Echols County baseball coach Brack Deloach and star athlete Kevin Simpson II share a common bond. Both were almost killed in separate, one-vehicle catastrophic wrecks as teenagers. Both wore no seat belts. Both relied on faith, family, friends and communities as they struggled back from the tragedies — Brack, paralyzed from chest down, to walk again, and Kevin, brought back to life from the wreck, not only to walk again but to play baseball as well. And as he fought back, Kevin could talk to his coach who had “been there, done that.” Here are their stories:

Kevin Simpson II

The cause of the wreck which almost snuffed out Kevin Simpson II’s life remains a mystery: Neither alcohol nor speeding were involved, law officials determined.

“He doesn’t remember anything except leaving his cousin’s house headed for basketball practice,” said his mom, Crystal Simpson. “The only thing he remembers is it being black.”

It was around 1 p.m. on Nov. 29, 2008, when Kevin, then a junior at Echols County High School, was driving his mom’s GEO Tracker about 18 miles out of Statenville toward Fargo.

“I remember telling my cousin and his friend bye and waking up in the (Shands) hospital — eight days later,” Kevin said.

The star athlete, who plays baseball, basketball, golf, and runs track and cross country, had wrecked the car, which flipped three times. Without his seat belt, he was thrown from the vehicle.

“He laid on the road for an hour before he was found by his aunt and uncle (Mary and Talmage Rewis),” his mom said. “Her granddaughter is a nurse so she knew not to move him. When they found him it was pretty gruesome. He wasn’t moving so they thought he was dead. When she walked up to him, she clapped her hands over his face, and he breathed in real deep as if he was relieved that someone was there.”

At the suggestion of Echols County Sheriff Randy Courson, Kevin was airlifted to Shands from the very baseball diamond where he threw his sliders and was a feared opponent.

“He actually died and they bought him back,” his mom said. “He had to get three pints of blood. He had fractures in his spine, a collapsed lung, and his spleen was removed. They told us they didn’t know if he would be able to talk, and because his whole left side was paralyzed, they weren’t sure how well he would ever walk. The head trauma was what they worried about the most. All around us patients were dying from head traumas.”

After surgery, infection set in in his abdomen, and he had to be operated on again.

He couldn’t move his left leg when he came home three weeks later. But Kevin was determined to walk again and play his beloved baseball. Although the accident shook Crystal’s faith, her son’s faith strengthened as he told his mom that “the good Lord was gonna take care of him,” that he would be back to “normal” and would play ball again.

“When I cried, he would encourage me,” Crystal said.

Kevin’s accident touched the hearts of his opponents who both feared and respected him and planned their game strategy around what Kevin was doing. Kevin had returned to school on his birthday on Jan. 6, 2009, with a brace on his leg, and during basketball season, the Clinch County Panthers graciously let him score so that he could letter in varsity basketball.

“It was unreal the way the communities came together and all the schools around,” his mom said. “They were very, very good to us. I did not realize he was that well-known and liked. It was heartwarming.”

It was six or seven months before he would drive and run like he did before the accident.

“Astounded and amazed how well patient recovered,” read his medical transcripts from Shands.

“He was told at one point that he would never walk again, but this year he has participated in every varsity sport we offer — cross country, basketball, baseball, golf and track,” his coach said.

Kevin is “definitely an excellent athlete — always on the top of the field and court,” Brack said. “It’s not just his athletic ability, it’s his work ethic and determination and drive.

“No matter what sport it is, he’s always the player that the other team has to plan around. He’s always been one of the best in the region. He’s always been the one the coaches say, ‘Is he pitching today, What’s he going to do today?’ On basketball, one player always faceguards him to keep him from shooting.

“We’ve got a lot of young baseball players this year that Kevin has been a good example and a leader for them. If you take away his physical ability, his work ethic and attitude still make him one of the best players out there.”

His mom pointed out, “Once the other schools saw how well he could throw and shoot, they said, ‘Oh, no, he’s back.’”

“Miracles still happen,” said Kevin, who credited physical therapy and “a lot of praying” for his recovery.

Kevin’s graduation is set for May 25, and he plans to play baseball either for LaGrange College or Reinhardt College in Waleska. He will major in political science with an eye toward a career in law.

Like his coach, Kevin believes that everything happens for a reason. He said he shows pictures of his wreck to friends and others to let them know “Life’s not a game — you’re not invincible.”

“I have had a chance to encourage a guy who was in an accident similar to mine. I told him all you can do is pray. You can’t ever go wrong there. Faith was important to me before the wreck, and now it makes me more thankful for each day I can get up and walk and do stuff on my own.”

“More was given than was ever taken away,” Kevin wrote on his Facebook page.

Coach Brack Deloach

Two days before going to play baseball at Georgia Southwestern University in Americus, the Echols County High School graduate fell asleep as he speeded to get home on Aug. 8, 1999. Two miles from his house, Brack Deloach’s truck ran off the road and hit a culvert.

“It flipped a few times with me in it, then it threw me out the window, and flipped a few more times,” he said. “It’s a miracle it didn’t run back over me as it flipped.”

Brack’s neck was broken upon impact as he landed in an ant bed in a ditch.

“Although there were ants all over my body, I could only feel them from chest up,” Brack said. “Someone came by at 4 or 5 in the morning and called an ambulance.”

Brack was taken to the emergency room at South Georgia Medical Center.

“My vertebrae separated and were pinching my spinal cord. They basically lifted up their hands and said, ‘We’re not touching you.’”

Brack was taken by ambulance to Shepherd Spinal Center in Atlanta, where they began prepping him for emergency surgery.

“They screwed a halo in my head and had to hook weights to it to pull my neck back up straight. They grafted a bone from my hip to where the vertebrae had separated.”

The surgery last several hours.

“After surgery, the doctor said, ‘You have a 0 to 1 percent chance of ever walking again.’”

Brack’s diagnosis was an incomplete spinal cord injury at C6 and C7. He was paralyzed from chest down — no movement or feeling.

“All they could do was teach me how to survive in a wheelchair because they told me I would be in one the rest of my life.”

Brack spent three months in the hospital and a month more before “anything down there moved.” He was trying to move his toe when it twitched.

“Things began coming back quickly, and the doctors were wondering why with my injury level,” he said.

While the hospital staff prepared him to be in a wheelchair, Brack had other plans in mind.

“I told them I would walk out of the hospital, and I did — with a walker.”

He came home in November 1999, went through six months of physical therapy, and started college at Valdosta State University in January 2000.

“I continue to try to get stronger,” said Brack, who walks with a slight limp. “Without Shepherd Center, my family and prayer, none of it would have been possible. A lot of community and family and friends helped out around home and sent us money when we needed it since my mom (Fadwa Deloach) was with me and couldn’t work).”

After graduating from VSU in 2004 with a degree in psychology, Deloach started law school at Florida Coastal in Jacksonville. He was in his second year when he realized that wasn’t what he wanted to do. He applied for the new graduation coach position in Echols and got that job which led him to become a counselor. He got his master’s in counseling from VSU in 2009. He’s been teaching four years at Echols County; this is his first year as school counselor.

His first month working at Echols County in 2006, a student was involved in a traumatic accident, and Brack was able to share his own story with him.

“Life’s going to throw a lot of difficulty and hard times in front of you, but you can’t quit,” Brack said. “You shouldn’t give up on what you want and your plans.”

Brack is married to the former Erin Roberts, who teaches second grade at Echols County Elementary, and they have a 10-month-old son, Jenral.

“There are no regrets of where my life has gone, especially since I know this is what I’m supposed to do. I’ve definitely found what I feel is my true calling. If I was only put here to help one kid, then it makes it all worthwhile.”