How do you thank a community that has bailed you out three times in your life, and you are only 68? I remember my Dad once told me, “Son, when you feel totally overwhelmed by someone’s generosity toward you and you can’t find the words, just be humble and a simple thank you will do. They will know all the rest of what you wanted to say.” John T. was a simple man, but had more wisdom than any man I have ever known.

The benefit was wonderful. As I lay in bed that night I thought about the program. It clearly had four different parts:

1. I felt I had been to a religious service with Coach Barton’s opening prayer.

2. I had been in the locker room for a game plan meeting. “Marshall” Mike Dillon was the coach. He explained the problem better than any doctor I had talked to and then he explained the game plan we needed to put in to reach our goal. Simply awesome. I think the entire audience bought into the plan. Coach Barton’s part had given us faith, now “D”, as he is called in Athens, has given us the plan that would work. I am already fired up and can’t wait for the next part.

3. UGA’s head baseball coach, David Perno, gives us one of the most inspiring pre-game talks I have ever heard. Even better than my old coach, Fred Tucker. Sorry coach, just THOUGHT you were the best. After he finished, I am thinking, just please put me in coach, I’m ready to play? This is it; it just can’t get any better than this.

4. Then, they bring in Todd Veazey, my son/son-in-law to express his thanks. We had talked earlier in the day and both had decided we could not handle this ourselves. We would write our thank you notes and let someone else read them. Jim Clayton, the master of ceremonies, read mine and I thought I did the right thing. No way I could have said that without embarrassing myself. I know where Todd got the strength to do what he did. He got it from God. Afterwards, I hugged him and told him I was prouder of him than I was of Chance when Chance had a good game. Folks, I know this, he is a better man than I am. Somehow, I thought we had won this game and were celebrating it even though we all knew it was going to be a long season. But on this night, we had won!

Dr. Leslie, the medical director of Shepherd Spinal Center, gave Chance a one-day pass for Thanksgiving Day. He gave Chance this pass because Chance has progressed faster than any patient he had seen with this type of injury — and folks, he has seen a lot. We are overjoyed. His accident and operation had happened less than a month ago. I thought the seven-hour round trip drive from Atlanta to home and back after a Thanksgiving meal would be too much. Shepherd’s rule is you have to be back by 10 p.m. and you don’t bend their rules. It reminds me of one of my quotes to the girls I coached. “It’s hard, but it’s fair.” I borrowed the quote from Coach Tucker as he said it to me in high school. By the way, he coached my 12-year-old grandson in football this past season. He’s been around a while!

Skip Hill stepped in again. He packed Darby, Todd, Carly Chance and wheelchair in his airplane and flew them into Tifton early Thanksgiving morning. We had the whole day with Chance. He spent time with his honey, Molly, on his own sofa watching TV with his dog, Ace, by his side. That made it worth all the effort it took to make this happen. I saw another miracle today. I drove back up to the house about 4 p.m. to find out when they needed me to get the car for the transfer back to the plane for the trip back to Atlanta. I met his uncles, Cottles and Veazeys, one on each corner of his wheelchair coming out of the door of his house. They “manned” him up into the back of Tye’s pickup and jumped in around him. He was dressed in full camouflage with the Eskimo hat Sheriff Vowell had brought him. He would not be cold! The two large families laughed and made fun of the way he looked. I am surprised, shocked, and amazed. I yelled, “What’s going on?” Dusty replied “He wants to go hunting. Why not?” I thought, Lord please protect him and don’t let his uncles finish him off. I don’t think Shepherd would approve of the way they were handling him. Dusty again said not to worry that they would keep the tailgate closed until they reached the woods. I turned to Scott Veazey, another uncle, and said, “I’m sorry Scott. I now admit the Cottles are JUST as crazy as the Veazeys.” He replied, “But there are more of us.” What a scene as Tye’s pickup pulled off loaded down with two crazy families. I thought, that’s okay Lord, they are happy and together, but please take care of them. It is way after dark when they came back, but all seemed excited. I thought they must have killed a deer. Tye said, “Dad, he had a nice eight-point dead in his sights and wouldn’t pull the trigger!” I asked Chance why. He said, “Papa, today I just wanted to go to the woods and maybe see a deer. I let this one walk. Next time I’ll see a bigger one.” Good excuse, but I don’t think that’s all. I think that it was his way of giving thanks on this day.

Anyway, I gave my thanks as I watched Skip and the Todd Veazey family fly off into the night. I guess the best way to describe the day would be to listen to Sam. Sam kept me up until 4 a.m. Thanksgiving morning. I put him in charge of getting the “Welcome Home” banners in place before Chance arrived. I told an excited Sam, “This is going to be the best Thanksgiving I have seen in my 68 years.”

Sam’s comment was, “Papa, this has already been the best Thanksgiving of my life.” I told him I didn’t have time to help him. I had to pick up Chance at the airport. He said, “Don’t worry Papa. I’ll handle it.” I went to Butch and Jerri Davis’ house for a cup of coffee then on to Gary and Mary Anne Simmons’ house for another cup. Sam called in a panic. “Papa, Drew Davis isn’t at home to help me. What do we do now?” The Cottles and the Davis’ live on “the hill” as we call it. I said, “There is no ‘we’ Sam. You told me you could handle this.” I hung up the phone and continued to sip my coffee. I’m loving seeing him under pressure. When we drove up the drive, there were four eight-foot banners. We had to drive and a “WELCOME HOME CHANCE” banner Sam had tied to the trees on each side of the driveway. Each banner had the big “G” logo on it and was done in red and black on white canvas. On the other three he had even used their pet names. For Todd, it read “Welcome Home Roonie.” For Carly it was “Love you Brother.” Darby’s read “Sic’m Big Man.” He is not 5-foot-9, as they listed him in the program, but he IS a “big man.” How could Sam come up with this all on his own? Anyway, he got the banners up, did it on time and everything was perfect. He grew up a little today. This was his day. He had done this to help his cousin. He was looking for something to do because his brother, Cody, has been planning a giant garage sale to make money for Chance. I have never seen Cody so excited about anything. He is also growing up because of this tragedy.

I had time to visit with Monty Veazey after the Thanksgiving meal. I asked who put the program together. He said the Shiver girls, but I think the slow-talking, smooth, low-key Monty had something to do with it too. I talked with several people since then who have told me they would have liked to have put in bids on the silent auction items, but just could not leave the program to do so. What a night!.

I think every person needs a hero. Someone to look up to. Someone to measure themselves against. Someone to inspire them. Someone for them to try to immolate. My family hero has always been Papa Tom, Chance’s great-granddad. We always talk about him at family gatherings. He lives on in our memories, but I think since this tragedy has happened, the family has a new hero — Chance Cottle Veazey. Maybe Papa Tom has passed the torch and I bet he smiled as he did it. I only wish Chance could have known him. They both had and have a lot of the same qualities. We will continue to talk about the man Papa Tom was but he will have to share some time with Chance. I don’t think he will mind at all.

Marshall Mike Dillon expressed it best how I feel about Tifton. He told the audience during the program that he knew Mark Richt was being criticized now, but if anyone let him hear it he would take his glasses off and take the person outside. I think now you had better not criticize Coach Richt in Tift County. You might get your hand called. That is the way I feel about Tifton and Tift County. I’ll be happy to back it up.

A humble thank you to all of you. Keep the faith and know that the Cottle and Veazey families are fine. We have each other and we have you. Continue to pray for us — it’s working every day. Chance is playing in a much bigger game than if he was leading off the College World Series Championship game for the national title.



We love you all,



Tommy Cottle and the Cottle and Veazey families