For the first time in history, a college baseball player is organizing a climb to summit Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world at 29,035 feet.

If Cadet Harold Earls of the U.S. Military Academy is successful in raising $260,000 for the 5-man ascent, his team will begin the climb in April of 2016.

Earls, a senior infielder with the Army baseball team who has never climbed any mountain, came up with the idea five months ago.

He saw this as a golden opportunity to have a spotlight directed at Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) which has impacted the lives of many U.S. soldiers.

PTSD is a mental health condition that is triggered by a terrifying event — either experiencing it or witnessing it. Symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event.

This climb is hardly for the novice climber which is precisely why Earls has approached this climb with precision. Over the years, more than 200 people have died trying to climb Mount Everest. Many deaths have taken place due to avalanches, injury from ice collapse or falls, exposure and health problems related to the high altitude.

A 5-man team comprised entirely of active and veteran Army soldiers has never had the opportunity to summit the mountain until now.

“About five months ago, I was sitting in my room and came up with the idea of doing this to help soldiers who suffer from PTSD,” said Earls.

“I contacted Army Public Affairs, and they told me that no active Army soldier has ever made the ascent to the top of Mount Everest. Then I tried to network the best I could to see if my idea could gain momentum. The officers here (U.S. Military Academy) supported me and got behind me. One contact led to another.

“Now we have an incredible team of 5 climbers lined up who are all active duty or veteran Army soldiers from all different parts of the Army.

“In our training, we have already become very close. I am extremely blessed that this is going forward. I would never have thought five months ago that this would happen.”

Earls said that he has never climbed a mountain in his life.

 “I backpacked with my dad growing up. But that is hardly trying to climb the tallest mountain in the world.

“This isn’t a highly technical climb. So you don’t need a great deal of climbing technical skills. It is more of a physical, mental endurance ascent. I will be climbing Mount Rainier this fall (about 54 miles southeast of Seattle at a summit elevation of 14,411 feet, half the height of Mount Everest).

“Then we are looking to do another climb next December. While I don’t have any climbing experience, the rest of our team is pretty qualified for this endeavor.”

Earls said that at first, he received negative feedback from virtually everyone he contacted about pursuing such a climb.

“So many people at first told me that it was a great idea. But there was no way it would happen. People told me there was no way we could raise enough money for the climb, there was no way we could get it approved by the Army. Others would tell me that I was a Cadet, and I needed to focus on being a Cadet instead of toying around with this idea. So I used negative feedback as fuel and motivation to continue on. I have never been afraid of failure which you experience a lot as a baseball player.

“But before I knew it, people were coming on board with this idea. We haven’t raised all the funds we need yet. But we have gotten through a lot of legal loopholes and steps necessary to make this happen.

“I had an instructor here (Captain Benji Marquez) who was instrumental in providing encouragement to me. I shared the idea with him first. And he told me that I may fail, but I would kick myself the rest of my life if I didn’t try to make it happen. I took his advice to heart. Since that time, I have worked every day on this project to make this dream become a reality.”

Because of the logistical and bureaucratic tape involved in such a climb, this will not be a military backed operation, according to Earls. It is strictly private as companies are being sought to make the ascent possible.

“I initially tried to make it an official Army-backed climb. Unfortunately, there are so many bureaucratic mountains to climb that it makes it virtually impossible to complete this goal through that route.

“So this is an unofficial Army endeavor. I created a non-profit corporation called U.S. Expedition & Explorations — USX. We have a web site that people can go in www.usx.vet   

“That is who is officially putting on this expedition. We are looking at partnering with several other non-profit organizations. In total, we are looking to raise $200,000-$300,000. The $200,000 is strictly for the expedition cost.

“It wouldn’t be right just to raise money for a climb. My hope is that we can raise $100,000 more to help soldiers with PTSD.”

Earls said that this large amount of money doesn’t have to be raised all at once since items must be purchased in incremental order.

“The Nepal permits are $10,000 per person. We are looking to purchase those in April or May. And that is $50,000 right there. We would like to have all of our funds raised by next fall. That would be perfect. Then we could spend a great deal of time raising awareness about PTSD.”

Earls said that he is from Cumming, Ga. and hates cold weather.

“Being from Georgia, I hate the cold and don’t like running hills here. But that is probably why I was so drawn to climb Everest because of this incredible challenge.”

Since Earls is a senior this year at the U.S. Military Academy, he will embark on his military career shortly after graduation. And his life will be exceedingly hectic through next spring.

“I have an extremely busy year coming up. I get married June 11 of this year to Rachel. Then I go to Army Infantry School for five months. We are in the field training and learning officer tactics. The day that ends, I will be leaving April 1, 2016 to climb Mount Everest. That is a 60-day endeavor.

“Then I will come back about June 1, 2016 and have three weeks to recover. And then in the beginning of July, I will go to Ranger School which is 60 days of strenuous training in the woods. So the upcoming year for me will be quite the physical challenge. But I’m looking forward to all of it.”

To read more about the planned ascent to Mount Everest, purchase the March 20, 2015 edition of Collegiate Baseball by CLICKING HERE.

JOLIET, Ill. — Gordie Gillespie, one of the greatest college baseball coaches in history, passed away at the age of 88 on Feb. 28 after a long illness.

He retired following the 2011 college baseball season after 59 years and a college baseball-best 1,893 coaching victories at the time after coaching baseball teams at Lewis, St. Francis, and Ripon Colleges.

The coaching legend amassed 2,402 victories in four sports. 

Gillespie was inducted into 15 halls of fame and went 55 consecutive years (3,371 contests) without missing a game.

It was undoubtedly the greatest streak in athletics’ history before the flu sidelined him for the first 11 games of the 2008 season.

At the time of his retirement, he told Collegiate Baseball:

“When you get to be 85 years old,” said Gillespie, “The good Lord has a way of telling you that it is time to slow down. You reach a point when you just don’t have the time or the energy to do the job the way that you have always done it in the past and that time is now for me.

“I have loved every minute of what I have done in coaching for the past 59 years,” said Gillespie.

“I love this school and all the great people that I have had the opportunity to work with and the young people whom I have had the honor to coach.”

While Gillespie has achieved fame and success in coaching four sports, it is his record on the baseball diamond for which he will be remembered the most. 

Gillespie began a run of 59 consecutive seasons as a college baseball head coach at then-Lewis College in 1953.  He spent 24 years with the Flyers and posted no losing seasons after a 5-9 record in his first year.  He directed Lewis to the NAIA World Series eight times and his teams won national titles in his last three years at Lewis in 1974, ’75 and ’76.

He then made the short move down Illinois Route 53 to Joliet and assumed the head coaching reins at St. Francis. He tutored the Saints’ baseball program for the next 19 years and took his clubs to the NAIA World Series eight more times.  The Saints won the school’s first and only team national championship in 1993. 

He left St. Francis after a World Series appearance in 1995 and moved up to Ripon College, an NCAA Division III school in Wisconsin, where he replaced his oldest son Bob – who was also Ripon’s director of athletics – as the Red Hawks’ head coach.  He posted a 239-130 record in 10 seasons and led Ripon to the NCAA DIII playoffs in six of his last seven years.

In the spring of 2005, Gillespie’s long-time assistant and his successor at St. Francis – Tony Delgado – announced his retirement. Gillespie was offered the job and accepted.

Gillespie coached the Saints for the next six seasons and won two Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference championships and one CCAC Tournament title.

He earned over 1,000 of his 1,893 wins at St. Francis, eclipsing that magical number earlier this season. And, he did all that after he had turned 80 years of age.

Gillespie also coached men’s basketball for 15 years at Lewis and started the women’s basketball program in 1976 at St. Francis.

In his 15 years at Lewis, he had just two losing seasons and his inaugural St. Francis women’s team posted an 11-7 record.

While he is known nationally for his baseball accomplishments, the Gillespie legend may be even more prominent in Joliet in the sport of football.

Despite the fact that he never played the game, Gillespie directed the Hilltoppers of Joliet Catholic High to 222 wins and five Illinois state championships during a remarkable 27-year run. 

He may have added more state titles to his resume but the state playoff system was not put into place until 1974, his 16^th year on the Hilltoppers’ sideline.

He was recognized by the Chicago Tribune as the head coach of the all-time Illinois prep football team in 1991.

Gillespie left Joliet Catholic in 1986 and started the football program at St. Francis. He directed the Saints to winning seasons in each of their first six years and had the school in the NAIA national playoffs in just its second year as a program in 1987.

Overall, in 110 sport seasons over the course of 59 years, Gillespie compiled a record of 2,402-1170-6 (.672). In all, Gillespie’s teams failed to record at least a .500 mark on only 10 occasions.

Gillespie is a graduate of Chicago’s Kelvyn Park High School and DePaul University, where he played basketball for Hall of Fame coach Ray Meyer. He also played college basketball at the University of Illinois and at Great Lakes Naval Center while in the armed services.

Gillespie is the father of seven children through a previous marriage (Bob, Mike, Billie, Greg, Gordie, Jr., Margaret Mary and Jackie). He and his wife, Joan, reside in Joliet. Between the two of them, they have a combined total of 37 grandchildren and 20 great grandchildren.

A special look at Gillespie and what he meant to thousands of coaches across the USA will be in the March 20, 2015 edition. To reserve a copy, CLICK HERE.