Randy Russell during his official visit to UF in early December, a month before being told he could no longer play football.
UF Signee Randy Russell Shifts Focus To a Matter of The Heart
Friday, February 9, 2018 | Football, Scott Carter
Days after arriving on campus in January, freshman defensive back Randy Russell was told his football career was over.
A starting defensive back for Carol City High, the defending Class 6A state champions, Russell already knew he was headed to the University of Florida on a football scholarship. One of the earliest players to commit to the Gators in the 2018 recruiting class, Russell never wavered through UF's coaching change. He signed on Dec. 20 and enrolled in January.
At 5-foot-10 and 176 pounds, Russell led by example, earning a reputation among college recruiters as a team player and someone receivers watched out for when in Russell's vicinity. He wasn't big, but he packed a punch that drew the interest of schools such as Florida, Georgia, Miami and UCLA.
Russell's mother, Keisha Carnegie-Russell, was as eager as her son for the next chapter in his life.
"I was just ready to travel to all the games,'' she said. "It was very rare I missed a game."
The playoff game against Miami Northwestern on the night after Thanksgiving didn't go as Russell and his teammates hoped, their bid to repeat as state champions denied as Northwestern quarterback Chatarius Atwell, taking advice from Northwestern alum and Minnesota Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater on the sideline, passed for two scores and ran for another in a 23-15 victory over the Chiefs.
As the 17-year-old Russell walked off the field in the final game of his high school career, he felt nothing out of the ordinary other than the bittersweet emotions of knowing one door had closed and another was about to open.
Russell's thoughts soon turned to joining the Gators and fulfilling a dream that had fueled him since he started to play football at the playgrounds and parks of South Florida when he was 4 years old.
"I felt the family vibe every time I came here,'' Russell said. "It was bigger than football to me."
Unbeknownst to Russell during his senior season, about 250 miles north of Traz Powell Stadium, a Stetson University football player named Nick Blakely collapsed on Aug. 28 during practice and died from sudden cardiac arrest only five days before Stetson's season opener.
Blakely's death made headlines around the country for a few days as the latest healthy athlete to drop dead of an undetected heart condition. Blakely was a 19-year-old sophomore linebacker from Lawrenceville, Ga., whose infectious personality made him a popular player in the Hatters' locker room.
"Nick had an edge to him,'' Stetson coach Roger Hughes said. "Nick was about winning."
When Russell arrived at UF the first week of January, like every Florida student-athlete who joins one of the school's athletic programs, he underwent a pre-participation exam that includes a standard physical exam, an electrocardiogram (EKG) to measure the electrical activity of the heartbeat, and an echocardiogram, a test that uses sound waves and produces images of the heart pumping blood.
While pre-participation exam standards vary around the country based on resources – human and financial – Florida has the assets to conduct testing above the national benchmarks. The school has performed EKGs on incoming student-athletes since the mid 1980s. The issue is one that took a turn in the spotlight a few years ago when the NCAA's chief medical officer recommended member schools administer EKGs to all incoming student-athletes. The recommendation faced resistance due to various factors and did not become standard practice.
"Cardiac testing is a hot topic, sometimes controversial topic across the country,'' said Paul Silvestri, associate director of sports health and head athletic trainer for Florida's football team. "Who does it and who doesn't? I personally feel everybody should do at the minimum EKGs. All you need to do is catch one. If you can save one, to me it's worth it."
Coincidentally, during Russell's official recruiting visit to Florida in early December, he heard of the plight of Gators freshman receiver James Robinson.
A talented receiver from Lakeland High, team doctors shut down Robinson soon after joining the team in the fall when exams revealed he had a heart structure abnormality.
Russell and Robinson played against each other twice in high school, both times Carol City visiting Lakeland and leaving town with victories in 2015 and 2016. In early December, the UF medical staff declared Robinson medically ineligible to play football for the Gators, a crushing blow for one of team's top recruits in the 2017 signing class.
"It's been up and down, of course,'' Robinson said this week of the diagnosis. "They [UF's medical team] have been there for me. I've been doing what I have to do. Students nowadays should get tested in high school."
All of this leads to Russell, who within 72 hours of arriving on campus received his own devastating news. Russell's pre-participation exam revealed a severe heart structure abnormality, one that ended his UF career before he even worked up a sweat.
Russell received the finding just seven weeks after taking off his pads for Carol City the final time and less than 20 days from the day he signed.
"I've never really had anything wrong with me,'' he said. "It's like taking 500 steps forward and then 10,000 steps back. All the hard work I did leading up to that, I feel like it was for nothing. It just hit me out of nowhere."
The discovery also floored Silvestri and Dr. Jay Clugston, a team doctor and assistant professor of community health and family medicine at UF. It's rare for a trainer or team doctor to have to medically disqualify a student-athlete very often, much less twice in a span of a couple of months.
But after consulting with other cardiologists across the country and administering further testing, both Robinson and Russell were told they could not play football at Florida. While it's a difficult conclusion for everyone involved, it's better than the alternative. In perhaps the most high-profile case of a college athlete dying from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a term often used for sudden cardiac death caused by an undetected heart defect, Loyola Marymount University basketball star Hank Gathers died from HCM during a game in March 1990.
"It's not pleasant," Clugston said. "Sometimes when you remove yourself from it, you feel a little better in thinking you actually may be helping to save someone's life."
Michelle Fields-Wilson was on her way to an Atlanta-area radio station when a friend called to tell her about something he had seen on Twitter about Russell. Fields-Wilson immediately took an interest and later read a story about Russell on the internet.
By the end of the next day she had called UF and spoken to Russell on the phone.
"When I heard the story of Randy, I was touched because there was a school doing all the right things,'' Fields-Wilson said. "Early detection saved his life. My heart went out to him, but I also wanted to tell him, 'you know what, it could be worse. You have an opportunity to still be somebody.' I knew that he could be feeling low."
Nicholas Adam Blakely, born Nov. 4, 1997, was Fields-Wilson's son. Instead of celebrating his 20th birthday last fall, Fields-Wilson and a large group of Nick's family and friends gathered around his burial plot and sang Happy Birthday.
The afternoon Fields-Wilson got the call from Stetson officials about Nick's collapse and seizure, and a short while late, his death, is the worst day of her life. Nick Blakely started playing football at 6. He developed into a standout at Archer (Ga.) High and vowed that if he didn't make the NFL, he would put his accounting degree to use and get a job with the Federal Reserve.
Blakely had big plans and Fields-Wilson encouraged him every step of the way.
"He had a smile that you could never be mad at,'' his mother said. "Nick believed in himself. He knew what he wanted to do."
Once the initial shock and mourning period over Nick's death from an enlarged heart eased up, Fields-Wilson made her own vow: she would learn as much as she could about sudden cardiac death in otherwise healthy young athletes and honor her son's memory by becoming an advocate for improving the heart testing on student-athletes at all levels.
Like Russell, Blakely had played sports his entire life and had several standard physicals over the years to listen to the heartbeat, but nothing ever came up abnormal. As far as Blakely knew when he took the practice field on Aug. 28, he was completely healthy.
That is what makes the condition so tricky for medical personnel and sometimes controversial for those pushing for and against required testing.
"Both of these kids, they felt fine, there body feels good,'' said Silvestri, speaking of UF's Russell and Robinson. "They could run and do everything. These are the hard ones because they feel great and they can perform, but it's just not safe for them to do it.
"They are two completely different issues, but both of them are issues that if there was a complication, there is nothing we can do. That's what it comes down to."
In the six months since Blakely's death, Fields-Wilson has worked vigorously to raise awareness. She started Smiling Hearts: The Nick Blakely Foundation and inspired five members of the Georgia General Assembly to sponsor House Bill 743, which is named the Jeremy Nelson and Nick Blakely Sudden Cardiac Arrest Prevention Act. Nelson was a 12-year-old Georgia basketball player who died from sudden cardiac arrest during a game.
After talking to Russell and sharing her own son's story, Fields-Wilson spoke to Keisha Carnegie-Russell, Randy's mother. Russell and his mother want to join her in the quest to raise awareness about the issue.
"Hopefully this is just a start,'' Fields-Wilson said. "We think when they pass this physical, 'oh, that's it.' Nick's been taking a physical since he was 6 years old. We just didn't know. Every two years you need to have the heart test. We've got to save lives."
It has been a month since he was told he could no longer play football and Russell continues to adjust to life without the game he loves. He watched bits and pieces of the Super Bowl last weekend, but he was unwilling to become too invested. It's still too soon.
He tries to keep his mind active and wants to remain involved with the football program in some capacity after talking with head coach Dan Mullen following his diagnosis. He remains on scholarship and has a newfound interest in the medical field. He is in the process of arranging for an internship at UF Health Shands Hospital. Russell said he has drawn much of his strength lately from the support of all those who have reached out to share their stories and from those in the UF community.
His mom and girlfriend visited for a few days to provide support and make sure he remained positive. Russell said he normally doesn't talk much about his feelings but that he decided to speak to a counselor to help deal with the disappointment.
Robinson understands in a way few can.
"We had no idea we had any heart problems because we played the game our whole lives," he said. "It's tough."
Russell is determined some good comes from the situation by spreading awareness. So is his mother.
For now, Randy's well-being is her top priority.
"Every kid probably wants to go to the NFL, but if he didn't make it, I don't think it would have been a big deal for him. But playing college football was everything for him,'' Carnegie-Russell said. "I was just grateful that they found it because it could have been really a bad situation.
"He has an old man's soul. Sometimes he does things and I have to remind myself that he's still 17. I honestly believe he is destined to be somebody great. I feel like God spared him for a reason."
Russell's heart abnormality is a severe case according to doctors. He has been cautioned not to push himself too hard physically. How do you instantly turn off that competitive drive like a light switch in the night?
Russell, who doesn't turn 18 until July, isn't sure. At least not yet. Right now, it's truly one day at a time.
"I just miss it," he said. "It's crazy how life works. Hopefully it will touch people. Don't take the things they have for granted."
--University Athletic Association assistant communications director (football) Will Pantages contributed to this report.
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