Proud of BG/ A School with "Class"
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Class of 61
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Proud of BG/ A School with "Class"
Noticed on BG Falcons website the article about team leaving for Alabama etc. Biggest news to me was that Steve Navarro also went along with the team (just cleared to fly last week). It's stuff like this that makes me proud to be a Falcon. Allowing Steve to share in this experience with his teammates is truly a class act on the part of the team, the athletic dept. and the university.
Education our Challenge, Excellence our goal. (look it up)
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transfer2BGSU
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From the Toledo Blade [December 20]
Article published Monday, December 20, 2004
Navarro mobile in Mobile, but no bowl
Falcon player suffered a season-ending stroke in June, will watch GMAC
By JOHN WAGNER
BLADE SPORTS WRITER
MOBILE, Ala. - Everyone who traveled with the Bowling Green State University football team to take part in the GMAC Bowl was excited about the trip. And everyone on the trip put in the hard work necessary to make sure the Falcons earned it.
But no one appeared more excited - and no one worked harder - than Steve Navarro.
Sadly, Navarro's work this fall never showed up in the BG box scores. It didn't take place on the practice fields around Perry Stadium, or in the offices of the football program.
Navarro's hard work was done to rehabilitate a 20-year-old body that had suffered a stroke.
"I feel great, and I'm ready to come back to Bowling Green," said Navarro, who stayed home in Illinois during the fall semester. "I'm working out - I lift weights, and I run. I'm 100 percent physically and 90 percent with my speech."
That was far from true on the morning of June 7, just nine days after Navarro's birthday. When he woke up for a 9 a.m. class, he couldn't move the right side of his body.
Using only his left side, Navarro crawled to the couch of his off-campus apartment and tried to call his sister Kathy.
"She had just come home after giving birth to a baby two days before," Navarro said. "But all I could say was, 'Hey, hey,' and she hung up on me."
Thinking the numbness would go away with rest, Navarro went back to sleep. Four hours later the numbness hadn't left, so he got dressed, then crawled back to the couch.
And there he waited for help.
"He tried to call his sister again, but this time she called me and I called my husband," said Navarro's mother, Gail. "My husband tried to call Steve, but that didn't work so he called the 911 and then called the apartment complex to let the EMS workers in."
When help finally arrived at 4 p.m., Navarro was taken to Wood County Hospital, then life-flighted to St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center. After a week at St. Vincent's, Navarro spent more than two weeks at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, which is near his hometown of Orland Park, Ill.
Navarro recovered the use of his right side in a day, but recovering his speech took much longer.
"Five months ago I was working on saying things like the days or the week and the months," Steve Navarro said. "I didn't want to go through it, but dad made me."
Mike Navarro, Steve's father, is a teacher and a coach in suburban Chicago. So father and son spent the summer working together, often taking long walks in which father made son talk in order to improve his speech.
"It was frustrating, but now I'd say I can't thank him enough for making me do that," Steve Navarro said.
Mother and son said another key to Steve's rehabilitation was the support of his Falcon teammates.
"We had an off-week between the end of summer conditioning and the start of camp, and Steve's dad told me there were a couple of kids every day driving up to see him," said Troy Rothenbuhler, Navarro's position coach at BG. "Guys were driving four hours to see him. They e-mailed back and forth, just staying in contact."
Then came the season. Instead of starting at tight end, a position Navarro had earned in the spring after two seasons of spot duty on offense and special teams, the 6-2, 249-pounder was forced to sit in the stands.
He went to every Bowling Green home game, but none was more emotional than the home opener against Southeast Missouri State.
"When I first got there that day, I went to the pregame meal," Navarro said. "It seemed as if everyone came up to talk to me. I couldn't talk."
Rothenbuhler made sure Navarro's jersey was ready for him to wear, and coach Gregg Brandon made Navarro an honorary captain for the game.
"That was awesome, because I always wanted to be a captain," Navarro said.
But Navarro learned that watching the games was much different than playing in them.
"Those are two completely different things," Navarro said. "When you get to play, you really get psyched up. When you watch, well, it's different."
To prepare for his return to Bowling Green Navarro was enrolled at Moraine Valley Community College, a junior college 10 minutes from his home. He took a speech course while working at a store owned by his uncle.
His return to BG on Friday to fly with the team to the GMAC Bowl was bittersweet. Navarro won't be able to play football again; instead he will serve as a student coach for the Falcons starting in January.
"The doctors told me all along [I wouldn't play again], but I didn't want to believe it," Navarro said. "But one time I was working at the store and I dropped a box on my head. I really felt dizzy, and after I finally felt OK I realized it would be hard to play football again."
That still hasn't kept Navarro's family or teammates from being affected by the junior's spirit.
"Steve's stroke has made everyone appreciate everything they have," Rothenbuhler said. "This could be over for any one of us."
But Steve Navarro's mother said the one person least affected by the stroke was the one person everyone would expect to be most affected.
"While our whole outlook has changed, he was always very positive," Gail Navarro said of her son. "Can you imagine being a 20-year-old and having to come to grips with having a stroke? But he has done it."
Contact John Wagner at: [email protected] or 419-724-6481.
Navarro mobile in Mobile, but no bowl
Falcon player suffered a season-ending stroke in June, will watch GMAC
By JOHN WAGNER
BLADE SPORTS WRITER
MOBILE, Ala. - Everyone who traveled with the Bowling Green State University football team to take part in the GMAC Bowl was excited about the trip. And everyone on the trip put in the hard work necessary to make sure the Falcons earned it.
But no one appeared more excited - and no one worked harder - than Steve Navarro.
Sadly, Navarro's work this fall never showed up in the BG box scores. It didn't take place on the practice fields around Perry Stadium, or in the offices of the football program.
Navarro's hard work was done to rehabilitate a 20-year-old body that had suffered a stroke.
"I feel great, and I'm ready to come back to Bowling Green," said Navarro, who stayed home in Illinois during the fall semester. "I'm working out - I lift weights, and I run. I'm 100 percent physically and 90 percent with my speech."
That was far from true on the morning of June 7, just nine days after Navarro's birthday. When he woke up for a 9 a.m. class, he couldn't move the right side of his body.
Using only his left side, Navarro crawled to the couch of his off-campus apartment and tried to call his sister Kathy.
"She had just come home after giving birth to a baby two days before," Navarro said. "But all I could say was, 'Hey, hey,' and she hung up on me."
Thinking the numbness would go away with rest, Navarro went back to sleep. Four hours later the numbness hadn't left, so he got dressed, then crawled back to the couch.
And there he waited for help.
"He tried to call his sister again, but this time she called me and I called my husband," said Navarro's mother, Gail. "My husband tried to call Steve, but that didn't work so he called the 911 and then called the apartment complex to let the EMS workers in."
When help finally arrived at 4 p.m., Navarro was taken to Wood County Hospital, then life-flighted to St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center. After a week at St. Vincent's, Navarro spent more than two weeks at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, which is near his hometown of Orland Park, Ill.
Navarro recovered the use of his right side in a day, but recovering his speech took much longer.
"Five months ago I was working on saying things like the days or the week and the months," Steve Navarro said. "I didn't want to go through it, but dad made me."
Mike Navarro, Steve's father, is a teacher and a coach in suburban Chicago. So father and son spent the summer working together, often taking long walks in which father made son talk in order to improve his speech.
"It was frustrating, but now I'd say I can't thank him enough for making me do that," Steve Navarro said.
Mother and son said another key to Steve's rehabilitation was the support of his Falcon teammates.
"We had an off-week between the end of summer conditioning and the start of camp, and Steve's dad told me there were a couple of kids every day driving up to see him," said Troy Rothenbuhler, Navarro's position coach at BG. "Guys were driving four hours to see him. They e-mailed back and forth, just staying in contact."
Then came the season. Instead of starting at tight end, a position Navarro had earned in the spring after two seasons of spot duty on offense and special teams, the 6-2, 249-pounder was forced to sit in the stands.
He went to every Bowling Green home game, but none was more emotional than the home opener against Southeast Missouri State.
"When I first got there that day, I went to the pregame meal," Navarro said. "It seemed as if everyone came up to talk to me. I couldn't talk."
Rothenbuhler made sure Navarro's jersey was ready for him to wear, and coach Gregg Brandon made Navarro an honorary captain for the game.
"That was awesome, because I always wanted to be a captain," Navarro said.
But Navarro learned that watching the games was much different than playing in them.
"Those are two completely different things," Navarro said. "When you get to play, you really get psyched up. When you watch, well, it's different."
To prepare for his return to Bowling Green Navarro was enrolled at Moraine Valley Community College, a junior college 10 minutes from his home. He took a speech course while working at a store owned by his uncle.
His return to BG on Friday to fly with the team to the GMAC Bowl was bittersweet. Navarro won't be able to play football again; instead he will serve as a student coach for the Falcons starting in January.
"The doctors told me all along [I wouldn't play again], but I didn't want to believe it," Navarro said. "But one time I was working at the store and I dropped a box on my head. I really felt dizzy, and after I finally felt OK I realized it would be hard to play football again."
That still hasn't kept Navarro's family or teammates from being affected by the junior's spirit.
"Steve's stroke has made everyone appreciate everything they have," Rothenbuhler said. "This could be over for any one of us."
But Steve Navarro's mother said the one person least affected by the stroke was the one person everyone would expect to be most affected.
"While our whole outlook has changed, he was always very positive," Gail Navarro said of her son. "Can you imagine being a 20-year-old and having to come to grips with having a stroke? But he has done it."
Contact John Wagner at: [email protected] or 419-724-6481.
"The name on the front of the jersey is more important than the name on the back" -Herb Brooks
