David Carle thought he would be following in his older brother, Matt Carle’s footsteps this year, instead, he’s off the ice, but blogging for ESPN.
In the preliminary medical exams before the NHL entry-level draft over the summer, Carle was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a rare and fatal thickening of the heart that runs him at risk of sudden death during physical activity, forcing him into an early retirement from hockey.
“It was definitely a hard time of my life and I’m still dealing with it now and trying to move on,” Carle said. “I think that the best thing for me to cope is trying to look at the positives of the situations and focus on those rather than asking what if and what it could have been.”
Physically, Carle can still work out, although not nearly at the same intensity as he used to. His doctors advised him to keep his heart rate below 160 to be on the safe side and no heavy exertions or heavy lifting.
Despite being unable to play for DU, it was decided that the university would honor his scholarship and appointed to a specially created position of a student assistant coach.
Carl’s role as a student assistant coach is still being defined as he is getting to know the team as much as he can and helping with what he sees during practices and games.
“It is a new experience that no one has ever gone through,” Carle said on being the first student assistant coach. “You don’t really know what to expect so in that sense it’s somewhat exciting, the coaching staff here is kind of forging a new path in that regard. It’s unfortunate the way it came about, but it’s still trying to make the best of the situation.”
As an assistant coach, Carle still attends every practice, meeting and game as he would if he were competing.
“I’m here just as much as the players are most of the time,” he said. “It’s still a serious time commitment, it’s obviously not the physical stain that the players go through but it is time consuming”
As the brother of former Pioneer, Hobey Baker and current Tampa Bay Lightning defender, Carle’s story has become high profile as well as the recent and unfortunate deaths of Mickey Renaud and Alexei Cherepanov there has been a continued awareness for this silent killer.
Carle will be blogging for ESPNU as he continues to develop his role on the staff and raise awareness for HCM.
“I think the main goal of it is to just give people an insight of what a student-assistant coach is and what I’m going through,” Carle said. “It’s definitely a goal of mine to start raising awareness and get involved.”
Throughout these last four months, Carle has had to deal with his diagnosis, being a freshman in college and being an assistant coach for a Division I school. It’s no easy task.
“It’s definitely been a lot of changes in a short period of time,” Carle said. “I just try to cope with it day by day take each challenge one at a time.
“It’s tough to sometimes wear all those different hats with the guys cause you have to be their friend, their teammate, their coach, their colleague and also their mentor. Trying to wear all these different hats at different times and pick and choose which one to wear, so I guess that’s the most difficult part.”
With Carle’s progressing role with the team there are definitely possibilities of it evolving to something more significant during his four years.
“There’s definitely a lot of opportunity and a lot of doors that could be open if I take them all pretty seriously,” Carle said. It’s still something I’m feeling out to see if it’s something I have a passion for.”
Carle’s biweekly blog, entitled “Life off the ice that doesn’t lack hockey,” can be found in the ESPNU section of espn.com.
