Hometown Heroes at Eureka High School

Eureka High School senior Tommy Ercoli is an athlete with heart and a will to win. His senior football season got off to a rough start this year, though.

On one of the last days of summer camp, July 18, the team came in to the gym for their next station rotation. The varsity students headed to their stations, and stopped off to get a drink. As they were standing there getting their water on the way to the weight room, in an excitable moment, Tommy hit his fist on the nearby glass. He was trying to get his team pumped up, and had done this several times before. The glass was thick and solid, and had withstood several fist pumps aimed in its direction before.

In the blink of an eye, Tommy’s arm went through the glass, shattering the entire pane. As he looked down, there was a huge laceration and a wide open gash in his arm. The arterial bleeding began pulsing blood uncontrollably. He held his arm over the trash can.

Somebody yelled, “Get a coach!”

Upon hearing that, Tommy himself, ran to get a coach. He probably was not really thinking perhaps one of his teammates should do it.

As Tommy entered the gym, he saw Coach Gregg Cleveland. He shouted out, “Hey Coach," holding up his arm, as he was bleeding all over the gym floor. Later, he said his fear was someone would be mad if he bled on the gym floor.

One of the players yelled, “Someone take your shirt off and stop the bleeding!” Coach Cleve, thinking they were playing a joke using ketchup as a prop, was talking with another player. As he walked over, he realized this was no joke.

At that point, he and Coach Pat Grimshaw ran out of the gym to see Tommy hanging his arm over the trash can. Coach Cleve, acting quickly, took the shirt and tightened it on his arm attempting to cut off the blood flow while Coach Grimshaw squeezed the base of Tommy’s bicep to also try to stop the bleeding.

Coach Grimshaw and Coach Cleve went to work, holding on to Tommy’s arterial bleeds. As Tommy tells it himself, “They were hanging on for dear life”. 

Another coach, Coach Joey Gianino, sent football player Rob Cidlik in to get a rubberband weight strap from the weight room. Coach G looped the rubber band around the arm as tight as he could as an additional measure to stop the bleeding.

Coach Jacob Sumner called 9-1-1, as Coach Tim Yancey made the unfortunate phone call to Mrs. Ercoli.

Tommy was calm, waiting for the paramedics. Tommy continued to talk and made an attempt to joke.  

Coach Grimshaw said, “Tommy, I hope you didn’t have anything planned today.” Tommy, in his comedic way responded, “'Could someone please call my Kelley, (his girlfriend) because I'm not going to be able to make our lunch date.'" He then looked up at his teammate Spencer Stein, who he thought looked in shock and trying to lighten everyone him up and said, “Hey Spencer, you could get me a new pair of shoes," as the blood had ruined his white Nikes.

Eureka paramedics arrived quickly to see that it was a little more than a laceration. Tommy was rushed to the hospital with coaches following, and had immediate emergency surgery.

At the hospital, the bad news was Tommy was not going to be able to play for six to nine months, his senior year, with a great season of Eureka football facing him. His mother, brought to tears, was consoled by the coaches. Who was going to tell him? The stitches were too many to count internally with about 60 on the outside. He sustained damage of two severed tendons, one partially severed tendon, a severed artery and nerve damage.

The coaches stayed with Tommy, and in typical Eureka fashion, folks started showing up out of the woodwork.

Tommy is currently in physical therapy. With his heart, determination and prayers, he is healing faster than expected.

The paramedics said of our Eureka coaches:  “They did everything right; they saved his life.”

Our hometown heroes, and one kid with great heart, are the pride of our community. I hope to see Tommy on the field soon, as every day he says to me:  “I just want to be back out there!!"

I love Eureka Wildcat football, and I feel blessed to coach and work with the best guys on the planet. GO WILDCATS!!