On Saturday, the UCF football team will take to the field with a unique look in recognition of Military Appreciation Day.
The Knights will wear five special gold helmets, each with a stars & stripes UCF logo on one side while the other side features the seal of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines or Coast Guard.
They'll also be honoring one of their own.
Rory Coleman is a newcomer to the program, joining the team earlier this spring as a walk-on defensive lineman. He saw his first on-field action last weekend against Tulane, but in some ways the 25-year-old is the most experienced player on the team as an Army veteran and Purple Heart recipient.
The school's official website, UCFKnights.com, chronicled Coleman's journey in a story that was posted earlier this week.
On Wednesday, I spent 20 minutes getting acquainted with the Class of 2009 Lake Brantley graduate and Army medic, who talked about his tour in Afghanistan, his rehabilitation after receiving serious injuries in a grenade blast and then his desire to resume a football career while pursuing a psychology degree at UCF.
Here's that conversation (full video posted above).
How old are you?
"I'm 25 years old actually."
I know people joke about Jordan Akins being the old man on the team. Are you older than he is?
"I'm a little bit younger than Jordan. He's 26 and I'm 25. Whatever Jordan does next year, I'll probably be the old man of the group. Hopefully he stays because I don't want to take that title. I think it rightfully belongs to Jordan."
I know you're from the area and played at Lake Brantley High School. Did you play with Joey Grant?
"Joey Grant was a sophomore and he actually played defensive line in high school. I was a senior when Joey was a sophomore. He showed some talent even at d-line. He was flying around. He's always been a talented guy."
What was your high school football experience like? I read the story and I know you were inspired to join the Army by your grandfather, who was a member of the 101st Airborne. Did you first think about going to college and trying to play football?
"I was thinking about going to college. I was talking to Western Carolina, a Division I-AA program, to be a preferred walk-on. Some D3 interest from schools. Lake Brantley, I think it was a great experience for me. I played offensive line my senior year. We did a lot of triple option, so a whole lot of run blocking. Kind of like Tulane's game plan.
"I talked to my grandfather. We kept having these Sunday brunches together. The more I talked to him, the more I realized that I've got to find out who I am and kind of better myself first because I was realized that I wasn't ready to go to college. I had no idea what I wanted to do. I had no backup plan. To play football, it's great, but you need to have a foundation first so you can excel on the football field and not have to worry about your outside life."
You were a medic in the Army. Was that something you were always interested in or did you find your calling?
"At first, my mom was really worried about the whole combat aspect. I wanted to kind of appease her a little bit. At the same time, medical care, to me at the time, was really big. I really wanted to help people. That's kind of why I played offensive line in high school. Protect the quarterback. It was sort of that same mindset. I think that's what ultimately led to me becoming a medic."
You graduated in spring of 2009. Where were you the first couple years and when did you get to Afghanistan?
"It was about a year after I enlisted. Initially, I went to basic training, looking around and I'm like, 'What did I do?' After the initial shock and awe settled down, I looked around, took a deep breath and said, 'All right, let's go.' First year was good. I spent about six months in training altogether. About two months in basic training and another four months in medic training, down in Fort Sam Houston, Texas. That was really interesting. I came home on leave, got to see my family, got to my unit in June and when September came around, we were gearing out. In October, I was on a plane to Afghanistan."
That was 2010? How much of an eye-opening experience was that?
"You're not really ready for it. Ready for it in the sense of being able to comprehend. You can function and be in an adverse conditions, function and do everything you've been training to do. It's afterwards, when you're sitting down and thinking about it, and comparing what you know back home to what you're seeing here. I think it's eye opening in a sense there's so much more that's out there that we just don't know, we as in the collective. You might see this your entire life, see Orlando, and all of a sudden you go from Orlando to Afghanistan. Different cultures, different way of life there. You are fighting in a combat zone, so you're always on guard especially when you're out on patrol. You're always looking around and having to scan your sector they call it. It was really eye opening. It helped me be a little bit more, I don't know, open minded and mature about everything I face in life. It was a definitely a positive experience there."
You were almost there for the full year and with two weeks left got hit in the grenade blast. If you don't mind talking about it, what were you doing when it happened?
"We were conducting patrols around the area because the day prior there had been a suicide vehicle bomb that went off. It caused injuries to about 80 troops because it bombed one of our outposts. I think some of the Czech troops started getting in contact and they called for QRF which is Quick Reaction Force. We went out and waited, the whole thing had settled down, then we pretty much got ambushed. Then we started to drive back and we kind of pinned these guys back down in a corner after street-to-street fighting, we had pinned them down in a corner. We were in a little town in Afghanistan. It's mostly barren, that's what people know. Mountains and barren areas, but we were in a more of a mud hut compound and there's a whole bunch of them where we were at, like a city. We were pushing from compound to compound and we got where they were at.
"What happened is an enemy combatant had come running up out of a basement. He dropped a grenade next to him as he was firing his weapon. Everyone was all focused on the weapon and didn't see him drop the grenade next to him. Myself and three others were in the direct vicinity of the blast. We all took some pretty serious shrapnel. The shock wave, the concussive wave damage."
Do you remember the moment?
"I won't get too much into it. What I saw, at first it was bright white, and then a loud sound and I was up in the air, actually flying back and there was dirt everywhere. I kind of landed smack down on my face. I was sitting there for a second. You had been deployed for 11 months and two weeks. I'm like, I'm good. I rolled over and I didn't feel anything. Okay, I think I'm all right. That's when I started looking around and saw I'm not all right. You might be in a little bit of trouble here."
Was everybody okay?
"All the Americans made it back."
Next stop was Germany?
"What happened is I was evacuated along with three other soldiers to one of our combat outposts so we can get a secure medevac because we didn't want to land in there. With the area being not secure, we didn't want a bird getting shot down. We were loaded up on the trucks and medevac'd back to the compound. We got picked up the Blackhawks there and transported to the trauma facility. I don't remember much. I remember getting unloaded off the bird and then taken to the surgery prep room. I remember them asking, this is fuzzy, putting something over my face (and I was out). I wake up nine days later in Germany. I have no idea where I'm at. I'm high on morphine and they're pulling staples out of my head. I have staples in my stomach, all my arms, stitches everywhere. Definitely an interesting experience."
What were the initial struggles after the nine days? What did you have to deal with? Rehab?
"That didn't happen for a while. Me waking up was the start of the process. I wasn't able to leave Germany because there was a complication with my intubation. I was paralyzed on the right side of my vocal cords. Now, on top of all the extensive injuries I have, I can't drink any water and I can't eat anything because it would go down into my lungs. Actually started getting pneumonia because of that. It was another complication on top of all the injuries I had. They actually had to put me on a feeding tube. Permanent IV line. They gave me little sponges they dipped in water and then said, 'Here you go. You can suck on it, but don't swallow.' I was like, all right.
"So on top of everything, my condition had to stabilize before I could fly from Landstuhl, Germany, which is the American hospital, back to San Antonio, Texas. So I had to wait a little bit. What was actually cool though is the Wounded Warrior Project worked in conjunction with the United States Army to fly my parents and my brother out because I had been there for so long. I think I was awake for two or three days and on the last day before we flew out, on a C-17 plane, my mom, dad and my brother got there. That really picked me up because there I was, I wasn't with my guys anymore."
Your unit was your family too.
"Yeah, it's my family. Just like these guys are to me now. It's my family. When you get removed from those guys very suddenly and there's no explanation, you don't have any contact. I couldn't even talk. It was different. I was trying to cope and adjust, then coming from a combat zone and you're okay now, just relax, you're injured, take it easy. It was a big transition and it really helped I think having my parents there and my brother."
Can you fast forward a little bit after that? You go through rehab and you're still on active duty through what, 2013? Was that all stateside?
"It was all stateside in Fort Polk, Louisiana. It was a struggle getting back there because even up until 2014, 2015, my body just wasn't there. Knees hurt all the time. It was hard to do the physical activity I had been so accustomed to. I still pushed through it. Little bit of pain. Change your socks, take a little ibuprofen and you're good to go."
You're playing football now. When did your body heal up, I don't know if you're even close to 100 percent, but you're good enough to play football?
"Yeah, good enough to do this. I think the realization I could actually compete came at the beginning of 2015. I actually started to really train because I was getting ready to complete my AA degree."
You were at Tallahassee Community College?
"I was there in 2013 and 2014 and finished my AA at Seminole State. I was getting ready to come to UCF and do the try outs. I wanted to start training so after a year I could get a gauge to whether I was ready to try out or not. Around my 24th brithday, I was like I think I can do this. That's when I really put the jets on and started working every day to at least get to the opporunity where I can try out and see if I can make this dream a reality."
You had some pre-existing ties to UCF?
"Both my parents were UCF alumni. My best friend, Alex Rosa, he had graduated from here."
Did you follow the team?
"I actually had a Kevin Smith jersey. I bought one my junior year in high school. I got to wear that around. I've always been a fan. I used to go to the games at the Citrus Bowl back in the day. I had teammates that went to UCF. Scotty Teal. I played with him. Played with Joey Grant. I talked to those guys briefly, just in passing. They had nothing but great reviews about this team and what it did for them. I said let's go. Let's give this a whirl."
What was it like in March with walk-on tryouts?
"They brought me on board. Spring ball was a process for me. There I was, I was excited to be there. Then I get there and the first day I get smacked in the mouth. I said all right, this is college football. This is D1 level competition. It was a transition for me, definitely. I was always the big, physical guy in the Army. I get here and you've got these monsters and these o-linemen just bossing me around a little bit. I think I won a couple in spring. But yeah, it's been a transition but it's really helped me focus and grit down, allowed me to just keep driving through. It's been a great experience."
You were playing a valuable role on the team before you even got in for your first action last week. You've been one of the primary defensive play callers, is that right? Traveling to all the games?
"I think a major reason why Coach Frost let me come in and travel was I think a little bit for my experience. I try every day to help these guys out in the sense of just trying to do the right thing. And they do the right thing. It's always great to have positive influences. During fall camp, I actually approached Coach Frost and asked him if I could talk to the players. I know it had never been done before. I gave a class too. It was just about doing your job and really just embracing the opportunity that you have right now. And to do everything the right way and always be vigilant. Nothing is ever guaranteed. Nothing is going to be handed to you."
Did the guys know about your background or maybe didn't recognize what you've gone through until you talked to them?
"I think that was the case. I showed a little bit of my helmet cam footage and let them know that this a great opportunity to be here. You've got to take this opportunity right now that you have in front of you, grab it and run with it. I think that was the message overall I was trying to bring across. Hopefully every day I can help instill a positive attitude. This is what, week 10? It might be week 10 in practice and you want to shut your brain off and coast through it, but nothing is guaranteed. We don't have bowl eligibility yet. We've got to really buckle down. Once we get that, we continue to move on. It's always that week. This game is the main focus and the main priority. This week we have an opportunity to become bowl eligible. I think it's a good goal to get to, but we need this win, this week especially, to really continue this momentum shift that we have in the program. Let's get the win. That's the main goal week to week."
How much of a rush was it getting into the game last week?
"It's definitely not like my first start in high school. This time I was more focused because I had already been, not so much in pressure situations, but situations that let me know and helped me think clearly. It felt great. I felt in the zone. I haven't really felt like that in a long time. I lined up over the center and nothing. I didn't hear the crowd. I got the play call. Said okay. Focused on my assignment and keyed the back, where he's at? Right there, okay. Got my hands on him and strike."
You got a tackle on that series?
"Yeah, I got a tackle and an assist."
Your family was there?
"My dad was here. My mom lives in Colorado. My dad and girlfriend were here. My dad got a little teary eyed. I don't think he wanted to admit it, but I could tell when he was talking to me that he wiped it away real quick when I wasn't looking. It was definitely a great experience. It just goes to show that whatever obstacles that you might have or might be facing, if you just push through it and make yourself a realistic and attainable goal, you just really work at it, it can become a reality. It doesn't have to be luck. 'Oh, he got lucky,' or something like that. It's your hard work paying off. Hard work does pay off. A lot of people say it doesn't, but it does. Even if you might not get the thing that you've been striving for, you have opened yourself up to plenty of other opportunities that you're going to have in life. To answer your question, it was great."
You're a junior? What degree are you pursuing?
"I'm pursuing a psychology degree. Initially it was pre-med and the hospital route. Being a medic, pre-med, I was like, let's go ahead and do that. But I like talking to people. I like getting to know them a little bit and finding out who they are instead of treating a symptom you might have. I'm majoring in psychology and I'm getting a certificate in intelligence and national security. I might want to pursue some federal work once I graduate college. I've got the background for it. It might be a route that I'd like to take. The United States is a great place. I love it. Whatever I can do to help out, I think that's why I'm here."
