Indiana Lacrosse Player Used His EMT Training To Help Save The Life Of A Clemson Lacrosse Player Who Collapsed On The Field During A Game
It's always hard to remind yourself sometimes that sports are just a game. You get so caught up in your favorite teams and favorite athletes that you forget at the end of the day, it's just a game and none of it actually matters. I mean sure, winning a game is awesome. It's a great feeling. But that's all relative. And unfortunately sometimes it takes a horrible situation to put that into perspective.
Over the weekend we had one of those situations in a game between the Clemson and Indiana lacrosse teams. You don't hear a ton of news out of college club lacrosse, but this will end up being the best story of the year. Both teams were playing at Liberty when a Clemson player suddenly collapsed on the field.
I've played lacrosse my whole life. I've still been coaching high school lacrosse since I stopped playing. And fortunately through all those years, I've never had to experience anything like this. I honestly can't say one way or another how I'd respond. But fortunately for everybody involved on Saturday, Indiana player Harris Jaffe responded like a hero.
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One moment you are opponents on the field, the next moment you're stepping up and potentially saving another player's life by staying calm in the situation and putting your training to use.
What's crazy is that he almost didn't even make the trip with the team to Liberty because he was late for the team bus.
Again, it's just one of those moments that really puts everything into perspective. Like I'm sure at the time that the coach was furious with his player for being late to the bus. "Contemplated leaving him" makes me think it probably wasn't the first time he was late and most likely won't be the last time either. But at the end of the day, a kid was late to a bus to go play a couple lacrosse games that don't necessarily mean anything in the grand scheme of life. You can't really stop yourself from getting frustrated in that moment. It's human nature to feel like everything you're doing in that exact moment is the most important thing in the world. But when you take a step back and realize you'd much rather be late to a lacrosse game than lose a kid on the field, well there's that perspective.
So unbelievable work from Harris Jaffe and here's to hoping John Holcomb from Clemson makes a full and healthy recovery. And even if it's just a game, it's still awesome to get on the scoresheet. So congrats on the goal earlier in the game.