The Clackamas print., October 24, 2018, Page 8, Image 8

SPORTS
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doesn’t k iillo n makes you stronger
BASEBALL COACH SURVIVES HEART SCARE AND RETURNS FEELING BEnER THAN EVER
STORY AND PHOTO BY JACOB THOMPSON
SPORTS EDITOFL (a)SPORTSEDTHOMPS
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Sometimes in life things just happen. Without warning
signs or reason, it just happens. That is how it was for
Clackamas Community College's baseball Head Coach
Jim Hoppel.-.^
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' ,
I . ,On June 5, Hoppel woke up with tenderness in his left
arm and two hours later was suffering from heartburn.
Four hours later he was at a hospital finding out he had
a heart'attack.
- At first Hoppel didn't believe anything was wrong and
chalked up the .sore arm to throwing during practice
and the chest pain to heartburn, but his nurse daughter
thought differently; she thought it was weird her father
was taking Turns, which he never does.
C She inquired about what else her father was feeling.
When Hoppel told his daughter he felt a tingling in his
left arm,, she informed-her dad that he was having a
heart attack.',
“ I said, ‘No, I’m not,” Hoppel said. “ I fejfio o percent
fine. I didn’t feelmy heart beat racing. I wasft’ tsweating,
nothing like a regular heart attack. ”
/Hoppel continued to get ready for a Portland Pickles
game he was;going to coach that night :As Hoppel was
driving to the game he was talking to his wife and she
asked him to go,to the hospital, but Hoppel still felt like
there was no reason over such little pain. Eventually
RoppePs wife convinced him to go To convenient care
just to get some tests done.
“They did some tests and my heart rate was pretty fast
and my blood pressure was pretty high,” Hoppel said.'
“ So they wanted to send me to Providence. ”
After running some tests at the hospital, the doctors
had a diagnosis, Hoppel’ s.coronary artery, nicknamed
“ the widow maker,” was 99 percent clogged.
“The weird thing is every year I have to take a physical
for my insurance and I’ve never had high cholesterol,
never had high blood pressure, never had any issues
that led up to this thing,” Hoppel said.
On June 6 around noon, Hoppel had surgery to clear
the clogged artery, arid by June 8 he was back coaching
baseball. Hoppel was glad to get back with the Pickles
and restore some normalcy to his summer.
“ I was trying to keep it down and not let .everyone
know what was going on, ” Hoppel said. »
But when he returned word had gotten out and his
players were glad to have their coach back.
“After everything we kinda just sat there and joked
¿round,” former Clackamas Catcher, Cody Gleason'said.
“ It was good to see him oh the field. ”
Now, Hoppel is feeling even better than before the
heart attack and says he feels way less lethargic than he
had been before. For the players like sophomore Tyler
Jewett, it’ s.great to have their coach back.
“ [Hoppel] will be here for a long time,” Jewett said.
“ I think everybody likes him, he’s a good coach, and
he knows.what he’s talking about. He means a lot to
the team .”
The coach is watching what he eats, losing some
weight and mostly excited for the upcoming season
with his Cdugars.
Hoppel
The Thizzle Bean Crisis
By Eric Carlson_____
It was just a huge win and definitely
a league upset, which put us in a
three-way tie for third and only the
top four teams go to piayoffs, so it was
definteiyahugewinforus.”
-Olivia Tyson on Clackamas’ win over Lane on Oct. 19
“I know that I was really serious
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t
Photo bv Jacob Thorr
throughout the season, and a ll that
m elted when
we had the fin a l out. This
was a great team to play with.”
-John Ginsburg on the Triple C’s championship
Clackamas Print
theclackam asprint.com
October 24, 2018