Feb. 20, 2008

Senior Jeff Thomas will be blogging throughout the season about his experiences as a member of the Huskie baseball team. The outfielder from Loves Park, Ill., has made 91 career starts and was the starting leftfielder each of the past two seasons. Thomas' latest posting addresses the Feb. 14 tragedy on the NIU campus and the beginning of the healing process since that day.

First of all I want to give my condolences to the families of the victims of last week's tragedy on our campus. Those events on February 14, 2008 are something that I will always remember and have in my heart. I never would have thought something like that could ever have happened at this school. I did not personally know Daniel Parmenter, Catalina Garcia, Ryanne Mace, Julianna Gehant, or Gayle Dubowski, but they were apart of the NIU community, so in my eyes that makes them family.

It happened as I was driving home from batting practice from the campus rec center. I saw the police cars flying by, but didn't think anything that serious was going on so I just went on without any worries. I got a voicemail from one of my coaches saying that there had been an incident on campus. Then all of a sudden I received a dozen or so more text messages and voice mails from all my friends and family either making sure I was okay or informing me of what was going on.

I was in disbelief of what had happened and couldn't really bring myself to accept it until I saw all the helicopters and watching the news. I tried to text or call all my friends to see if they were okay, but my phone had no service and I'm sure everybody in the area had the same problem, because of everyone calling in and out at the time. It is a scary thought to think someone that you know could be seriously hurt.

It's a difficult time for our team right now because of what happened and because our season opener at Texas Tech was cancelled. After a few days away from campus we have been trying to get back into the swing of things this week, but it has not been the same after returning following a tragedy like this. I think our team has the strength to get through this difficult time and refocus toward returning to the field and having a successful season.

Until next time...Be strong NIU.

JT