Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Juvenile Diabetes Doesn’t Slow Local Athletes
JUVENILE DIABETES CHALLENGES HOLCOMB
LINCOLN — Thirteen- year- old Soggie Holcomb has a whole team on his side endeavoring to assist the boy in managing juvenile diabetes while playing eighth - grade football at Lincoln.
“Sports is not something they can’t do, it’s workable,” said Soggie’s grandfather, R. F. Holcomb, who along with his wife, Sharon, have raised the boy and his brothers, Zackary and Ryan.
Two years ago Soggie was playing sixth grade basketball when complications interrupted his season as he inexplicably dropped 20 pounds.
“I figured he was running it off,” R.F. Holcomb said. “I never dreamt anything about diabetes when that happened.”
Not a large child to begin with, Soggie was taken in for extensive checkups. Still, diabetes wasn’t on the radar and didn’t get detected until the following day. The diagnosis was Soggie has Type 1 insulin-dependent diabetes.
“It’s not debilitating but it sure takes a lot of work to keep up with it. You have to stay on top of it,” R. F. Holcomb said.
Soggie has to check his blood sugar level every two hours and last season began playing seventh-grade football.
For Justin Bounds, Lincoln seventh-grade football coach, playing the game at that level is a learning experience for the student/athletes. Bounds compared the process with starting out with a blank piece of paper.
“We get them and they go straight into football. They have to learn everything from how to get into a stance to the names of the positions. As the year progresses, they start to learn more and more and we can do more with them.”
Every morning before the Wolves worked out, Soggie would come in and test his blood sugar levels with the results monitored by the coaches.
“If his numbers weren’t in a certain range, we had to send him to the nurse to get checked out. He missed a certain number of workouts because of that. If he can stay in that range he’s going to develop,” Bounds said.
“He can tell when he’s getting low. A low can happen anytime,” R.F. Holcomb said. “When you get high blood sugar you’ve got to check your ketones. If it’s over 400 ketones you can’t play.”
According to the Joslin Diabetes Center website, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, ketones are produced when the body burns fat for energy or fuel or during a weight loss or if there is not enough insulin to help the body use sugar for energy. Without enough insulin, glucose builds up in the blood, which the body is unable to use for energy so fat is broken down instead. When this occurs, ketones form in the blood and spill into the urine, which can make a person very sick.
Brad Harris, Lincoln head football coach, who oversees the entire program from the varsity on down to the seventh grade, said Soggie hasn’t always been forthright with the coaches regarding his physical condition.
“He likes being on the team. He wants to be a part of something,” Harris said. “We have got to monitor his numbers.”
“He was so undersized,” Bounds said. “He’d stick his nose in there and try the best he could. A lot of times he was overmatched physically.”
Soggie, now at 5-foot-5 and 120 pounds, is out for eighthgrade football this year and has labored to increase his strength during the off-season. Bounds monitors individual progress and notes Soggie has improved his bench press by 30 pounds, squat by 50 pounds and incline press by 25 pounds.
“He comes into the off-season and he gets stronger. His improvements were good as far as seventh grade goes,” Bounds said.
Some athletes, such as Farmington softball pitcher Jordin Smith, wear a pump and can inject themselves with insulin if needed after competing but football can be a violent sport.
“The boys are so rowdy we didn’t think a pump would work,” R.F. Holcomb said. “They’ve got a new one it stays on for 30 days but insurance won’t pay for it. The one they chose for him you have to change the needle in the stomach every three days.”
Soggie removes the device before playing football then checks his blood-sugar level after games and practices.
Soggie uses a website, mycareconnect.com, developed by Pam Henry, MEd, who was thrust into the diabetes community in 2003 when her daughter Sarah was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Henry is an active outreach mentor, advocate for children’s rights as well as a sports fan.
R.F. Holcomb said he spoke with Henry two years ago on the phone and her organization is affiliated with the children’s hospital at Little Rock and one in Tulsa, Okla. R.F. Holcomb said the technology has been a godsend for Soggie. Low- income households may utilize the website’s basic services free of charge with more in-depth services available for a fee.
“He just gets on the website and types in his numbers every day instead of getting on the phone. His doctor can look at it,” R.F. Holcomb said, adding a communication line is established through the daily entry and the privacy is approved by the government.
For Soggie, the simplified process eliminates hassles and he can focus on football.
“I can get a lot of my frustrations out on the other team,” Soggie said. “Ryan and my biggest brother [Zackary] have been an inspiration to me. They have been pushing me to play sports, I wasn’t very big when I started but I’ve gotten bigger.”
Bounds sees potential that can be realized if Soggie continues to develop.
“He might be a kid that eventually turns into something.”