Survival Instinct : Northridge’s Shayne Blakey Is Thankful to Be Back On the Field a Year After Being Shot at a Party

NORTHRIDGE — Shayne Blakey believed he was about to die.

He could feel his stomach throbbing and he could taste the blood gushing from his mouth.

Blakey had seen it endless times in the movies: people shot and killed, their lives snuffed out with one senseless pull of a trigger.

Except this wasn’t make-believe.

“I couldn’t even explain the things that went through my mind,” Blakey said. “I pictured my mom and my baby sister. I was really scared.”

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Blakey, a junior, plays outside linebacker for Cal State Northridge. The position, in the team’s new defensive scheme, is a cross between linebacker and strong safety. Speed and toughness are essential.

No problem for Blakey, who was a running back, defensive back and a nationally ranked hurdler at Kennedy High in Denver. He also played running back at Antelope Valley College in 1995. But he still welcomed the position change.

“I love defense,” Blakey said. “Defense is all about instincts. It didn’t take too much time [to readjust]. I was kind of rusty but you never lose [the ability].”

Blakey, 5 feet 11 and 190 pounds, has 14 tackles--tied for fourth-best on the team with end Dan Lazarovits. His play and character are scoring big points with Todd Hull, Northridge’s first-year outside linebacker coach.

“For the short time he’s been playing the position, he’s shown he’s got the ability to do it and he’s got the work ethic,” Hull said. “Everything with him is, ‘Yes, sir; no, sir.’ If something goes wrong, he won’t make excuses.”

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As the story goes, Blakey got into an argument over a cover fee at an off-campus party on Aug. 9, 1996, and was sprayed with about 70 shotgun pellets.

Blakey said that surgeons removed the pellets that penetrated his stomach and intestines, but left untouched many more all over the left side of his body.

Those, he was told, eventually would be encased in scar tissue or shed through the skin.

“My X-rays are outrageous,” Blakey said. “I still have stomach problems. I just have to live with it.”

While in the emergency room, Blakey insisted on personally breaking the news to his family in Denver.

“I was in and out of consciousness and I had a nurse wheel me over a telephone and I called my mom myself,” Blakey said. “After that, I passed out. . . . When I woke up the next day, my father was there.”

Blakey spent six days in the hospital, dropping from 205 pounds to 175, and spent another week on a liquid diet. A long, vertical scar in the middle of his abdomen is an eternal reminder of his ordeal.

A few weeks later, after the Matadors opened camp under former Coach Dave Baldwin, Blakey showed up on crutches.

It was then that the great Northridge cover-up got underway.

Baldwin told reporters that Blakey had undergone an appendectomy and would sit out the season as a medical redshirt. Neither Athletic Director Paul Bubb nor Blakey nor anyone else who knew the truth initially contradicted the statement.

When the ruse was uncovered, Baldwin admitted lying to protect Blakey and Bubb shouldered some of the blame for allowing it to happen. The episode cost Bubb a five-day suspension without pay, ordered by Northridge President Blenda J. Wilson, and Baldwin received a letter of reprimand.

“Regardless of the circumstances, I am wrong,” Baldwin, now the San Jose State coach, later said. “I’m a disgrace to myself.”

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The Matadors are finished with another practice, their energy directed at stopping Division I-A New Mexico State (0-2) tonight in Las Cruces, and Blakey heads for treatment in the training room. Both of his shoulders are ailing from injuries he sustained in Northridge’s first two games.

Afterward, Blakey talks candidly about much of the shooting, looking a visitor squarely in the eye.

But he politely refuses to discuss why it happened or why police never made an arrest. Police reported that witnesses said Blakey allegedly prompted the attack by himself pointing a pellet gun. He denied having a gun.

“I don’t have any regrets about anything that happened,” Blakey said. “I’m not ashamed of it. It was a life experience, something I learned from, so I’ve got to go on from there.”

Blakey said he went along with the phony explanation given by Baldwin because he appreciated the gesture.

“They were trying to help me,” Blakey said. “It had nothing to do with football. [The shooting] wasn’t during the school year. I didn’t think it had to be such a big deal.

“When it first came out, people were talking about it around the campus and I would be sitting there and they didn’t even know who I was. . . . I got tired of seeing it in the papers.”

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All Blakey wants to see in the papers now is his name linked to another Northridge victory.

The new Northridge coaching staff, headed by Jim Fenwick, wants to distance itself from the incident and Blakey wants to move on.

He is excited about the game tonight more than usual because his family will watch him play in college for the first time. Even a couple of former high school teachers are making the trip.

The Matadors (1-1) have emerged as a legitimate Division I-AA program and Blakey believes the Big Sky Conference title, and perhaps more, is within reach.

“We all want two rings,” Blakey said. “We are talking Big Sky and national championship.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Northridge (1-1) at New Mexico State (0-2)

When: Today at 5:30 p.m. (PDT)

Where: Aggie Memorial Stadium

Fast fact: Northridge is looking to stretch its winning streak against Big West Conference teams to three games.