Ralph Bray introduced him. He received another ovation after his black-leather-encased diploma was placed on his lap.
"I'm in awe, complete awe," Jack said afterward. "This was totally unexpected. . . . I'm very proud of myself for making it here, but my classmates helped me out a lot today."
The new graduate aspires to walk and run again. Unable to move his legs, Jack is paralyzed from his chest to feet. Last week in his private hospital room at Scott & White Hospital in Temple for four days eased it.
But what post-graduation path will he follow?
The answer might be found in an MRI test, but Jack is reluctant to have it, fearing the worst, his parents said. He doesn't want to hear that there is no chance of full recovery.
"We don't want to take any of his hope away," Paul Noyes said.
Paul and his wife, Yi Cha, whom Paul met while on military assignment in South Korea in 1982, are near their younger son's bedside 14 hours a day. Paul, Yi Cha and Jack's friends take turns sleeping on a cot in the room nightly.
By 8:30 every morning, Jack, dressed in black athletic shorts, a white stomach brace that resembles a girdle and black jogging shoes, is prepared for the nurses. Rehab is a daily ritual.
For a moment, safe at third
May 3 was going to be a memorable day for the seniors of Harker Heights, a small town just east of Killeen. The Knights were playing Montgomery High, from East Texas, in a Class 4A baseball playoff. With a .459 batting average during district play, 5-foot-10, 170-pound Jack was the best hitter on his team.
That night, Jack had a date to the prom with Linda Lopez. His rented black-and-white tux and shiny black shoes were in his bedroom closet. Flowers for Linda had been ordered.
First, the game.
Montgomery had taken a one-run lead in the top of the eighth inning, but Harker Heights was to bat last. Noyes led off the bottom of the inning and was hit by a pitch. Teammate Adam Glazner followed with a walk, putting runners on first and second.
Jack attempted to steal third and appeared safe when the ball arrived. But he slid past the base and got caught in a rundown between third and home, his father recalled.
Jack scrambled back to third with a headfirst dive to the base, a move he had made countless times. But he jolted his neck when his chin hit the ground hard. He lay motionless, his face down in the orange dirt, crying because he knew something was terribly wrong.
Six feet short of third, everything stopped.
"Jack went down like a ton of bricks," his father said.
The fifth vertebra was smashed beyond repair.
Jack was tagged out near third, but the game became a footnote. So did the prom. Before the night was over, 20 teammates in dirty baseball uniforms drove to Scott & White to show their support.
"Jack has always been a scrappy baseball player, someone who wasn't happy until his uniform was dirty," Paul Noyes said. "This is one time I wish he hadn't tried to dive."
Balloons, kisses and tears
Room 495 at Scott & White Hospital has visitors constantly. As many as 80 people a day have visited, many of them baseball players and other classmates. Last Wednesday, Drayton McLane, owner of the Houston Astros and a Temple resident, paid a visit. A baseball signed by the Astros is just one gift the team has given him. Popular Astro Craig Biggio sent Jack a signed commemorative picture of his 2,000th career hit and called him at the hospital.
A letter expressing get-well wishes from Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig is tacked to a wall near the bed. A similar letter by former Texas A&M football coach R.C. Slocum is next to it.
Jack's room is filled with posters, flowers, balloons and get-well cards from Harker Heights and beyond.
Shoemaker High School in Killeen donated $1,241, proceeds from a car wash. Killeen High, Montgomery High, Boston's restaurant and Jason's Deli have planned fund-raisers. Dell Computer Corp. donated a computer with a DVD player so he can watch movies.
Jack breaks the tension in his room by cracking jokes with friends.
"That's my ugliest best friend," Jack said, pointing across the room to Landon Pilkey, a pal since second grade.
"No one in school really likes Jack," Landon retorted.
"The girls (who visit) give me kisses," Jack said. His favorite poster on his wall is a red one signed by the Diamond Darlings, a spirit group at Harker Heights.
Jack said he has been too busy and preoccupied to worry about walking again. He knows the road will be long, and he wants to enjoy the good times.
Sunday was a great day, the best since May 3, he said. He saw many of his friends for the first time in weeks. Many posed for pictures with him after the ceremony.
"My baby has graduated," Yi Cha Noyes said, wiping tears with a tissue. "The nurses were saying this morning that he has such a great attitude. He's a wonderful young man."
rcantu@statesman.com; 445-3953
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http://www.statesman.com/asection/content/auto/epaper/editions/today/news_e3ad8faac275b1b600d1.html
By Rick Cantu
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Monday, June 2, 2003
BELTON - Fellow graduates and well-wishers rose to their feet and cheered for the popular senior and star baseball player - a young man now unable to stand on his own. Fittingly, it was the only standing ovation of the ceremony.
Jack Noyes, wearing a red cap and gown and a nervous grin, savored the moment. Flash- bulbs popped from the rafters. Friends yelled his name. A near-capacity audience at the Bell County Expo Center erupted as he accepted his high school diploma from a wheelchair Sunday afternoon.
Jack was an immensely popular student at Harker Heights High School long before he was paralyzed while diving into third base during a playoff game May 3, just hours before he would've been dancing at the senior prom.
On Sunday, nearly a month after his injury, Jack arrived at graduation in a medical helicopter soaring through a sunny sky. Paramedic Joe Aguinaga rode along to care for the 18-year-old, whose post-graduation plans now center on rehabilitation measured by one small movement at a time. The medic sat next to Jack during the ceremony and pushed his wheelchair across the stage when his name was called.
Jack was the last student introduced. He received a two-minute standing ovation before Principal Ralph Bray introduced him. He received another ovation after his black-leather-encased diploma was placed on his lap.
"I'm in awe, complete awe," Jack said afterward. "This was totally unexpected. . . . I'm very proud of myself for making it here, but my classmates helped me out a lot today."
The new graduate aspires to walk and run again. Unable to move his legs, Jack is paralyzed from his chest to feet. Last week in his private hospital room at Scott & White Hospital in Temple for four days eased it.
But what post-graduation path will he follow?
The answer might be found in an MRI test, but Jack is reluctant to have it, fearing the worst, his parents said. He doesn't want to hear that there is no chance of full recovery.
"We don't want to take any of his hope away," Paul Noyes said.
Paul and his wife, Yi Cha, whom Paul met while on military assignment in South Korea in 1982, are near their younger son's bedside 14 hours a day. Paul, Yi Cha and Jack's friends take turns sleeping on a cot in the room nightly.
By 8:30 every morning, Jack, dressed in black athletic shorts, a white stomach brace that resembles a girdle and black jogging shoes, is prepared for the nurses. Rehab is a daily ritual.
For a moment, safe at third
May 3 was going to be a memorable day for the seniors of Harker Heights, a small town just east of Killeen. The Knights were playing Montgomery High, from East Texas, in a Class 4A baseball playoff. With a .459 batting average during district play, 5-foot-10, 170-pound Jack was the best hitter on his team.
That night, Jack had a date to the prom with Linda Lopez. His rented black-and-white tux and shiny black shoes were in his bedroom closet. Flowers for Linda had been ordered.
First, the game.
Montgomery had taken a one-run lead in the top of the eighth inning, but Harker Heights was to bat last. Noyes led off the bottom of the inning and was hit by a pitch. Teammate Adam Glazner followed with a walk, putting runners on first and second.
Jack attempted to steal third and appeared safe when the ball arrived. But he slid past the base and got caught in a rundown between third and home, his father recalled.
Jack scrambled back to third with a headfirst dive to the base, a move he had made countless times. But he jolted his neck when his chin hit the ground hard. He lay motionless, his face down in the orange dirt, crying because he knew something was terribly wrong.
Six feet short of third, everything stopped.
"Jack went down like a ton of bricks," his father said.
The fifth vertebra was smashed beyond repair.
Jack was tagged out near third, but the game became a footnote. So did the prom. Before the night was over, 20 teammates in dirty baseball uniforms drove to Scott & White to show their support.
"Jack has always been a scrappy baseball player, someone who wasn't happy until his uniform was dirty," Paul Noyes said. "This is one time I wish he hadn't tried to dive."
Balloons, kisses and tears
Room 495 at Scott & White Hospital has visitors constantly. As many as 80 people a day have visited, many of them baseball players and other classmates. Last Wednesday, Drayton McLane, owner of the Houston Astros and a Temple resident, paid a visit. A baseball signed by the Astros is just one gift the team has given him. Popular Astro Craig Biggio sent Jack a signed commemorative picture of his 2,000th career hit and called him at the hospital.
A letter expressing get-well wishes from Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig is tacked to a wall near the bed. A similar letter by former Texas A&M football coach R.C. Slocum is next to it.
Jack's room is filled with posters, flowers, balloons and get-well cards from Harker Heights and beyond.
Shoemaker High School in Killeen donated $1,241, proceeds from a car wash. Killeen High, Montgomery High, Boston's restaurant and Jason's Deli have planned fund-raisers. Dell Computer Corp. donated a computer with a DVD player so he can watch movies.
Jack breaks the tension in his room by cracking jokes with friends.
"That's my ugliest best friend," Jack said, pointing across the room to Landon Pilkey, a pal since second grade.
"No one in school really likes Jack," Landon retorted.
"The girls (who visit) give me kisses," Jack said. His favorite poster on his wall is a red one signed by the Diamond Darlings, a spirit group at Harker Heights.
Jack said he has been too busy and preoccupied to worry about walking again. He knows the road will be long, and he wants to enjoy the good times.
Sunday was a great day, the best since May 3, he said. He saw many of his friends for the first time in weeks. Many posed for pictures with him after the ceremony.
"My baby has graduated," Yi Cha Noyes said, wiping tears with a tissue. "The nurses were saying this morning that he has such a great attitude. He's a wonderful young man."
rcantu@statesman.com; 445-3953
E-MAIL THIS PAGE PRINT THIS PAGE MOST
http://www.statesman.com/asection/content/auto/epaper/editions/today/news_e3ad8faac275b1b600d1.html