Prayers for Minerva

M

Mr. Slippery

Well-known member
Thoughts and prayers to the young man's family and friends, The Minerva cross country program, and the Minerva community as a whole. 🙏

I heard about this yesterday evening but did not want to start a thread until I had seen a press release of some sort.

www.jordanmiller.news

Minerva cross-country runner dies from injuries following district race - Jordan Miller News - News That Matters To You in Ohio

The Minerva Local school community is mourning the loss of a member of the cross-country team following injuries he sustained after Saturday's cross-country district race. Minerva Local Superintendent Gary Chaddock said Owen Grubb, a Minerva junior, died after the race. The cause of the fatal...
www.jordanmiller.news www.jordanmiller.news

From what others with connections to that program have told me, the injuries occurred when a tree fell on Grubb. He was life-flighted but did not survive the injuries.
 
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Oh, my heart goes out to the family, friends, and community of Minerva. No words can adequately be expressed for such a tragedy.
 
Mr. Slippery said:
Thoughts and prayers to the young man's family and friends, The Minerva cross country program, and the Minerva community as a whole. 🙏

I heard about this yesterday evening but did not want to start a thread until I had seen a press release of some sort.

www.jordanmiller.news

Minerva cross-country runner dies from injuries following district race - Jordan Miller News - News That Matters To You in Ohio

The Minerva Local school community is mourning the loss of a member of the cross-country team following injuries he sustained after Saturday's cross-country district race. Minerva Local Superintendent Gary Chaddock said Owen Grubb, a Minerva junior, died after the race. The cause of the fatal...
www.jordanmiller.news www.jordanmiller.news

From what others with connections to that program have told me, the injuries occurred when a tree fell on Grubb during his cooldown. He was life-flighted from the venue (Cambridge) but did not survive the injuries.
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Wow. What a tragedy. There must be more to the story as to how a tree falls and kills a runner. Bad weather? Lightning strike? In any case a young man has been taken in a tragic manner. It’s important to understand how this happened.
 
nkawtg135 said:
Wow. What a tragedy. There must be more to the story as to how a tree falls and kills a runner. Bad weather? Lightning strike? In any case a young man has been taken in a tragic manner. It’s important to understand how this happened.
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Other rumors have begun to swirl which could explain why cause of injuries was not mentioned in the article. A fallen tree remains a constant amongst the rumors.
 
nkawtg135 said:
Wow. What a tragedy. There must be more to the story as to how a tree falls and kills a runner. Bad weather? Lightning strike? In any case a young man has been taken in a tragic manner. It’s important to understand how this happened.
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I am guessing they were doing what all teenage boys do and were playing around/climbing in the woods and tragic accident happened. The odds of a limb big enough to kill randomly falling and happening to hit the kid seems very unlikely. Having two boys that ran CC in HS it hits home how quickly your life can be changed.
 
CC Track Fan said:
I am guessing they were doing what all teenage boys do and were playing around/climbing in the woods and tragic accident happened. The odds of a limb big enough to kill randomly falling and happening to hit the kid seems very unlikely. Having two boys that ran CC in HS it hits home how quickly your life can be changed.
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Unfortunately, yes. After the race, kids went for a cool down walk. Kids were trying to find a log to throw in a creek but couldn't find one so they tried to knock over a dead tree..it fell on him. Feel for all involved.
 
It was a tragic accident and an exciting weekend turned into a very gloomy time here in Minerva for boys and girls teams and they entire community and most importantly. the family. We have a very strong community but the fact is a great young man was taken from his family way too early. That outpouring from other schools has been incredible. there is nothing good that can come out of this but it does prove that high school sports is a very special thing.
 
I thought about this since I heard of the tragedy and when speaking with coach Howard this evening and he had the exact same idea, I thought I would share.

How can we get the OHSAA to automatically qualify both boys and girls teams from Minerva and not make them run this week? Allow them the time to deal with the situation and just run 21 teams at the state meet? I've already sent an email to people at the OHSAA, but I'm sure that's not enough. Maybe if more coaches or the OATCCC puts something in front of the OHSAA, it might happen. Something we could all feel good about and the right thing to do, in my opinion.
 
psycho_dad said:
I thought about this since I heard of the tragedy and when speaking with coach Howard this evening and he had the exact same idea, I thought I would share.

How can we get the OHSAA to automatically qualify both boys and girls teams from Minerva and not make them run this week? Allow them the time to deal with the situation and just run 21 teams at the state meet? I've already sent an email to people at the OHSAA, but I'm sure that's not enough. Maybe if more coaches or the OATCCC puts something in front of the OHSAA, it might happen. Something we could all feel good about and the right thing to do, in my opinion.
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This would be 100% the right thing to do. How do we make it happen? Petition? Email? Who would we contact at OHSAA?
 
Not that the polls matter, BUT, the girls are ranked 3rd in the State and the boys are 10th. Looks like they are in line to make it to Columbus. So yes, allowing them to sit out this week, if that is what they want to do, and allow them to run at State next week, may be the right thing to do.
 
Several years ago, I had a couple athletes come home on a Wednesday evening from Confirmation "training" to find their dad dead on their back porch. One of the first things they and their mother did was to communicate to me that, even though they might miss some school on Thursday and Friday, they really wanted to race on Saturday.

Everyone grieves differently. The time spent with teammates and in the setting of a meet might be exactly what many of these kids need as they cope with this loss. Establishing an expectation that they will be better off not racing can create a sense of guilt in kids who want to race and continue training with their team.

This isn't something for other people to do for them.
 
yj_runfan said:
I’m not convinced this move would be the best for the kids.
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I concur. Although everyone can understand the sentiment, I'm thinking back to how I would've felt as an athlete 40 years ago. My high school suffered 2 direct losses at the WHO concert tragedy of December 1979 (2 sophomore girls) and a 1979 grad also died. We were at school the next day, and all subsequent days. Life went on, but definitely different and more somber for awhile. I would suspect the same at unfortunate Minerva, and that is perfectly normal. All our hearts go out to them, especially the family of the young man. However, as an athlete, I would still want myself and my teammates to go out and prove ourselves in the subsequent competion, come what may. Maybe that seems heartless to some, but I think the young deceased man would want his teammates to go out and do the same. Do it for him and themselves.

Just my 2 cents, but I won't judge those that think differently, or if OHSAA decides to allow Minerva to take a bye this week. I'm still in shock at the senselessness of this tragic loss.
 
I agree, I think this whole thing is very sad and devastating, but to have both teams not compete at Regionals but at the State Meet I do not agree with. I cannot imagine what the family, team, and community are feeling and dealing with right now, but I do not think having their teams not compete at Regionals but then compete at the State Meet is a good idea. I agree that everyone copes differently and I am certain racing Saturday will be very emotional for those teams (understandably), but just imagine the unity, emotions, and togetherness with those emotions to STILL qualify to the state meet after dealing with this all week, will make those emotions come together, for people to come together with one another and man that will be an amazing moment for those runners, coaches, friends, and family because they did it for him and despite everything they dealt with internally all week. They are ranked very well and both teams are very good but those are just rankings so to assume they would still qualify to state (even if this situation did NOT occur with the loss of one of their runners) is not fair as anything can happen in the postseason and your rankings (coaches poll) is subjective to an extent and just because you are ranked #7 or #19 or whatever it is (whether or not within the top 20 or not) your ranking does not qualify you to the state meet..as you can be #27 and still make it,
 
There is certainly nothing wrong with people offering suggestions that lead with the heart.

However, I don't see any way OHSAA would follow those ideas. There are seemingly several of these tragedies across all seasons and all sports each year. OHSAA would likely be pressured to follow suit in all situations if they do this once. And it gets pretty tricky in team sports tournaments. Who has to play the team passed along? Who gets a bye because of it? And many more.

And if we know anything from trying to get a fair divisional alignment in track and XC, it is that OHSAA does not want to make exceptions for any sport or special situation that they might encounter.

Trying to help those suffering in this situation is admirable, but I can understand why OHSAA would have none of it.
 
Newton's Third said:
There is certainly nothing wrong with people offering suggestions that lead with the heart.

However, I don't see any way OHSAA would follow those ideas. There are seemingly several of these tragedies across all seasons and all sports each year. OHSAA would likely be pressured to follow suit in all situations if they do this once. And it gets pretty tricky in team sports tournaments. Who has to play the team passed along? Who gets a bye because of it? And many more.

And if we know anything from trying to get a fair divisional alignment in track and XC, it is that OHSAA does not want to make exceptions for any sport or special situation that they might encounter.

Trying to help those suffering in this situation is admirable, but I can understand why OHSAA would have none of it.
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It's amazing that people are even discussing this. People are showing a lot of compassion all over the state! However, not running and earning a spot at the state meet was never and option for both the boys and girls teams. They ran today and the boys finished 6th and the girls 2nd and both advanced to the state meet.
 
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