![Adding a tray of canned corn to the pile, junior Michael Collop assists in transporting donations for the Holiday Food Drive. The event, hosted schoolwide from Dec. 10-17, raised over 5,000 food items to deliver to the Parkway Food Pantry, helping several families in need. [The drive] is a great thing for us to do because you're giving to those who are less fortunate, and it helps provide for people who can't provide for themselves. [The] competition is always fun, too. It was fun to be in [social studies teacher Jess] Chazen’s class, because he always gets worked up over [the competition]. He made it exciting, and was always convincing us to turn in cans for the drive,” Collop said.](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/feature-photo-unsung-2.png)
![NEW CHALLENGE, NEW TEAM MEMBERS: Every season, VEX creates a new game that robotics team members are faced with and have to build a robot to compete in. This year’s game forces students to create a robot that is able to stack rings onto mobile goals in order to score points. The change in games each season is something that robotics teacher Audrea Moyers appreciates.
“One of the things that I like about VEX is that they have a new problem to solve every year,” she said. ¨Even though the equipment’s the same, they have to analyze the game, and they have to come up with solutions that are unique that year. They are using their knowledge from prior years, but they have to kind of redesign a problem.”
As returning teams were faced a new game, some new teams and members had to adapt to a uncommon playing field and game.
“Three of our four teams were competing for the first time this year, and they had very different experiences match to match, so I think they learned a lot,¨ she said. ¨It’s hard just watching a video online to know how it’s actually going to be in person, so they all learned a lot about what gameplay is like, how to work with an alliance partner [and] how to adapt during the day to changes.”](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_9283-1-1200x800.jpg)
Trojan overcomes traumatic injury
Freshman Alex Dayle continues to play sport he loves despite emergency brain surgery
Chris Waugaman
Trojans baseball player Alex Dayle has overcome a traumatic brain injury to return to play the sport he loves. Photo by Virginia Statesman staff.
April 13, 2023
Imagine you are 16 and you are in the height of the pandemic. You live in the Big Apple, Harlem, Manhattan, New York City but you are a private school kid trying to make the best out of the world shutting down.
You realize your high school years have been disrupted but your mom instilled the promise and expectation of going to college. Following in your mother’s footsteps, you want to attend an HBCU and you are excited because it will finally allow you to be surrounded with students, professors, and staff that look like you and come from a multitude of places.
Meet Alexander Dayle, a freshman accounting major at VSU. This is his story that begins with a love for baseball and a dream to attend an HBCU.
He took to baseball easily, much more than basketball or football, and he developed a strong passion for the sport.
He has played many years for many teams and before even being accepted to VSU he spoke with Coach Merrill Morgan and explained his ambition to play at the college level. That conversation led to Dayle becoming a walk on player for the team. Number 21 – 1st baseman.
And then something changed.
On a warm summer night, on the final day of August 2021, Dayle was with a few friends at an outdoor fastpitch park having fun and hitting some balls. Dayle delivered the pitch to his friend who connected with the ball and it was a line drive that came directly back towards him. He was unable to get out of the way in time and was hit by the high speed ball on the right side of his skull.
His friends were frantic. They were simply at a public park, not the type of batting cages with employees and staff prepared for an emergency.
“I was on the floor for a good 20 minutes,” Dayle said. “I couldn’t stand up because I was so dizzy and I had this booming headache.”
Dayle was eventually able to get up and his friends called him an Uber home. Dayle was throwing up all night and couldn’t sleep. It was Dayle’s younger brother who finally told their mother something was wrong with him. After no relief for several hours, the family made the decision to go to the hospital.
“[The physicians] basically said, in layman’s terms, you either need brain surgery now or in five minutes…” said Dayle. “So, clearly, [I] didn’t have much of an option so, we had to prepare for me to get brain surgery.”
Dayle is very grateful to the team that performed the surgery. He says they did such a good job that the scar isn’t even visible beneath his rugged, stylish curls.
Dayle suffered from what is called a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines a TBI as, a bump, blow, or jolt to the head, or penetrating injury (such as from a gunshot) to the head.
TBI’s fall into three categories: mild, moderate, and severe. TBIs can have long term effects and also lead to death in severe cases. In mild and moderate cases a warning sign is often a throbbing headache. A concussion is classified as a TBI and can be caused simply by a fall that jolts the brain. Swelling can occur in the brain as well as bleeding which needs to be relieved.
Fortunately, for Dayle, he and his family acted quickly enough to prevent long term damage and he was able to make a full recovery.
After traumatic events like getting hit in the skull with a speeding baseball and having to have immediate brain surgery, many people are petrified of being exposed to the event again. Others meet the experience head-on and refuse to let the event paralyze them from enjoying life. This is especially true when people have a passion for a sport or event that led to the injury.
This has been the case for Dayle. His determination and love for baseball has not been deterred by the jarring experience. He is excited to be a member of the Trojan baseball team and fully participates though he does use caution.
“Obviously I’m never throwing in batting practice again. I’m not risking it’ said Dayle. “ It didn’t change my outlook. It’s not a fear. If anything, it made me more hungry to get back out there.”
https://www.cdc.gov/traumaticbraininjury/get_the_facts.html
This story was originally published on The Virginia Statesman on March 23, 2023.
