No game plan, no X's or O's could have prepared Jason Karnes for what he endured this past Memorial Day weekend.
The Herrin head football coach, who will enter his 13th season on the sidelines this Friday when the Tigers host Waterloo in a 7 p.m. game, is literally a new man today after undergoing a successful triple bypass surgery in Carbondale. His brush with death was real. His lease on life renewed.
While winning the game is important to Karnes, winning the game of life is even more important. That new perspective is what drives him.
A change in perspective and lifestyle happens when you come one day away from dying. That's what he was told by one physician. Had he waited one more day to get checked out, there may not have been such a rosy outcome.
In his words, Karnes knows what could have been and now appreciates a little bit more what could be.
"That Sunday of Memorial Day weekend through Monday night, those two days were probably two of the longest days I've ever had in my life," Karnes said of his emergency run to Carbondale Memorial Hospital after feeling some discomfort in his chest.
"I probably could not have gotten through them without my immediate family, my extended family, my great friends, football players, my great staff, support from the towns of Herrin and Du Quoin. It was humbling."
Karnes said when he checked in Sunday morning until Monday night, there were many unknowns.
For a guy who hardly ever goes to the doctor, let alone has had a major surgery, the 43-year old Du Quoin native and lifelong athlete has now reached a new stage in his life.
"Half of my life I have been an athlete," Karnes said. "Twenty-two years of that was playing football and baseball in college. It was very scary and for the first time in a long time, I was nervous. I normally don't get nervous. I usually feel pretty confident in things. That's the way I was when I was a player. But in this case, it (the outcome) wasn't in my hands. I couldn't make the calls. It was up to the doctors and mostly the good Lord. He has a plan for me. He has a plan for everybody.
"It was really tough on Monday night when they prepare you for your surgery and it's just you and your wife in the room. Everyone has gone home. It's 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. and the doctor walks in and says, 'I just reviewed everything and I can tell you, coach, you maybe had at the most one day to live.' I still to this day cannot wrap my mind around that, so I'm going to live each day to the fullest."
Karnes said his priorities changed.
"For me, it kind of puts you in a very humble and gracious state of mind. I was always grateful and always put everybody in front of me, which I still will. Even more so now. That Tuesday morning after Memorial Day when they wake you up at 6 a.m. and they wheel you down that hallway and you have your wife, both kids, and my mom and dad are standing there. I still get choked up thinking about it. I can still see it to this day - a tunnel like you see on TV with the silver doors going into this big surgery room. You don't know what's going to happen.
"People sometimes don't come out of surgery, so I didn't know. I had never been in one like that. To get wheeled down there and have your kids reaching over, your parents reaching over, and your wife reaching over, my best friend reaching over and giving you a hug. A lot of things went through my mind Sunday and Monday night, but most important, was to get back healthy and get back onto this football field and lead the Herrin Tigers."
Karnes' surgery lasted six hours, and for the next eight hours, he had a breathing tube in due to low oxygen levels. At 9 that Monday night, he had a cup of ice chips, which prior to waking up at 1 p.m., he said he would have paid $90 to have.
He also had to pay for a lifestyle change.
The surgery, he said, was the easy part. The hard part was getting back on his feet, but because he is an athlete, Karnes likes to be pushed and lucky for him, his wife, Brandi, was there.
The two would walk two miles a day, starting with a mile in the morning and a mile at night. After one week, they bumped it up to four miles.
To date, Karnes has lost 40 pounds.
"A lot of things that you thought were important aren't as important now," Karnes admits. "I want to live, see my kids grow up, and one day down the road be a grandfather. I want to make my family proud of me. I've always wanted to make my parents proud of me and I think I have, but I still have that burning desire to keep making my parents, wife, and family proud of me for who I am and what I do."
The power of prayer might not be for everyone, but Karnes isn't everyone. As child, who was "drug to church by my mom when I was younger," Karnes has a great appreciation for God -- maybe moreso now -- than ever before.
"Even I can tell you the power of prayer," he said. "I really felt it lying there in the hospital. You can plan all you want for a game, but the game of life, when it's in the good Lord's hands, you just have to keep fighting and know you're going to fight for Him and fight for your family. Things work out and things are ultimately in His hands."
At 43, Karnes said he hopes he is only halfway through his life's journey.
"I wasn't ready to go, so everyday that I wake up and see sunlight come up through the window I'm happy."
Asked the importance of coaching, Karnes said it would be too hard to quit.
"I love football. It's been in my blood all my life. I want to be on the sideline and coach. It's what I push for when I get up every morning and later see those 60-70 kids on the field. I am doing something I love. I love seeing young men grow in four years of high school and hope that playing football helped prepare them better for life.
"I've been very humbled by the whole experience of me being in here and me being allowed to build the program the way I want. To be able to go back out to what you love to do. I love football and I don't want that to take away from my health. I'm fully healthy, I feel great. To be able to get back out there and see those 60-70 kids, it's been in my blood all my life, I want to be on the sideline and coach. It's what I push for, getting up every morning and making sure I'm living for the right reasons and having things in priority in the right order. I'm making sure when I do something, it's full go and at the end of the day I'm smiling, having a good time, doing something I love to do. If I didn't love to do it, I step down, I get out of stuff. But this is what I love to do and I love to see young men grow through four years of high school and make something of theirselves and get ready for life themselves."
Spyder Dann covers prep and college sports for the Southern Illinois Local Media News Group. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.
