PIKEVILLE, Tenn. — The pounding he gives and takes each week is minor considering the pain and aggravation Chase Brown goes through just to be on the field.

The heat and humidity of the first half of the season often causes area players to cramp during practice and games, but for Brown the situation is even worse.

Staff Photo by Tim Barber
Whitwell, Bledsoe, Grundy County, Sequatchie County, South Pittsburg, Signal Mtn, Marion County and Lookout Valley.

His doctor has told Brown and his parents that he likely suffered a minor heatstroke at some point. It affected his internal thermostat, causing him to sweat profusely. This condition results in cramping so severely that he has had to be taken to the emergency room three times during the last two football seasons.

Brown’s medical situation has forced him to sit out the second half of several games over the past two years, and the Bledsoe County High School junior will go through a series of IVs before and during games this season.

On the advice of his doctor and team trainers, Brown will intravenously take one liter of fluids the night before every game, two before kickoff and another in each arm at halftime. He also drinks at least a gallon of Gatorade per day and eats a couple of oranges with every meal to prepare for practice and that week’s game.

“I can start sweating in a 70-degree room,” Brown said. “It’s weird and frustrating sometimes, but I’m willing to do whatever it takes to stay out on the field with my team.”

He began taking an IV at halftime last season, but even that was not enough and he missed the second half of three games, prompting the recommendation of even more fluids. While taking the halftime IVs, he also will sit in a tub of ice to lower his body’s core temperature, and the school has ordered an extra set of uniforms so he can change into a dry, cooler set for the second half.

“The trainers said the sweaty uniform was holding in a lot of heat, so I’ll have a lot to do at halftime,” Brown said. “I’m about used to the needles by now. There were a couple of times that I got stuck three or four times before they finally hit the vein.

“Besides the needles, I get up two or three times at night to go to the bathroom because of all the extra fluids I’m drinking during the week. But it’s worth it if I don’t have to come out of a game. Before, I would start to feel my calves tighten and the cramps work their way up my body.

“There was one game where my chest, my fingers and even my jaw were cramping. My teammates would look at me on the sideline and I felt helpless, like I was letting them down.”

The 5-foot-10, 195-pound Brown has been a starter since his freshman year and is the team leader on both sides of the ball. His bruising running style led Bledsoe to switch to the wing-T offense this season.

“That’s how important he is to our offense,” Warriors coach Hubert Roberson said. “Most of what we’ll try to do will go through him. He’ll smash between the tackles for the tough yards, and we also count on him to stop the run as our middle linebacker.

“He’s a kid that just has a lot of football sense and always seems to be in the right place. You really don’t have to coach him all that much, and when he speaks everybody listens. He already possesses leadership abilities, so we really need him on the field.”

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