As we near the end of the 2004 Lobo football season, UNM is in bowl contention for the third straight year with a 6-4 mark. This was supposed to be a rebuilding year according to many football “experts” due losing many seniors on the defensive side of the line last year and an undersized defensive line this year.

Our football team’s weakness in truth has turned out to be the strength of the team. The poster guy for over achieving with an over achieving line is the subject of this Loboland story and interview.

Senior defensive end Kyle Coulter rarely garners any publicity in the media but he quietly contributes to a defensive line that absolutely shuts down the run and pound for pound has to be one of the most overachieving defensive lines in the entire country.

Coulter is about to close his football career at the University of New Mexico, and simply making that statement in itself is quite a story once readers comprehend the physical challenges number 96 has had to face in order to play football on a team that has excelled in overcoming challenges.

Right from the get go Kyle has had to overcome physical obstacles and he is like the energizer rabbit – in spite of his challenges he just keeps going and going when most others would quit. His physical battles started at birth, being born a month premature and having to spend time in an incubator. Even being born one month premature his mom and dad, Paula and Royce Coulter, had a clue he would become a football linemen as he still weighed in at 8 ½ pounds.

His physical challenges continued as an infant, as he had to battle severe allergies and had chronic ear infections, having to have tubes placed in his ears before reaching his first birthday. Adding to his health struggles was a skin condition called dermatagraphia (a condition that causes the skin to whelp from simply being touched) and a bout with measles even after getting the proper immunizations. He was nearly lost twice at a very young age due to reactions to antibiotics and a poor immune system.

Due to chronic strep infections over the years, at age 11 Kyle had to have a tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy, and these operations have impacted his health as a Lobo. It is believed the anesthesia affected his heart as he ended up in Intensive Care while doctors struggled for some time to stabilize his heart. From this incident Kyle developed an arrhythmia, which is basically an irregular heart beat.

Each year before getting involved in sports, and getting involved this over-comer did as he played multiple sports, Kyle had to have his heart tested before he was cleared to play.

Fortunately his will to play allowed him to play ironman football (playing both sides of the ball) in the hot and humid Oklahoma fall, baseball during the hotter summer, and track in the spring. During this time Kyle had not had any serious episodes of tachycardia or atrial fib, conditions that were generally not life threatening but serious enough to be concerned about.

But of course it seems like things are not normal when they are normal with Kyle because he had to overcome another health challenge the summer before his junior year in high school. After a stay in France that summer Kyle returned weak and thin. The source of the problem was never determined but whatever it was it caused his liver enzymes to be elevated (elevated levels can indicate liver damage), high blood pressure, and other health problems.

Kyle had his share of normal injuries (well, normal for Kyle) in high school.

He still has a plate with screws in his ankle from an ankle injury, he tore is mcl twice, dislocated his shoulder, broke his foot, hurt his elbow several times, the list goes on and on! But Kyle as usual overcame and actually got some football time in between visits to Doctors and hospitals.

And he made good of the time he had! As a senior for Sapulpa High School, in Sapulpa Oklahoma he registered 120 tackles and had 9 sacks, as well has having three fumble recoveries. That was just his production on one side of the ball. On the other side he caught 25 passes for 880 yards and scored three touchdowns. And these stats were accomplished in only 8 and ½ games as he missed 2 and ½ games due to injuries. Kyle would play wherever needed as he played linebacker, tight end (880 yards are a ton of yards for a tight end!) fullback, wingback, and nose guard.

His efforts earned him such accolades as being named All State by the Daily Oklahoman and The Tulsa World, Coaches All State, All Metro his junior and senior years, Co-player of the year in district 6A-3, and was listed in the Top 50 Oklahoma Prospect List to name a few of his honors.

Kyle not only overachieved and exhibited leadership qualities on the football field, but excelled and led in the classroom, being elected to student council and as a member of a Crisis Council Management Team for his high school.

In other sports he was the only Junior to place in the discuss at the Oklahoma State Track Meet and was an outstanding baseball player. He hit over .400 as a sophomore, led his team in home runs with 7, and had control of a nasty split finger fast-ball.

But Kyle’s first love was football, and after being recruited by Arkansas, Texas Tech, Kansas State, and Texas A&M to name a few, #96 decided to become a Lobo. As a nose guard his first three seasons Kyle has been a productive Lobo, an overachiever and over-comer especially when considering his physical challenges that occurred as a Lobo. When Kyle arrived in the summer of 2000 his parents provided the coaches health records of his heart history as a precautionary measure.

These records never had time to gather dust as his heart began to race wildly during a practice that fall. His heart did stabilize without having to go to the hospital, but was cause enough for his parents to make their first trip of many to Albuquerque in order to deal with health issues.

And this first trip back to the Duke City caused quite a scare for Paula and Royce! When trying to determine the cause of Kyle’s heart episode the initial diagnosis from the team physician was primary pulmonary hypertension, a condition that usually ends up deadly in 2 to 5 years. A battery of tests quickly ruled out this condition, much to the relief of all those involved.

But “episodes” were becoming all too common. What would happen during these episodes is Kyle’s heart would race to a point where it felt like exploding, causing a shortness of breath when it occurred. The concern was if his heart could not be brought back to a normal rhythm it could become life threatening.

The team physician determined Kyle could practice, but not without having to wear a heart monitor while practicing. The hope was to capture an episode on tape, but this tactic proved unfruitful as sweat, contact, and football pads made it difficult to get good readings. This was not the only challenge he had to face his first year. Shoulder problems are a common hazard for baseball players, but as a baseball player in high school Kyle suffered uncommon shoulder pain. The pain lingered on and it was discovered he had a bone deterioration condition in his clavicle.

After his first fall semester at UNM Kyle had to have surgery to remove the tip of his left clavicle. He returned home to recover from surgery during the holiday break. The Coulter residence resembled a hospital recovery room during that break as Kyle’s brother Chris was also home recovering from a surgery. Kyle continues to experience pain and he still needs to have future surgery to remove the tip of his right clavicle.

The good news was his heart episodes diminished so his first season playing football he mainly had only to deal with the normal injuries that occur with football players. Keep in mind what is normal for Kyle Coulter would not be normal for anyone else. Kyle suffered a knee injury in fall camp of his red shirt year, an injury that limited his playing time for much of the season.

Things began to return to normal by Kyle’s definition of normal (normal: overcoming unusual health challenges). He began to experience a severe shortness of breath toward the end of his freshmen red-shirt year. By the spring of Kyle’s sophomore year he could hardly walk up the stairs of his home without having to catch his breath, he even had problems simply walking to his classes. The constant stress due to not knowing what was going on in light of knowing there is a heart problem contributed to stress related problems such as hair loss.

By this time wearing a heart monitor was becoming commonplace with the purpose of once again trying to record an episode, and once again no luck in capturing useful readings. Kyle was also keeping a journal to record any symptoms and episodes.

Kyle now had to see a specialist in the field of cardiology, an electrophysiologist. It was determined that Kyle had seven areas of his heart that were misfiring, sending out signals causing the rapid heartbeats. He was given medications, including beta blockers, but these meds did not have the desired effect so arraignments were made for a procedure called an ablation.

There was nothing routine about this procedure and very few physicians were qualified to perform it. It was a measure used when normal medications failed to correct this problem, and this was the case concerning Kyle.

This operation consists of running catheters up through the veins in the leg and other areas so a device can reach his heart to cauterize (burn) the spots in his heart that were misfiring. This is done by intentionally causing the heart to fibrillate, in other words induce an attack of tachycardia so the bad spots can be mapped. Kyle was awake and alert during this whole process so he can give the Doctors feedback.

Unfortunately, this procedure that was performed the summer before Kyle’s junior year ended up being unsuccessful. Since is heart has not been as problematic this procedure will have to be performed sometime after his football career is over.

It is not hard to imagine during this time how very frustrating and worrisome these problems were to the Coulters, as they were throwing up more than their fair share of prayers for their son during this particularly tough time. And Kyle’s family has no doubt their prayers were answered as they discovered the pioneer of this procedure just so happened to be at the University of Oklahoma, not far from their home. So they are optimistic the second needed ablation that is yet to be performed will be fruitful.

His heart was only one of the serious health challenges the Coulters had to deal with, another major concern was the severe shortness of breath Kyle experienced. A pulmonologist in Tulsa was seen to figure out what was behind this condition. The seriousness of the episodes curtailed Kyle’s practice time as there was a concern for small embolisms, which can occur in anyone that experiences repetitive hits, the type of hits a lineman would experience often. Along with a heart not exactly working the way it should he now had lungs to be concerned about.

After the respiratory symptoms grew increasingly more serious over time, finally, a pulmonologist in Albuquerque diagnosed Kyle with asthma. Asthma was ruled out in his first year when looking for answers to his heart problems, so this was a condition that developed after that point. Now the trainer (affectionately referred to as the “angel trainer” by Paula Coulter) had to carry around an inhaler along with a heart monitor during practice.

As the season was underway things seemed to be looking up for Kyle.

His heart episodes were becoming less frequent and after a few games the asthma was being controlled more and more with the use of medication and inhalers. But then there was the Texas Tech game, and his third major health challenge. Kyle took a late hit in that game, a hit that injured his back. He played with pain the rest of the season and was often up much of the night due to intense pain.

With the help of medication he was able to finish out the rest of the season, but not without a price. Already undersized for a lineman, he now was losing weight, dropping to a low of 225 pounds. He weighed less at this point of his career then when he played high school ball!

In spite of the pain, medications, and weight loss Kyle continued to play and contribute for a defensive line that was among the top programs in the country at stopping the run. He continued to overcome and play with tremendous pain right up through the first half of the Las Vegas Bowl game on Christmas Eve.

Toward the end of the first half he suffered a concussion and at that point Kyle’s season was over. While most families were enjoying Christmas Eve with their families and loved ones, the Coulters were up all night and into the morning in a Las Vegas hospital emergency room while their son was being tended to.

The rest of the holiday season was not much better for the Coulter family due to the many visits to specialists and the time spent in rehab. Kyle continues to receive shots in his back to ease the pain and loosen the back enough so that Kyle could play.

As I was reading about Kyle’s medical history (Kyle’s mom provided so much detailed information I feel as I should list her as a co-author for this article!) I kept wondering how tough this had to be on his parents as well as on himself. Many parents would have said, “enough is enough” and urged their child to quit. But the Coulters are not your typical parents, after all, how many football parents drive thousands and thousands of miles each season to attend all their son’s games?

When I asked Paula how she dealt with all this her reply made it clear to me his parents were a major reason why Kyle was such an overcomer. She acknowledged what every parent knows – it is very difficult to see your child participate in an activity that carries such risk for injury because a built in part of parents are to shield and protect their children from harm.

But as parents, the Coulters understood there will be challenges in life (Kyle’s dad, Royce, was an athlete himself and knew what challenges were all about) and you grow by facing your challenges and not running from them.

But there are times the challenges in life we face can seem insurmountable, and the Coulters faced many of those times with Kyle. All the Coulters credited their faith in God to giving them the strength to overcome. God has been their strength and their rock.

The more a person experiences God’s intervention in their life the greater their faith becomes to handle future challenges, and the Coulters now feel they can handle anything life throws at them. Even with such great faith the Coulters admitted their biggest hurdle was dealing with the fact that God’s timeline and plan was not always the same timeline and plan they would have chosen.

So patience was learned along with obtaining strength from their experiences. Paula believes God has chosen to make lemonade out of the lemons in Kyle’s life, and Kyle’s challenges are the ingredients that are going to eventually make a pitcher of some great tasting lemonade!

Before I close on part I of this interview I want to directly quote Paula on her statement concerning the care received by Kyle at UNM. She said, “I would be remiss not to mention the EXTRAORDINARY support from all the coaches, trainers, and doctors at UNM. How do we thank them for their care and understanding? They have all been a godsend to us!” Well Paula, you just did!