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Article published Sep 4, 2008 Back to normal: WB's Lail dominant as ever after fight for life
By Ryan Callahan of The Daily Times Staff
It almost seems now as if nothing ever happened to Cole Lail.
The senior linebacker at William Blount High School is back on the football field. He's playing every bit as well as he did a year ago. And he's more of a leader than ever, serving as team captain and an on-field coach of sorts for a defense with nine first-year starters.
It's easy to forget that, just six months ago, he lay in a hospital bed fighting for his life.
Lail, the Governors' starting middle linebacker, spent nearly two weeks earlier this year battling bacterial pneumonia, an illness that caused doctors to place him in intensive care on a ventilator and give him less than a 50-percent chance of survival.
As far as anyone can tell, life already is back to normal for Lail, who quickly regained the 20 pounds he lost during his hospitalization and was cleared to return in time for spring practice.
"He's pretty much the same old Cole," said first-year WB coach Richie Wilhite, the Govs' defensive coordinator for the past two seasons.
"The only difference I can see is he may be a little bit more laid-back, which probably wouldn't hurt him much. He still has that fire and that intensity, but he's a little bit more laid-back and carefree."
Lail, a 6-foot, 225-pound tackling machine, previously was being recruited by Tennessee, Stanford and North Carolina, among others, and still plans to play in college. He lists Auburn, Vanderbilt, Stanford, Marshall and Eastern Kentucky as his current favorites.
But he came away from his admittedly life-changing experience with some added perspective on his favorite sport.
"It was just a spiritual renewal," Lail said. "It definitely got me closer to Christ and gave me the look on life that I don't need to take as many things for granted. ...
"It just showed me that football is not the number-one thing in life. It's fun, yeah, and it's a good pastime. But there are definitely more important things in life than football."
There was a time when Lail, a notoriously passionate player, might not have felt that way.
Wilhite recalled watching Lail on the field in past seasons, playing with the energy and aggression that helped make him a Division-I prospect but also might have been occasionally counterproductive.
"It was amazing to see him," Wilhite said. "It was the kind of deal where he was so intense that he would lose control sometimes, and he would get himself out of position and actually not play as well as he could. I think that might have helped him (this year), being a little bit more relaxed."
Coaches and teammates still marvel at how quickly Lail, who scored the first offensive touchdown of his career on a 2-yard run in the Aug. 22 season opener against Sevier County, was able to rebound from a potentially fatal illness.
Lail said he used his first week at home, which coincided with William Blount's spring break, to rest and "collect myself." When he was released from the hospital, doctors told him, "Do what you can do," in regards to participating in strenuous activities.
Two weeks later, Wilhite said, Lail had recovered enough to play in a rugby match.
"It's a good testament to our kids and our program that they can see somebody like that, who's been down that far, to come back and be where he is now," Wilhite said.