Hoog Faces Battle Off The Baseball Field

BY BRUCE WARREN

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Last spring, Tyler Hoog was trying to find a way to help his Skyline High School baseball team beat Niwot in a season-opening game at Coors Field.  This fall, the stakes are much higher as Hoog faces a battle on the road to recovery from a jeep accident that left him with a spinal injury, and no feeling from the shoulders down.

Hoog was enjoying an afternoon in the mountains in late August when the jeep he was driving overturned.  Two of his friends received minor injuries, but Hoog suffered fractured and dislocated vertebrae. After initial treatment in Denver at St. Anthony’s Hospital, Hoog has now been transferred to the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, which is modeled after Denver’s Craig Rehabilitation Center, but specializes in treating teenagers with spinal cord injuries.

Early challenges for Tyler Hoog included a tracheotomy, learning to breathe on his own, overcoming a bout of pneumonia, and trying to determine which muscles were receiving signals from the brain.  As of Sept. 22, he was breathing on his own, able to swallow, and able to eat solid food. He has started on his rehab program, and was in the gym in a wheelchair, working on strengthening his shoulders and biceps. His short term goal is to be able to drive the chair with his arm.

Students at Skyline High School, where Tyler is a junior and his brother Thomas is a freshman, quickly rallied to support their fun-loving and popular friend.  Numerous fund-raising programs have been held and are planned to help with the enormous costs of Tyler’s recovery.  Texas Roadhouse on Oct. 2 and Baskin-Robbins on Oct. 5 will donate a portion of purchases. Support from students at virtually every other high school in the St. Vrain Valley School District has contributed greatly to the effort.

One way to donate and to obtain updates on Tyler’s progress is to visit his page at www.caringbridge.org.  As of late September, the site had over 6,000 visits. Another way to support Hoog is through the Hope 4 Hoogie fund established by the Education Foundation of the St. Vrain Valley, at http://bit.ly/donateH4H.

A large fundraiser has been planned for Oct. 29 from 4:30 to 10:00 p.m. at the Plaza Hotel, with live music, food, a bake sale, a live auction and a silent auction. Advance tickets are $15 online at http://bit.ly/hopeforhoogie.

While the support from all of the high schools has been amazing, Hoog has a special connection to Niwot.  Hoog’s father, Michael Hoog, is a 1986 graduate of Niwot High School where he set homerun records playing on Niwot’s old baseball field, now covered by a parking lot. His mother, Kim Trenka Hoog, was a softball player at Boulder High. Michael’s parents, Tom and Sandy Hoog, lived in Niwot for many years before moving to Longmont.  Tom Hoog was active as a coach and administrator for the Niwot Youth Sports, then known as Gunbarrel Lefthand Valley Recreation Association, or GLVRA.

“His attitude is fantastic,” Tom Hoog said of his grandson Tyler.