Chris Bocklet’s road to recovery

The California Redwoods gathered at the team hotel Thursday night before the Homecoming Weekend. The group was going to build on the work it did during training camp reading Jon Gordon’s The Energy Bus by conducting another of Gordon’s exercises: The Five H’s.

The questions were: Who is your hero, what’s a hardship you faced, what’s a highlight you’re proud of, what do you hope for, and what’s hilarious?

Redwoods offensive coordinator Chris Bocklet said it’s a powerful exercise that allowed him to learn something new about every player. It can be very funny due to the question about what the individuals find hilarious, but it can also get very emotional as individuals reveal their biggest hardships.

Bocklet used the opportunity to talk with the team about his skateboarding accident that caused a traumatic brain injury.

“I wasn’t sure who knew about my traumatic brain injury. That was the perfect time for me to be able to share my story, and it really connected us as a team,” he said. “That’s where connections become real, when you know things in a person’s life they struggled with. It’s not solely the good stuff; it’s sad and some things that really make people who they are.”

“A very terrifying experience”

Bocklet starred at the University of Virginia before playing eight seasons of professional lacrosse, including six with the Denver Outlaws. After retiring, he moved to Jacksonville, Fla., in 2020 and sold his car. He figured he was only going to be there for a year, and he worked from home. He bought an electric skateboard, and that’s how he ran errands such as going to the grocery store. It was routine for him.

At the end of 2020, he recognized a small issue with the wheel, and he ordered a new one, but he didn’t think too much of it beyond that.

On New Year’s Day 2021, while on vacation with his family in Delray Beach, Bocklet grabbed his skateboard to go out for a ride. He did not have a helmet.

He doesn’t remember what happened while he was on the ride, but he remembers walking back into the hotel, not talking or speaking but covered in blood. His then-girlfriend, now-wife, Lindsay Schiff, saw him and called 911.

His older brothers, Mike and Matt, both former professional lacrosse players, were coaching a tournament in Orlando when they got the call about their youngest brother. Because of COVID restrictions, only one person – Bocklet’s mother, Terry, who stayed with Chris and slept on the chair next to his bed – was allowed to be there.

Both Mike and Matt remembered feeling helpless but glad the family was at least already together.

“We had a million questions with not many answers,” Matt said. “It was definitely a very terrifying experience on our end, let alone what Chris was going through.”

Bocklet suffered a traumatic brain injury and spent 11 days at Delray Medical Center, where he also suffered multiple seizures. He was transferred to Shepherd Center, a spinal cord and brain injury rehabilitation center in Atlanta.

One of the biggest hurdles Bocklet had was with his memory. Words were particularly challenging; he would be shown a picture of something like bananas or grapes, and he would have to say what it was.

Bocklet remembers one night at Shepherd Center, as memories started to come back, he found his phone next to his bed. At that point, any calls to his family were made on his mom’s phone, and any videos of support from teammates and friends were shown on his mom’s phone. His mom was out of the room in this moment, however. Bocklet knew the phone was connected to him, but he was nervous to open it and allow the world outside of the hospital in. He mustered the courage, however, and saw what he described as an “insane” number of messages.

He didn’t recognize all the names, and he couldn’t read all of the writing, but there were some phrases he was able to understand: We believe in you, you’ve got this, we’re thinking of you and we love you.

“I knew how many people were reaching out. That feeling was when I got the belief in myself I was going to get back,” he said. “I was excited to get to work.”

Even with the struggles with memory, one thing he felt and remembered was love. When Schiff walked into his hospital room for the first time, he knew there was love; he knew she was his girlfriend, and he recalled his memories with her, which he is grateful for. He said between her and his parents, they made so many decisions for him that helped guide him through the process.

The other love that helped him recover was lacrosse. The Bocklet brothers all recounted how much support they felt from the lacrosse community.

There were many donations to the GoFundMe – started by Casey Powell – that went directly toward the costs to get him the best care. The Casey Powell Foundation also presented a healing stick to Bocklet’s brothers.

He received videos of support from his teammates at the University of Virginia, the Denver Outlaws and with Wimmer Solutions, the team he played for in the Hawaii Invitational.

One of those faces on the video was Anthony Kelly. They first met when the All-Star faceoff specialist was traded to the Outlaws in the middle of Bocklet’s rookie season. He remembers Bocklet coming up to him at halftime of their first game together, a 21-7 victory over the Charlotte Hounds in which Kelly won 23 of 30 faceoffs, picked up nine ground balls, scored a goal and tallied an assist while Bocklet scored three goals.

“I’m so happy you’re here,” Kelly remembered Bocklet saying to him.

After that warm welcome from Bocklet, the two became good friends.

“Be the sun to be the light”

It wasn’t just the support of the lacrosse community that was a blessing at the time, though.

Lacrosse was the way Matt and Mike both knew their brother was going to completely recover from his accident.

“We get sent a video from our mom of him actually playing lacrosse with the nurses and teaching them how to play the game and how to have a catch,” Matt Bocklet said. “That was probably one of the more inspiring moments, or at least feeling good about it. He not only had his motor functions, but the muscle memory came right back, and he was able to actually teach these nurses who had never even seen the game before.”

Teaching lacrosse was also the moment Mike Bocklet felt confident about his brother’s progression. The Bocklet siblings – including their sister, Casey – have a lacrosse camp, X10 Lacrosse. The 2021 camp came six months after Chris’s accident, and he made it a goal to be there.

“He was able to kind of find his rhythm or start to find his rhythm on the lacrosse field,” Mike Bocklet said. “Getting back on the field with his family and the camp setting, I think that really gave him confidence because he was able to do that and find a rhythm there, so I think that was the first time definitely I was like, ‘Alright, goal achieved, and you only go up from here.’”

Getting to that point wasn’t easy, however. Matt Bocklet remembered he and his brother watching the videos of support from his teammates – some of whom Chris had been friends with for over a decade – but Chris not knowing who they were.

Even Chris Bocklet, a typically positive person, had moments when he struggled with the accident. He had gotten into Brooks Rehabilitation Center, one of Florida’s top rehab centers for people with stroke, spine and brain injuries. Despite the cloudy, overcast afternoon on his first day, Bocklet was optimistic.

He walked into the facility and said it felt cold. Because of COVID, everyone was in masks, and he said there were about eight people there in wheelchairs, and no one was talking. He couldn’t believe this was going to be the place where he would get his life back.

While everyone ate their lunch, Bocklet brought his bagged lunch outside and cried. For the first time, he felt alone. He asked how he got to that point in his life and cried for his old life back. As Bocklet poured out his emotions, the sun peeked out from behind the clouds, which sparked a change in mindset for him.

“Chris, what are you doing?” he asked himself. “This is not you. Be the sun to be the light.”

Bocklet was determined to change the atmosphere. He brought his speaker in and started playing music. He didn’t care if he got puzzling looks from everyone. It was time to get them involved.

He walked up to one of the younger people there, who also happened to be in a wheelchair.

“‘Hey, man. I know I shared my story, but I didn’t get to hear yours. Are you cool sharing how your accident happened and how you got in here?'” Bocklet said. “He got in a car accident, and his goal was he wanted to walk across the street to the gas station and be able to buy a Snickers.”

Bocklet felt connected to him, and he was reminded how he loved helping people.

He feels a sense of purpose in sharing his story. The first lesson he hopes people learn is to always wear a helmet. The second is, for anyone else who has experienced a traumatic brain injury, that it is possible to recover. Finally, Bocklet doesn’t take anything for granted.

“This is how you make your comeback”

As he did throughout his road to recovery, Bocklet got an opportunity to do more teaching, this time at the professional level when Kelly – the new head coach of the Redwoods – reached out to ask him to be his offensive coordinator.

Kelly loved Bocklet as a teammate; he loved the positive energy he brought to the locker room and how excited he was for the success of others. He believed that would translate as a coach in the PLL.

“He’s a guy that, as a player, had a ton of success, and he had a ton of success in college, and he’s a full-time lacrosse guy,” Kelly said. “When he brings ideas and things that have worked, I think it’s easy for the guys to say, ‘Yeah, you know, we’ll try that.’”

It’s special for Bocklet’s brothers to see how far Chris has come.

“He loves it,” Mike Bocklet said. “He loves being around these types of players. He likes being a mentor and motivator. I think it’s just the perfect setting.”

“It’s cool to see him now coaching the best players in the world,” Matt Bocklet said, “and seeing him develop what seems like some great relationships with those guys.”

Chris Bocklet is proud of himself and where he is now. He’s made a lot of progress to get to this point in his life, and he’s learned a lot of tools along the way that help him. He meditates. He cites a daily mantra with positive affirmations. He gets up early to see the sun rise because he says it’s hard not to be grateful for things when you’re watching a sunrise.

The games after Bocklet shared his story with the Redwoods players and coaches did not go well. California lost both games of its Homecoming Weekend, falling 18-12 to Denver and 12-9 to the Philadelphia Waterdogs.

The two losses weren’t just disappointing; they dropped the Redwoods out of first place in the Western Conference. The Redwoods’ losing streak continued in the following weeks, stretching to five games with losses to the Carolina Chaos and New York Atlas.

Despite the rough patch, Bocklet still had plenty of optimism for the team moving forward. Wins over the Maryland Whipsnakes and Boston Cannons in the final two weeks of the regular season would guarantee California a spot in the playoffs.

“I’ve had setbacks before,” Bocklet said. “Every team has their setbacks, and this is how you make your comeback.”