Senior Night ceremonies are always emotional for players and their families, but for Christian County High School baseball player Jace Blue and his family, Thursday night’s ceremonies brought an overflow of happy tears.
Blue is an outfielder for the Colonels. He started his first game of his high school career Thursday against Trigg County in the team’s final home game in school history. The anticipation of the moment was almost too much to take.
Let’s back up about six years.
Blue was a talented middle school player whose future was bright. But on Halloween in Memphis in 2020, all of that changed.
The 13-year-old, who had suffered from Asthma attacks before, was at a travel tournament with his father, Jared, himself a former Christian County High School baseball star. Jace told his dad he wasn’t breathing well after his games.
Jared recognized something wasn’t right and put Jace in his car to take him to get care. Then in the blink of an eye, Jace’s condition worsened.
Jace went into cardiac arrest twice and he spent weeks in the hospital until doctors determined he had Delayed Posthypoxic Leukoencephalapothy – a rare condition that follows a brain incident where a lack of oxygen is present.
While his father was with him at the time of the attack, Jace’s mother, Karly Blane, was in Hopkinsville and remembers praying all the way to Memphis.
Jace lost his ability to see speak, eat, move – everything entirely.
“The only way we knew he was in there and alert with us was by communicating through raising his eyebrows and blinking,” his mother said. “It was terrifying.”
Jace recalls being frustrated with his condition.
Blane said with some brain injuries, patients can get “locked in syndrome” where they are 100-percent all there, but no part of their body allows them to communicate that with people. This went on for several weeks.
After nearly three weeks at the Memphis hospital and countless tests, Jace was moved to The Shepherd Center in Atlanta, a private not-for-profit hospital specializing in medical treatment. There he underwent extensive rehabilitation.
Before Halloween of 2020, Jace was on the fast track to a successful high school baseball career. He joined the varsity team in 2019 and played in his first varsity game in March of 2020. Then came Covid and the season was brought to a crashing halt.
When Jace returned home from the Shepherd inpatient and outpatient in 2021, school and sports had resumed after the Covid lockdown.
Christian County Head Baseball Coach Trey Wheeler met with Jace and told him, “As long as I’m the coach of CCHS baseball you have a spot on our team,” Blane said.
Jace began practicing and playing with the team.
Fast forward to 2024.
Cole Isom took over as head baseball coach at Christian County. Isom had played high school baseball with Jared and knew Jace well. At the age of 9, Jace had started taking pitching lessons with Isom.
The two have a special relationship and Isom said he has never treated Jace differently than any other player.
Jace also made a lifetime friend on the baseball team. Johnny Lewis transferred to Christian County and joined the baseball team. It didn’t take long for them to become best friends.
Lewis said they always hang out together, talk about baseball, religion, and Jace even helps him with his swing.
Jace, who says he spends a lot of time studying the Bible, also talked to Lewis about giving his life to Christ. It culminated with a Baptism in a cow pond near Crofton.
Blane said she is thankful for the baseball players and their friendship and support of Jace, but there are days her son still struggles mentally with understanding what was lost. But she admires how he stays positive.
It’s not always easy for Jace. He admits that he struggles with the perception people have when they see him.
On Thursday night, there was nothing different about Jace than the rest of his senior teammates. He took center field and was back in the spot he coveted. Right next to him in the outfield was his best friend, Lewis, who was there to “back him up.”
Jared said of all the seniors on the field, he is full of pride thinking about what his son has been through.
Once this baseball season ends, the Colonels will go in different directions. Several have already signed baseball scholarships. Others will head to college and some will go straight to the work force.
For Jace, the next chapter in his life is the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab, an independent living facility in Chicago. There, he hopes to be able to gain more independence.
His goal is to enroll at the University of Kentucky in the Fall of 2027 and begin his pursuit of a Psychology degree.
You better not count him out.
Photos by Peyton Biaquis