Friday, August 22, 2008 11:10 PM CDT
After losing son, EIU player leans on teammates
By BRIAN NIELSEN, Sports Editor
bnielsen@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON -- As Eastern Illinois football teammates were starting preseason practice, Seymour Loftman held his dying baby in his arms.
After months of fighting, Elijah James Loftman, who was born prematurely, could fight no longer.
“When they pulled the plug, I felt like a piece of my heart was torn away,” Seymour Loftman said. “At the time, I felt I couldn’t do anything anymore. I felt I had nothing else to live for.”
But while losing a son, Loftman also saw he was not alone.
“It’s a family here at Eastern and the guys made sure I was back and took care of me,” he said. “At first it was very nerve-wracking. But guys just asked me if I was alright. I just appreciate everybody’s prayers for me and for my son.”
Maybe this was a case of player being an example to coaches like defensive secondary coach Bobby Babich, whose wife, Lacey, gave birth to their first child earlier in the summer.
“It really shook me up,” Babich said. “It made me be a lot more grateful. It made me appreciate life a lot more.
“He’s handled it better than I think anybody at his age could have.”
Also seeing life from a different perspective these days is defensive coordinator Roc Bellantoni.
“I know when you’re tired and come home trying to get the kids to bed, you look at things a little differently,” Bellantoni said. “I told him something positive has come from it.”
This obviously dwarfed what might have seemed like a tragedy a year earlier when EIU’s 2006 starting safety learned a rotator cuff injury would force a redshirt junior year.
Now dedicating his next two college football seasons to his son, Loftman not only is looking to overcome this tragedy but the 2007 season lost to injury.
After ranking fifth on the team in tackles and helping the Panthers to a postseason playoff berth as a sophomore, he was named to last year’s Preseason All-Ohio Valley Conference team.
After a season of watching from the sideline, Loftman was nowhere to be found in this year’s preseason selections by OVC coaches and sports information directors.
Have they forgotten the safety who had an interception in four straight games two years ago?
“Yes, I think so,” Loftman said. “It’s kind of funny. People do forget about you. I just use all the negatives as motivation just as I use my son as motivation.”
Last year before the redshirt decision Seymour was going to be the lone returning starter for an otherwise untested defensive backfield.
Now not only is he joining two teammates in the secondary who received Preseason All-OVC recognition in Rashad Haynes and Ke’Andre Sams but last spring Seymour became the new guy getting used to Babich, who became Eastern’s new defensive backs coach a year ago.
“It’s a lot of technique stuff that is different from coach (Noah) Joseph,” Seymour said of the previous defensive backs coach. “The year I was off I was in the meeting room but I didn’t soak it all in. I had to learn all the little things.”
After starting through last year, the strong safety Sams is the senior passing along some advice to the redshirt junior Loftman.
“Ke’Andre is really the hardest worker I know,” Loftman said. “He’s made me a lot better. When I’m on the field I think my instincts will take over.”
Loftman started making up for lost time during spring practice.
“I think he’s adjusted well,” Babich said. “He’s done a great job to be at the level of all the other guys with my coaching style. He’ll be fine.
“He is what you call the proverbial football player. He’s not going to go out on the track and run the great 40-yard dash. He’s just going to be a tackler and can make the play when it comes his way.”
Bellantoni said of Loftman’s spring practices: “He opened our eyes a little bit. He would have made a big difference last year, I think. We were pretty excited to get him back.”
Then came another setback.
After the initial shock of learning his girlfriend was pregnant at the same time he was coping with an injury-spoiled 2007 season, Loftman considered his son a blessing.
But after the baby was born prematurely with a bad lung, eventually no hope remained as an artificial respirator was turned off.
“It was the hardest decision of my life,” Loftman said. “I called my parents. She called her parents. We made the decision to send him to a better place.”
A few weeks later, the hurt lingers.
“You always worry about how it’s going to affect a guy,” Bellantoni said. “It’s been really nice to have him back, both in football and back to our family. He’s pretty tight with a bunch of our guys. He’s a pretty popular guy. Everybody has done something or said something to help him get through it.”
Loftman said: “There’s no way I can not think about it. I make sure when I’m on the football field I’m thinking football. I still was obligated to my team. At first you feel you don’t want to do anything but football is like a getaway for me. It’s the only game where you can just go hit somebody.”
Loftman may be able to do that as well as ever.
“Physically, he’s a tackler,” Bellantoni said. “If a year off can help you, I think it did as far as his maturity. I think he’s faster than two years ago and he was pretty good then.”
Saying his shoulder is fine and his game refined, the 5-foot-11, 197-pound Seymour wants his Thursday’s 6 p.m. opener at Central Michigan to show he has taken another step from when his strong sophomore season.
“We’ll see Aug. 28 but I feel I’m a lot better,” the former American Heritage (Fla.) High School player said.
Plus, Loftman plans not only for his own recognition and not only to help Eastern Illinois win but for Elijah James Loftman.
“I know,” the grieving football player said, “he’ll be watching me.”
Contact Brian Nielsen at bnielsen@jg-tc.com or 238-6856.
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