From left are Toledo Glass City player and a fireman, Myles Copland, and Jamestown Jackals’ team nurse, Jody Marsh, who helped save John Sculli’s life with CPR after he had a heart attack on Saturday, June 11, in a TBL playoff game at JCC.
The Jamestown Jackals’ seventh season and fourth in The Basketball League ended in a playoff loss last weekend.
Or maybe it didn’t.
Jody Marsh was there. Team nurse. Team attendant. Team aunt. Well, team aunt is an unofficial title.
Much like the rest of Jamestown Jackals’ owner Kayla Crosby’s family, “she’s been with me since the very beginning,” affirmed Crosby.
Marsh was there on Saturday. By there, we mean Jamestown Community College.
John Sculli
If you don’t know the what by now, the story has gone viral. It’s been aired on ESPN, ABC, and TMZ, and other national outlets. What ended with Toledo Glass City holding off the Jamestown Jackals in a The Basketball League (TBL) playoff game started entirely unexpectedly.
With 28.6 seconds left in the first quarter of Game 2 of the TBL’s Upper Midwest Division playoffs, referee John Sculli, 62, collapsed. He was having a heart attack.
A part-time Toledo Glass City player, Myles Copland wasn’t even supposed to be there. A career firefighter, Copland helped to administer CPR until an ambulance arrived.
“I was behind the bench and heard the announcer say, ‘We have a referee down,’” recalled Marsh. “I hurried to the scorer’s table, saw John down, thought, did he fall, trip, collide with a player? But he was motionless. The referees motioned for me to come onto the court. Halfway there, they were yelling to call 911. My phone was on the bench, so I turned and yelled for Kayla to call. At John’s side, there was no pulse or respirations when a young man’s voice said, ‘I’m a fireman,’ and he started compressions. As we were waiting for the AED, there was a lot of commotion, but we were able to just keep assessing John … asking volunteer staff to make a wall around us, assessing John over and over; at which point, I began compressions. The fire department arrived as well as AllStar (Response), and we all continued to work as a team. John became responsive.
“I can’t explain the relief of the entire team,” added Marsh. “We all had a job and we worked together. It was overwhelming. This is when I realized the fireman was Myles, a player from Toledo! At no point during the previous 30 minutes did I realize he had a basketball uniform on and had come off the visitors’ bench. We will always have a connection for the rest of our lives. I have taken many CPR courses as I am a nurse, working for Family Medicine of Warren for 33 years until our recent transition with Warren Medical Group; you never know when you will use your training of CPR.
Jackals’ owner Kayla Crosby has received a lot of help from her family (pictured) in seven seasons of professional basketball in Jamestown.
“John’s outcome is what you work so hard for, but not always achieve,” Marsh said. “Myles and I both had help from many volunteers, just like ourselves. Your body kicks into an adrenaline rush like never felt before. It was truly a miracle with a higher power than us humans… as spectators were fervently praying.”
Crosby believes that more than anyone.
“The visiting team has a firefighter on their team who doesn’t normally travel with them,” Crosby said. “But because it was playoffs and they only had eight players, he was at the game. And my aunt who is a nurse who has been with the team since season one, her son just moved and she missed the last two home games. She was considering not coming yesterday. … The two of them, with the help of our team chaplain, provided CPR. The gentleman who runs our shot clock ran into the hall and found a defibrillator. It was 20 minutes before the EMTs arrived. … He was gone. That was it. But they got a pulse. He remembered his name, and he knew where he was. … When they asked him where he was going, he said, ‘Back to the game.’ John Sculli has been reffing every single season since we started back in 2016. It’s a miracle that he is alive.”
On Friday, Scully had quadruple bypass surgery.
“John is doing well,” said his fiance, Donna Metz. “All the doctors and surgeon believe he will have a great recovery and be able to officiate games again. We still have some struggles ahead, but his stubborn Italian personality is shining through and he is ready to get strong again. He does become a little emotional when talking about Myles. It was the most frightening event to have ever experienced. John doesn’t remember anything from right before his collapse until sometime in the ED at Jamestown Hospital. How do you thank someone who brings back your loved one after 30 minutes of an exhausting effort, never stopping, never giving up? He will always and forever be a hero to John, myself, his children, and everyone who loves him. So many people praying, supporting, and helping us get through this. It is beautifully overwhelming and our gratitude and appreciation is endless.”
TBL President David Magley said it best, “If you didn’t believe in God before, you have to now.”
A season-ending win, for sure.