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On December 4th, Danny Berger collapsed to the floor of the Spectrum; no pulse and not breathing. Utah State's Athletic Trainer, Mike Williams, had to use an AED and perform CPR to keep Berger alive until the paramedics arrived; while Berger's teammates looked on.
"It was one of the scariest moments of my life," freshman point guard Marcel Davis said.
"It never happened to me in my 27 years as a head coach and I don't ever want to experience it again," coach Stew Morrill said. "We thought he was gone."
Junior guard Preston Medlin, who's played with Berger for the last 2 seasons, had a hard time describing what he saw that day.
"It's hard to put into words because it was so traumatizing. When you see one of your best friends go down, it's a scary thing."
"We kept him in our prayers," junior center Jarred Shaw said. "He's just a tough kid. To go through what he goes through just shows a lot of toughness."
Now, just a little over 6 weeks since having a defibrillator put in his chest; Berger is back at practice .
"He's not in practice, he's at practice," Morrill said. "It's gonna be a while before he can do much, he's not going to be available for play until next year."
Even though he's not out on the floor, his teammates are just happy to have him back.
"Every time I see him, I'm thankful that he's still here," Medlin said.
"While we're practicing he's up running bleachers; I just look at him and just kind of smile," Shaw said. "He probably don't know this, but I try to do something to affect the game in a positive way for Danny just because I know he wants to be out there with us."
"He's kind of on the outside looking in," Morrill said. "We'll all be the most happy when he's practicing every day."
