Friday Features: UAH’s Owens rebounds from car crash with new appreciation for life, basketball
By Mike Perrin
The fact that University of
Alabama in Huntsville basketball player
Kip Owens has an amazing attitude about life – seriously, more amazing than most anybody you know – is summed up in his recollection of his thoughts as he was being airlifted to the hospital from a horrific automobile accident on Oct. 2, 2013.
"I remember being airlifted, and I also remember being excited – or as excited as one can be in that situation – because I had never been in a helicopter before."
Wait. What?
Owens, a 6-foot-9, 215-pound redshirt freshman from Memphis, was headed to Starkville, Miss., to visit his girlfriend on that fall day. Driving alone, he slowed at an intersection as a log truck on his left made a left turn. One of the logs on the truck fell off – and slammed through Owens' windshield, shearing the steering wheel off and spearing the passenger seat. With no steering wheel, Owens had no airbag to offer protection as his vehicle was smashed to a stop. The steering column impaled him in the abdomen, which was also torn by his seat belt.
Through it all, the Evangelical Christian School product never lost consciousness or his resolve. "Definitely scary stuff," he said of the crash, "and I don't really know how I handled it, to be honest. I definitely think God had a big hand in keeping me relatively calm and cognitive until the medical people arrived. I was just kind of on a semi-dazed autopilot mode throughout the whole ordeal."
Almost immediately after the accident, Gerri Finney – a trained emergency first-responder who was in her car behind Owens – leapt into action to assist the terribly injured young man. "She is an unbelievably sweet lady,” Owens said. “She did a fantastic job of keeping me calm and keeping everything organized and running as smoothly as anything can run in that kind of situation. Her being there is, I think, also evidence that even though it was a horrific situation, God had his hand over my protection and safety throughout the whole process.”
Owens said he hopes to get Mrs. Finney and her husband, who both visited him daily in the hospital and brought meals for his family, to a Chargers game sometime this season.
After Owens awakened following 2 1/2 hours of surgery – where doctors repaired his right lower right abdominal muscle that had been torn in half and put in 40 staples to hold everything together – he said he was overwhelmed by the support he received from family (mom and dad, Mike and Kelli Owens; his girlfriend, Elizabeth Dunaway), UAH head coach Lennie Acuff and then-assistant David Ivey and his friends.
“I just remember being overwhelmed by the amount of love and support I got from those around me,” Owens said. “As soon as I woke up, Coach Acuff and Coach Ivey were right there waiting on me and letting me know that they were there for me and that we were all going to get through this. The next morning, my high school coach, Terry Tippett, was there waiting on me to wake up. … He had a huge hand in helping me get through some of the difficulties I faced throughout my injury and recovery.
“I cannot speak enough about how strong and overwhelming the support I got from my coaches and teammates was throughout the whole process of the initial injury and the whole recovery process.”
Friends and former high school classmates from ECS who were in school at nearby Mississippi State came in “what seemed like wave after wave of visitors came to my room to offer support.” Owens said, “I cannot speak enough about how much that meant to me and how it helped me get through those early stages. Of course, my family has just been unbelievable.”
After taking a redshirt season to recuperate last year, Owens is averaging just over 15 minutes per game off the bench for the 9-3 Chargers and scoring 5.3 points a game this season. He’s contributing 2.1 assists per game and grabbing 3.6 rebounds. He will be working to help the Chargers, 4-2 in the Gulf South Conference, snap a two-game losing streak in the league at home on Saturday against Mississippi College.
“I went from playing basketball every day of my life to being unable to do anything but walk,” Owens said, looking back on his recovery. “Due to the nature of my injuries, I really could do no rehab whatsoever until everything healed. That was a period of months and months. In that time, I lost so much weight and strength and mobility, I essentially had to re-learn how to run and jump and move. The mental aspect was by far the most difficult” part of rehab. “Tasks that were once just routine were now seemingly impossible. But, my teammates and coaches and family were positive and encouraging and helped me every step of the way. Our training staff did an unbelievable job putting me through programs that helped me get back on the court.”
When Owens was finally ready to return to action, it was with a new outlook. “Not being able to do anything for so long and then finally getting back out there gave me a newfound appreciation for the game,” he said. While he wasn’t in top shape after the long recovery period he was, he said, “finally I was the one in control. It wasn’t up to healing or doctors to tell me what I could or couldn’t do, it was just a matter of how hard I was willing to work. When the first game of the year rolled around, I just realized how much I had missed it and how much of a blessing it is to be able to play and to compete and to have a healthy body.
“It generates within me a passion and excitement for playing that carries over to the way I try to play,” Owens said. “I try to play with a passion and fervor for the game because you never know when it could all be taken away from you.”
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12/05/2014 - UWA Coach Ray Stanfield Pushes Cross Country Teams to Top.
12/12/2014 - CBU Men's Basketball Making Noise.
12/19/2014 - Dickey Says UWG Football 'Right on Schedule'.
12/26/2014 - Youngsters Lead UWF Women.