Wright starts GoFundMe page for Forney
The day after an accident critically injured one of his football players, Rich Wright looked for a way to help out.
Many people called to ask where to send flowers to Cole Forney as he recovered from an accident on Jan. 17 on Interstate 29 near St. Joseph.
“Rather than send flowers, I wanted to see if we could help him,” Wright said. “I knew his road to recovery would be fairly long and there was such an outpouring of people wanting to help and not sure what to do.”
The new Northwest Missouri State football coach started a GoFundMe page on Jan. 23. Within 24 hours, more than $20,000 rolled for Forney after Wright got the go-ahead from Cole’s mother, Christy.
Donations came in from all over from former high school classmates at Maryville, current teammates, his football coaches, as well as coaches from other colleges.
As of Wednesday there had been 380 donations totaling $27,831 — just shy of the $30,000 goal.
“I was defensive coordinator for St. Ambrose for four years (2000-2003) and we have $2,000 in donations from kids who didn’t know Northwest or Cole and I haven’t seen any of them in a decade,” Wright said. “They knew what the program means and what I’m about. They just wanted to help. It is a microcosm of everybody.”
The accident involved Forney and All-American linebacker Jacob Vollstedt. Forney, the driver of a pickup truck, hit a slick spot on the interstate and traveled off the road. Forney, who wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, was ejected from I-29 onto I-229.
“It’s a miracle he is alive,” Wright said.
Forney initially went to Mosaic Life Care in St. Joseph before being transferred to KU Medical Center where he got moved into ICU for severe injuries. Wright said that Forney is out of ICU but is still hospitalized and his mother has been staying at a hotel in Kansas City to be close to him — a cost that insurance won’t cover but the donations from the GoFundMe page will aide with.
In the near future he will be transferred to Lincoln, Nebraska, to Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital where he will stay anywhere between four to 12 weeks.
“I think he’s just got to focus on the day-to-day challenges,” Wright said. “Without getting into how bad it was, it was bad. He has a long road to hoe but he is a fighter. He is a tough kid and he will make it.”
Wright got a call from Vollstedt’s father immediately after the accident. Wright got down to the scene to see the carnage of the wreckage, which included the truck going up in flames.
Vollstedt walked away rather unscathed from the accident and a big reason behind it is something that Wright let all of his 36 new recruits know about.
“The difference, and I shared this with every recruit, I walked into the emergency room and one has a knot on his head, a cut on his knees and glass in his arm and he is laughing and hugs you and tells you he is OK,” Wright said. “You walk into the other side and there is a very different story. One had a seatbelt on and the other didn’t.
“If you can take one thing from this, I will make it my life mission to make sure everyone of our kids wears a seatbelt every time they get in the car.”
The football future for Forney, a senior linebacker, will not be determined anytime soon. He missed the 2016 season after redshirting due to a knee injury. In three years of playing for his hometown team, he has racked up 59 tackles, 7 tackles for loss and one sack. He played 13 games during the team’s 2015 championship run.
“I don’t know if anyone knows; I wouldn’t say they are optimistic, but I wouldn’t count Cole Forney out,” Wright said.