National Collegiate Athletic Association |
The NCAA News - Briefly in the NewsNovember 22, 1999
Quick thinking saves official
Because of an athletic trainer's quick thinking, one soccer official is still alive and whistling. Tom Maxwell, the athletic trainer at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Camden, was on hand for the Rutgers-Camden/Montclair State University men's soccer game, just minutes before the contest, when he saw two officials nearly dragging a third one toward the sidelines. Bob DiMeo had felt a bug bite on his throat minutes before, but he wasn't worried about it as he stood in the center of the field conferring with fellow referees George Wescott and Walt Klein. "I commented that I had just been bitten or stung," DiMeo said. "Walt asked if I had a reaction. I've been bitten before on soccer fields and been quite capable of going through games. This time, it got me just below the Adam's apple. Within a couple of minutes, I commented that I was having a reaction." The other officials, immediately recognizing how serious the problem could become, began moving DiMeo to the sidelines. "I saw the other two officials carrying Bob over with his arms around their shoulders," Maxwell said. "He couldn't move his legs. They were almost dragging him. One official said he got stung by a bee. "We sat him down in a chair and that's when his breathing became compromised. We laid him down to get his airway open, and he started turning white. He started convulsing. It was then I noticed he was in shock. I checked his airway. I thought his airway was progressively getting worse." Maxwell already had called 911, and police and an EMT unit were on their way. But DiMeo could not breathe. Maxwell asked the student trainer from Montclair State, Delano Lopez, to get an Epipen injection out of Montclair's medical kit. "With the guy's breathing compromised, I had a decision to make," Maxwell said. "Do I give him the Epipen, or do I wait (for the EMTs)? I decided to give him the Epipen, because once his airway closes up, there's not much you can do." Maxwell gave DiMeo the shot in his thigh. "Once I gave him the Epipen, his eyes popped open and he started breathing a little better," Maxwell said. "We maintained an open airway and checked his blood pressure until the EMTs got there. He was still in and out of it a little bit, but at least he was breathing a little better. That was the main thing." DiMeo was taken to a nearby hospital and released later that day. Maxwell, a certified athletic trainer at Rutgers-Camden since 1993, downplayed his role in the incident, but acknowledged that it wasn't something he dealt with every day. "Mostly, as an athletic trainer, we deal with non-life-threatening injuries," he said. "We are trained to deal with situations like that, but it's not an everyday thing for us, like it is for EMTs. It was a nice feeling that I was able to be there to help him. I'm glad to see he's doing OK."
Stonehill is streak snapperWith a 2-1 victory over Franklin Pierce College earlier this year, the Stonehill College women's soccer team snapped Franklin Pierce's incredible streak of 106 consecutive victories against New England schools. That streak had dated back to November 1991. Stonehill also ended the Ravens' 56-game overall regular-season winning streak, which had dated back to 1996 against Stonehill. Senior forward Lindsay Pepler scored the game-winning goal, becoming the Chieftains' career-points leader with 96. Perhaps Stonehill teams just have a gift for snapping streaks. The Stonehill football team snapped rival Bentley College's 37-game regular-season streak in 1995, while the Stonehill women's basketball team ended the College of Saint Rose's 29-game winning streak. Mariners win one by seaThe U.S. Merchant Marine Academy's men's soccer team recently traveled in style to a contest with conference rival State University of New York Maritime College. Rather than taking the team bus through rush-hour traffic around New York's five boroughs, the Merchant Marine opted to take a 15-minute trip across Long Island Sound on the academy's 65-foot tug boat, the Growler. The student-athletes, who spend an integral part of their education at sea, served as crew members and assisted with the casting-off and docking procedures. The trip clearly didn't give anyone sea legs since the Merchant Marine won, 4-0. Serve's upAngie Nielson, a sophomore at Central College (Iowa), tied a Division III record when her team defeated Upper Iowa University. Nielson served 15 consecutive points in the first game, tying the mark set in 1994. Barring a rules change, the record cannot be broken because it takes only 15 points to win a game. --Compiled by Kay Hawes |
