Back in the hunt
Outdoorsman defies injury, using treads to track game
POCAHONTAS, Tenn. — At sunrise Saturday, thousands of hunters will enter the woods for the opening day of Tennessee’s annual modern firearms deer season.
Hardeman County native Coy Smith will be among them, keeping a promise he made nearly two years ago during the darkest time of his life.
Smith, who works for Special Events Service and Rental in Bartlett, was on assignment in New Orleans in April 2012 when a car accident severely damaged several vertebrae in his spine.
The injuries left him paralyzed from the waist down. But before
leaving the hospital, he vowed he would do two things again — with or without the use of his legs.
“I told everybody I was going back to work in six months, and I told them I was going to keep hunting,” Smith said. “Those two things are important to me, and I wasn’t going to give them up, no matter what.”
Though he was no longer able to travel for his job, Smith returned to the Bartlett office in October, six months after his accident, as promised.
Then, thanks to an automated chair and lots of help from family and friends, he went deer hunting by himself the next month on Thanksgiving Day. He says he may even hunt more this year than he did before his accident.
“I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to hunt by myself again,” Smith said. “And I certainly never imagined I’d be back in the woods by myself seven months after the accident. But I’ve been blessed, and I wake up every day looking forward to living life.”
A CHAIR THAT STANDS TALL
Smith’s journey back to normalcy wasn’t an easy one.
After 12 days in the New Orleans hospital, he was flown to Atlanta’s Shepherd Center — a world-renowned facility that specializes in the rehabilitation of people with spinal cord and brain injuries. By the time he finally returned home to Pocahontas, he had been gone for 79 days.
“When I left Atlanta, I didn’t have any hope that I’d ever walk again,” Smith said. “But I wasn’t down on life because of it. I knew I had to go on and live, just play the hand I was dealt.”
Smith began hunting with assistance right away, killing a Russian boar in eastern Tennessee on a trip that was set up by the Shepherd Center. But one of the things hunters value most about the sport is the solitude it provides, and he wasn’t able to reclaim that until his family, friends and co-workers gave him a chair that he now considers the gift of a lifetime.
The special device, known as an Action Trackstander and sold by a Minnesota-based company, is an off-road wheelchair with large treads like the ones on a tank. It runs on two 12-volt wheelchair batteries with joystick controls, and it has enabled Smith to do
this chair, I can look everybody in the eyes again,” he said. “That means a lot.” things he thought he’d never do again.
He knew about the chairs. But with a price tag of $15,300, Smith never envisioned owning one until his family and friends surprised him at his cousin Johnny Verrell’s house near Jackson, Tenn.
“My cousin had built me a deer stand at his place, and I went up there to see it,” Smith said. “I knew something was up when I got there because all of my family and friends and even my boss were there.
“I saw that chair, and I didn’t know what to think. I just sat there with my head down for a few minutes with my best friend Cody (Campbell) rubbing my back. It was amazing.”
Smith wasn’t the only burly hunter who was moved by the moment.
“We had been on a hunt together in Chattanooga the week before, and a guy there had one of those chairs,” Campbell said. “He kept telling Coy to take it for a spin, but he wouldn’t because he was afraid he’d get attached to it. So to see his face when he actually got one for himself was amazing.”
Smith’s father, Gary, said he will remember the moment forever.
“Since the accident, I’ve really only seen him down a couple of times, and neither one of those lasted very long,” Gary said. “He’s tough, and he has an amazing attitude toward life. This chair was something he deserved. I was happy for him that day.”
The chair allows Smith to do virtually everything other hunters can do — and even a few things they can’t.
PLOWING BACK INTO LIFE
While demonstrating the chair recently, Smith ventured several feet into a small pond near his family home where someone on two legs would have gotten both feet stuck in the mud. He easily navigated a steep bank that would be iffy for regular all-terrain vehicles — and when he goes hunting, no spot is off limits.
“He just takes off into the woods, anywhere he wants to go,” Gary Smith said. “He can load up and go hunting by himself without any help from anyone. It gives him an amazing amount of freedom.”
The freedom extends far beyond the hunting woods.
“Sometimes at home, he’ll take off in that chair and be gone for hours,” said Robin Smith, Coy’s stepmother. “We don’t have to worry about him. He can go anywhere.”
Another thing Smith loves about the Trackstander is the stand-up feature that allows him to extend his legs and stand eye to eye with the people around him once again.
“That’s one thing about being in a wheelchair that a lot of people probably don’t think about, being down below everybody and looking up at them all the time,” Smith said. “With this chair, I can look everybody in the eyes again. That means a lot.”
In addition to his full-time job at Special Events Service and Rental, Smith works for DeadTek — a company that develops innovative hunting products like scent-dispersing systems for bows, muzzleloaders and modern firearms. He also spends countless hours riding backwoods trails in a dune buggy.
He says he may even try his hand at motivational speaking someday, using his story of perseverance to inspire others.
“I wasn’t sure I wanted to really draw any attention to myself at first,” Smith said. “But then I started thinking, and I knew if my story could help one person out there who is dealing with similar problems, it was worth doing.
“I want people in this situation to know their life isn’t over — not as long as they’re determined to keep on living.”