Document text
75 °F Forecast | Road Cams Saturday, August 28, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Prime Times Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Rogue Valley's Finest EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend July 10, 2004 A survivor, ex-Raider player can use a hand By TIM TROWER Mail Tribune The irony struck me. Jeff Olson, the Southern Oregon University football coach, spoke of a Raider teammate 20-some years ago. "He probably did the best impersonation of our coach, Chuck Mills," says Olson. "It was just phenomenal. We’d be on the bus, no one could see him, and you would have sworn it was coach Mills. "He was wild and crazy and so good-hearted." Advertisement My next task was to interview said teammate, Jeff Young. I did so by e-mail, a first for me. It was the best option. Off went a half-dozen questions. Back came a reply. Young hoped to have answers to me in a couple of days. I could wait. Yes, it was inconvenient. Still, I could wait. The man with the flexible vocal cords and the mischievousness to put them to good use now often communicates via e-mail. His messages are crafted through voice-recognition software on his computer. The disease first and long ago hit his hands, so typing’s out. It now strangles the speech that was once so infectious, that once coaxed smiles at Disneyland pace. Voice recognition is great so long as the voice is recognizable. The irony of it. Mornings are often good for Young, but fatigue mounts as the day grows long. Susan Boldt of Medford receives his e-mails, and sometimes there are pages and pages, other times a couple of sentences. "You can tell that some days are better than others," she says. That Young, 42, has these days at all is a marvel. After three years as then-Southern Oregon State College’s starting fullback, he was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease. The formal name is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. It occurs when nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord degenerate, impairing voluntary movement. It progressively weakens muscles and motor coordination until only the eyes and breathing muscles work. Death occurs when the breathing muscles finally give out. There is no cure, and death usually comes three to five years after diagnosis. Young was diagnosed in 1983. It’s no wonder the former high school star from Lake Oswego, where he and his teenage daughter now live with his parents, has inspired so many over so many years. He has virtually no use of his hands and arms, is confined to a wheelchair and, in many ways, is completely helpless. Yet he views every day as a bonus, a second helping. Has for nearly two decades. Olson remembers Young as a rock-solid, 220-pound blocking fullback. On the field, he was tougher than an anvil. Off it, he was an oasis of charm and personality. Strong, powerful, outgoing, active, that’s how Olson remembers him. "Then this hits him," says the coach, who, like many others, receives daily inspirational quotes from Young and gets a lift out of the recurring theme. Olson explains: "Regardless of your circumstances, you have a lot to live for, so go live it." Olson has a file full of the quotations. He digs some out to use in his personal life, others to use when addressing his team. Imagine, a man in a wheelchair giving others a boost. Imagine, the irony. If you’re wondering what this has to do with golf, there is a tournament at Stone Ridge Golf Course today to raise funds for Young and the SOU football scholarship fund. It was organized by Mobility Unlimited, a Medford organization that helps physically disabled adults come up with money for things they need when other resources have been exhausted.. Boldt is executive director. More telling, she also went to Lake Oswego High, two years behind Young. "I would have (ital)loved(unital) to have been in his crowd," she says, successful at suppressing the schoolgirl giggle that should have followed. Now she is. Granted, Young is tethered to golf by the thinnest of strands, but that matters little, so transcendent is his story. It will be touched on here, but there’s a Web site, friendsofjeff.com, that provides a thorough look at where he’s been and where he’s headed. It was put together by a group of his friends and chronicles his life, including his college days, his yearning to be a guitarist, his battles through the various stages of ALS and, in the face of the disease, raising his daughter, Priyah, writing two books and, he says by e-mail, trying to "take a healing philosophy of hope to a hurting world." Oh, and there’s space devoted to his KISS phase, which, truth be told, is ongoing. Especially since Gene Simmons put on a benefit concert for Young last summer in Portland. On stage, his arm around Young, Simmons told the audience: "This is Jeff. He’s my friend, and he should be yours. If he’s not, I will come find you." Young’s ties to Southern Oregon are the result of his desire to play football, in turn spurning college baseball offers. He and Olson played together in 1980 and ’81. In his e-mail, Young regards his last-minute decision to attend SOU for football as one of the best moves he’s ever made. Memorable, he writes, was the terror he felt at the prospect of not being able to cut it and the camaraderie he eventually enjoyed with teammates. "That feeling of going to battle every Saturday," he writes, "watching your buddies’ backs while they watch yours. I miss the family." Mills, he adds, is as unforgettable to him as he imagines Vince Lombardi is to his former players. And as for on-the-field highlights, there was a "waxing"of Linfield in McMinnville that stands out. "After humiliating the national power on their own turf," he writes, "I knew the program had turned the corner and we had the makings of something special." That was his sophomore season. Young played one more year, then transferred to the University of Oregon. It was in October 1983 that he began losing strength in his hands. Those were the first signs. After a series of doctor visits, he got word he likely had ALS and was told what to expect. He addresses it on his Web site: "In effect, I could expect to spend the next three years dying a slow, horrifying death with no chance of help intervening." Young would have none of it. "I don’t think he gives death’s door any recognition at all," says Olson, who has kept in touch with Young through the years. "He just keeps going." The uncommonly slow progression of the disease in him allows Young to continue work on the two books. One is on his philosophy of success and positive life principles, using his own life experience to illustrate. The other contains favorite quotations and his interpretations of them. He’s a third of the way through the first and a little more than halfway through the second. It is not a speedy process. Asked what a "normal" day is for him, he edited my query in his response. "The best way I can describe a ‘typical’ day for me is to imagine trying to thread a needle in the middle of a stormy boat ride," he writes. "Everything takes four times as long and your patience is tried from the moment you open your eyes until your head hits the pillow. "The good news is that on every single one of these days, I get to choose the quality of my life. It’s not always easy, but I choose fantastic." His life will be made easier through Mobility Unlimited and the golf tournament and those who visit his Web site and are moved to act. Donations through the organization can be directed specifically to Young, and they are fully tax deductible, says Boldt. Mobility Unlimited has funded eight recipients in 2004 and has five pending. It has helped Young obtain a knee switch to make it easier to manipulate the keys on his computer, an automatic page turner that allows him to read again and repaired the van he uses. Next on the list is a voice enhancer, which will allow him to talk with people and expedite his writings. Like the ones he uses daily to inspire those more fortunate. Oh, the irony. Have a local golf story idea? Reach sports editor Tim Trower at 776-4479, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities