Dennis Clark
The Tribune-Star
TERRE HAUTE —
You often hear about talented professional athletes removing themselves from competition for an endless variety of seemingly “not-too-serious” injuries.
Well, these athletes could learn a lesson or two … or three from Terre Haute North senior-to-be Jacob Exline.
Simply stated, Exline has an unquenchable passion for playing golf.
So much so, that the three-year veteran of North’s boys golf team hid for the longest time from his parents, coach and teammates that he was getting tired — a key symptom in his lifelong battle dealing with a faulty heart valve.
His condition is called “Tetralogy of Fallot,” which is a congenital heart defect that involves four anatomical abnormalities.
Exline underwent closed heart surgery when he was just nine months old, a problem detected after being taken to the doctor for an ear infection. He had his first open heart surgery at age 2 1/2, closing a hole the size of a quarter.
On June 17, he underwent his second open heart surgery, a heart valve replacement procedure at Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis. This surgery on a Thursday was deemed successful, and he was back home the following Monday.
“This pretty much changed the valve I’ve had since I was two,” Exline said of his latest surgery. His new valve is a bovine valve, which is deemed at the present time to be the sturdiest option. A “cow valve,” Exline joked.
“We knew it was going to happen, it was just a matter of when,” Exline’s mother Debbie Hodson explained. “Him being tired was to be the sign. But he wanted to play golf so much that he didn’t tell us.”
“Didn’t tell me … kept [his getting tired] to himself,” North golf coach Chuck Payne said. “You’d never know he was going through that.”
Turning 18
When Exline finally fessed up to getting tired on a regular basis in March, he was informed by his doctors it was time to schedule the surgery. The good news to Exline? His doctors allowed him to delay the surgery until after the golf season.
“I really didn’t like to admit it, but the doctors would always tell me that I’d get tired,” Exline said. “I’ve noticed it through my other two golf seasons. But this year, with the thought of the surgery coming, there’d be a point where I would start off really good playing a round. But then I would be too tired to finish.
“Just not being able to turn it back on … a hole that I should be able to par. That just takes away from your game and then you get kind of down about that. Then, oh, you’re like I’ve got to get a birdie. You just don’t get it back.”
Because he was able to complete the golf season, Exline came precariously close to a critical deadline — his replacement valve was only FDA-approved up to the age of 18.
“I turned 18 last Thursday [the day of his surgery],” Exline smiled.
Mental attitude
Exline is well-liked and respected by his coach and teammates.
“He’s received the team’s mental attitude award the last two years,” Payne noted. “I’m looking forward to having him back next year. He’s one of my favorites.”
“The guys have all texted me, been on Facebook, praying for me,” Exline said of support received from his North teammates. “It was encouraging. We’re a tight-knit group of guys. We a do lot of stuff together, on and off the course.”
Asked how his teammates reacted to his inability to play up to his usual level energy-wise, he added, “they’d joke around with me, told me they’d go out and win a sectional for me. They just told me to ‘take care and get ready for the surgery. Gotta do what I gotta do. Take care of that’.”
As it turned out, his North teammates weren’t joking around about winning the sectional.
“Winning sectional was awesome,” Exline expressed.
Exline’s heart condition has restricted his other athletic ambitions, especially his love of baseball and basketball.
“I played baseball 12 years at Terre Town, but wasn’t physically able to do all the conditioning when I got to North,” Exline said.
Exline has been able to play basketball the past two years in a church league at Maryland Community Church, “only because his dad [Michael Exline] is coaching and can watch him,” his mother stressed.
A love for golf
Fortunately, golf allowed him the athletic outlet he could manage with his health situation.
Exline began playing golf when he was 12, but admitted “I wasn’t really focused on getting my game better until the summer after my freshman year.
“It was real hard to break 50 [nine holes] every day as a freshman. Sophomore year I shot more mid 40s, a few in the low 40s, then a couple in the 30s. This year I’ve had only a few rounds higher than 45, the rest have been around 40 and the high 30s.”
The first thing Exline asked after the surgery, naturally, was when could he resume playing golf.
“Six weeks after the surgery I can chip and putt,” Exline said. “Four weeks after that I can full swing. I want to play in the Men’s City [Tournament].”
He’ll have his follow-up appointment with the surgeon July 14.
“I definitely want to play golf, but my scores … I’m not sure would be good enough to play college golf,” Exline said when asked about his future plans for college.
Exline has expressed an interest in attending Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., majoring in marketing, minoring in ministry and theology. He is also considering Charleston Southern, as his dad is in the process of relocating to South Carolina.
