By Anvil Welch

awelch@joplinglobe.com

Kord Stancell, a standout in athletics at McDonald County High School, was looking forward this fall to the start of a terrific senior season for the Mustangs.

But Stancell’s life, particularly in athletics, took a sharp turn in early summer.

“I’d get light-headed real fast during an intense workout,” Stancell recalled Monday. “We began going to a doctor in January. We went to the University of Kansas for tests in June and they pretty much determined what it was.”

It’s called exercise-induced cardiomyopathy and has relegated Stancell to the sidelines.

“They were using those words (at KU) on July 3,” Darby, Kord’s mom, said. “I heard them typing it and saying it.

“We were hoping they were ruling it out (as a prognosis),” she said. “They weren’t. We were called the next week ... I believe on July 8.”

Bruce and Darby Stancell, as coaches, weren’t totally unfamiliar with exercise-induced cardiomyopathy.

“That’s the day (July 8) we (the parents) told Kord at the kitchen table,” Darby Stancell said.

“It’s changed everything for 10 years,” she said. “It was a ‘gimmee’ he was going to Nebraska-Omaha and play football.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Darby, managing a laugh, said. “He still loves Pittsburg State (Darby and Bruce were athletes at PSU). But he was going to Nebraska-Omaha because of its zoology program.

“Kord can lead a normal healthy lifestyle ... with restrictions,” she said. “His heart became weakened. There’s a possibility he might even be able to throw the discus in college. He’ll have tests in a year to see if the heart is functioning normal.

“Kord mentally is doing just great,” she said. “I don’t believe how any young man could handle it better.

“Kord is a devout Christian who believes everything happens for a reason,” she said. “He has to trust God’s plan for him.