The USA BaseBlog is a new web site feature found only on the baseball page at www.usajaguars.com. David Kaye, USA baseball's athletic media relations contact, provides an all-access look into Jag baseball. The USA BaseBlog will also be utilized to provide information on items that may not necessitate a full release.
Dec. 4, 2008 - MEET COREY POWELL
Thank you for taking the time to browse the baseball page. If you have a question or comment, please feel free to e-mail me. The first five editions of "Profiling the Jags' 2010 Signees ..." are now available on the web site. Taylor White's will be released Friday, and he'll be followed by Caleb Strickland Monday. Additionally, the countdown of the top-10 games on the 2009 schedule will begin Wednesday. If you've received a ballot and are still holding on to it, please send it in before then.
With those announcements out of the way, it's time to meet Corey Powell. As many of you know, one thing baseball clubhouses never lack are stories. In my short time working at South Alabama, I've heard quite a few, but none were quite like what I heard when I walked into the assistant coaches' office earlier this week.
Corey Powell, the Jags' second-year student manager, was telling the coaches about his near-death experience over the Thanksgiving break. There are a number of scenarios that naturally play out in one's mind when near-death experiences are mentioned, but this particular one was surprisingly original.
Corey and two of his friends had lunch with their families on Thanksgiving day, then left for a four-day, three-night backpacking trip at Clingmans Dome. It's located along the North Carolina-Tennessee border, and its web site hails Clingmans Dome as Great Smokey Mountains National Park's highest point.
The three parked their car at a predetermined location on the mountain and then paid a guide service to drive them a few hours back down to the bottom to begin their hike. The hike back to the car is 31 miles through the trails they took. Corey said he's made similar trips a few different times since he first did so at age 14.
Everything went as planned until the bottom fell out of the sky on Saturday. Corey was wearing waterproof clothes, but he said his top wasn't quite up to the task, and he quickly became soaked. That's when his body temperature started to drop.
"The first things I noticed were my arms and my chest going numb," Powell said. "My heart rate started to slow down. My whole body was purple and blue, and I could feel my heart starting to hurt really badly. I came to find out that I had cold blood pumping through my heart, and that's the reason it was hurting so much."
His heart hurt through the night as he reached the second stage of hypothermia. The third stage ends in death. Hoping to be evacuated by helicopter or snowmobile, he tried to call 911 on seven different occasions, but his cell phone could not get a signal on the snowy mountain.
"I started to panic when I felt my heart start to slow down." Powell said. "I didn't think I was going to make it back to my car and make it home. I really thought I was going to die."
The wind chill at the top of Clingmans Dome was two degrees below zero. Winds reached 35-40 miles per hour. Unable to get medical aid, Corey's prospects looked bleak, but the group found a random shelter on the top of Clingmans Dome.
"We went inside to get out of the wind. I had a 10-degree rated sleeping bag, so I got inside of that and put on my hand and foot warmers," Powell said. "My body temperature finally started to rise over the next few hours."
Despite coming closer to death than most of us ever have, Corey laughs when telling his story. A true outdoorsman, he compares the dangers to a hunting or fishing trip. He brushes off the suggestion that an experience like this could make him spend more time on flat ground.
"People enjoy different things," Powell said. "I'd be better prepared, but I'd definitely do it again."
Considering that it's highly unlikely you suffered through the second stage of hypothermia, maybe your Thanksgiving with the in-laws wasn't so bad after all.
Click below to view previous entries in the USA BaseBlog ...
"Seven for 2010, Plus 10 for 2009" - Nov. 25, 2008
"Recruiting for 2010" - Nov. 21, 2008
"Signing On" - Nov. 14, 2008
