March 5, 2009

By Paul Kasabian (For the Patriot League Basketball Tournament Program)

Will Morse should not be playing basketball in the Patriot League Tournament.

In fact, he's just fortunate to be there.

In August 2005, after getting struck by a lightning bolt and waiting more than seven hours for medical personnel to attend to him in Northern Ontario, Morse suffered much physical and mental anguish over an 18-month period that turned out to be the most trying and arduous time in his life.

However, Morse is healthy enough today to be one of Colgate's best shooters and main contributors off the bench, and he is also on track to graduate in May. Call it Divine Intervention, luck, fate, Will's perseverance, or a combination of them all, but the long and sinuous road Morse took just to get to where he is today is a story that is nothing short of a miracle.

Morse, his father Mike, and two other father-son groups went on a fishing trip up to Vixen Lake, which is located in Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park in Northern Ontario. After a day of fishing, Will was in a tent waiting out a bad thunderstorm at night with three other members of his group, while the other two campers stayed in another tent. All of a sudden, a lightning bolt struck a tree and deflected into Will's tent. The bolt went through Morse's shoulder and out his ankle.

"I got thrown three feet into the air, and then I felt my muscles tighten up," Morse said. "My whole body couldn't move and I felt paralyzed. Then I told my dad that I felt like I was going to die."

Morse started to seizure and foam at the mouth, and then his body went motionless.

"After the point I stopped seizuring, I guess you could call me dead," Morse said. "I didn't move. For maybe 3-4 minutes I wasn't breathing. I was dead."

At that point, the campers started to pray, and miraculously, Morse regained consciousness two minutes later.

It took medical personnel from Peterborough, Ontario more than seven hours to reach the men due to the weather. Using a helicopter was not an option because of the terrible storm, so they actually had to come in by rowboat. A disoriented, sore and numb Morse had little control over his own body movements in the hours after the lightning strike and felt as though he played in a really physical football game. But the true physical and mental ailments didn't end when those symptoms subsided.

"I didn't start having problems until about four weeks afterwards," Morse recalled. "I remember noticing having no short-term memory to the point where I could read a title off a book and not remember what I just read."

At this point, Morse was in the beginning of his first semester at Colgate after transferring from St. Bonaventure. Being a transfer student in a new environment while adjusting to a new set of classmates and teammates is tough enough, but Will had to perform those tasks while handling horrific mental pains.

"I just had really crazy mood swings and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder," Morse said. "I'd constantly be on edge, and it just really freaked me out. It was really tough with my classes and I had to drop classes and I couldn't remember anything. It was a really challenging time."

Morse recounted one particular incident during this time where his mood swings were especially awry.

"I specifically remember one day waking up in a great mood for my class and opening up the door to my classroom, and I just felt more depressed than I could ever imagine and feeling borderline suicidal. I just snapped like that from one thing to another."

The physical ailments persisted for 10-12 months. During that time, Willie could not work out for more than a couple minutes without feeling extraordinarily sore or fatigued, and he was a "step slow." It took a little over a year for everything else to subside, though Morse says that he didn't feel totally normal for a year and a half after that fateful night in August.

"I basically had to wait [the ordeal] out, and there's no one that can tell you anything because [getting hit by lightning] is such a rare occurrence," Morse said.

Today, aside from the aches and pains that come from a grueling NCAA Division I basketball schedule, Morse is completely healthy. But the memories of that night, its aftermath and the lessons he learned still stick with him today.

"I'm feeling blessed to live every day, and it made me value my health a lot more," Morse said. "I definitely have a greater sense of purpose, and I'm kind of figuring out that I'm around for a reason hopefully."

Whatever Willie's final purpose in life may be, today he most certainly stands as a model for resiliency and toughness against overwhelming odds.