Back in the swing of things
Greg Jorgenson, a graduate student in English and co-captain of the Utah State University men’s volleyball club, isn’t about to let anything slow him down.
After all, he didn’t allow a life-threatening automobile accident, in which he was in a coma for nearly four weeks, to stop him from walking again – let alone prevent him from taking his spot as the setter on the USU A team.
“Right from the start my dad said to me, ‘You can either aim for 100 percent – you can aim to get back to 100 percent or you can shoot to get better, to be 110 percent,'” Jorgenson said. “So, consequently that’s what I tried to do.”
Given the extent of Jorgenson’s injuries following an automobile accident April 11, 2001 about 30 miles west of Laramie, Wyo., the doctors involved weren’t even sure he would come out of his coma, Jorgenson said.
Jorgenson, along with USU volleyball club members Brian Carter, Jake Diem, Justin Keith, Adam Longmore and Mike Tye were on their way to St. Louis, Mo. to compete in the Intramural-Recreational Sports Association National Championships when the wreck occurred.
The accident took place when the 15-person university-owned van they were driving blew a tire while passing a semi truck. Jorgenson was thrown from the van as the vehicle began to roll.
“The original prognosis was that certainly I’d be comatose,” he said. “They [the doctors] didn’t know whether I would ever come out of my coma. They certainly didn’t think, at all, I would walk or resume my normal life again.”
In fact, Jorgenson said the doctors were a couple of days removed from pulling the plug on his respirator, thus ensuring him of being a vegetable the rest of his life.
“A couple of days before that [the plug was to be pulled], something happened and I woke up in the sense I started to talk and started to interact with people,” he said.
Once Jorgenson started the rehabilitation process, he was able to progress quickly – so quickly he said the therapists at HealthSouth told him they had never seen someone with a severe brain injury like his make the progression he made.
When asked if he envisioned himself playing volleyball again after the accident, Jorgenson said there was little doubt after he began undergoing physical therapy.
“As soon as I was really into my physical therapy they kind of tailored my physical therapy toward getting me back to a good volleyball shape,” he said. “Right from the start they knew that volleyball was extremely important to me [and] I knew that it was.”
Not only did Jorgenson have to learn how to walk again, he had to learn how to regain use of his mental faculties. He compared the ongoing process to climbing a ladder when he said the steps he took in the relearning process represented a daily struggle to “climb one rung of the ladder.”
An English 1010 teacher as well as a graduate student, Jorgenson said the accident has given him a new lease on life, but has presented many challenges since he started attending school again last fall.
“It’s been difficult,” he said. “The first semester [fall semester] and parts of this semester have been the most frustrating times of my life intellectually, physically [and] spiritually in a myriad of ways.”
As far as playing volleyball, Jorgenson said he started playing on a competitive basis when he was cut from his high school baseball team. After getting cut from the tea, he joined the volleyball club.
“It was kind of a default thing, but I’m grateful I made the decision to play volleyball,” he said.
His decision to join the club team at USU proved to be instrumental to the team’s recent success, fellow co-captain Adam Longmore said. Before Jorgenson joined the team, Longmore said the club was experiencing leadership problems.
“Midway through the season he just decided he was going to step up and take over the leadership responsibilities, which nobody had really done,” Longmore said. “I don’t know how they finished that year, but I know him doing that that season really helped us out for the following season.”
A setter on the team, Jorgenson said he enjoys his position because it gives him the chance to lead the team much in the same way a quarterback guides a football team.
“I like people to count on me,” he said. “I like to come through for people, and being a setter gives me the opportunity to do that.”
It is this competitive fire and workman-like attitude that embodies Jorgenson, Longmore said.
“He is competitive and very motivated, and you can see that both on the court and with what he does with his life,” he said. “From his remarkable recovery from his accident, from going back to grad school [and] deciding to even play [volleyball] again while making the improvements he has: That takes a lot of dedication.”