Injured Arizona police officer turned motivational speaker, Jason Schechterle, has just had his second visit to Ipswich Town. STUART WATSON discovered how he fell in love with the Blues.
Last July, Jason Schechterle sat in a high-backed chair, high in the Salthouse Hotel, gazing out across a moonlit Ipswich Marina.
“I’d flown in that day, tried to get some sleep, woke up and it was two in the morning,” he recalls, sitting in the exact same spot seven months later.
“I just felt a calm and a peace that I’d never really felt before.
“I didn’t feel jet lagged. I wasn’t at all nervous about my speech to the players the next day. I was just ready to go.
“The whole trip ended up being life changing for me. I wish I could explain exactly why. But there’s a big part of me that’s okay with not knowing.”
The magnitude of that sentence can only be understood by looking back on the incredible life Jason has lived.
On March 26, 2001, a taxi travelling at more than 100mph crashed into the rear of his police patrol car causing it to burst into flames. Jason, aged 28, was trapped inside for more than two minutes. Miraculously, he survived.
More than 40% of his body was badly burnt. He was in a medically induced coma for two months and blind for eight months. His face, neck and hands were left disfigured. More than 50 surgeries over several years were required.
It was a long, hard road to recovery. But recover he did. Jason and his wife had a third child. He returned to work for a few years. He got his golf handicap back into single figures. He forged a successful second career as a motivational speaker.
No-one could have predicted those roads would lead to Suffolk, England though.
They did, of course, because, in 2021, Ipswich Town Football Club became funded by the Arizona Public Safety Personnel Retirement System.
And so it came to be that a man from Phoenix, Arizona found himself himself more than 5,000 miles from home, in the UK for the first time, in a town he'd never heard of, sitting in that chair feeling a deep inner peace.
“Finally 8am rolled around, I got picked up, arrived at Portman Road and this feeling came over me - I just knew there was something very special about what I’d just walked into,” he recalls.
“I’m overlooking the empty pitch and I just stood there in complete silence. I was moved spiritually, emotionally, mentally, visually. I was moved in every way. And I hadn’t even spoken yet.
“Then I listened to (chief executive) Mark (Ashton). Usually when I get introduced it’s 30 seconds. Mark talked for 10 or 15 minutes and he poured his heart out about his beliefs in the ‘running towards adversity’ mantra, what they all represent and what the community means.
“First of all I spoke to the staff. I’m just Jason from Arizona. Here’s my story. All of you have a story too. All of you have gone through something in the past and I guarantee we’re all going to face more adversity in the future if we’re lucky enough to keep living this precious life.
“There were tears. There was laughter. By this point I couldn’t wait to give the speech to the players.
“I’m still a kid at heart. I’m a huge sports fan. I feel a kindred spirit to athletes in the sense that they face just a little more adversity than the average person, kind of like a police officer does.
“You see things just a little bit differently. You get talked to just a little bit differently. Your ability to provide for the people you love is just a little bit heightened because you’re at the mercy of your successes and your failures. You’re at the mercy of decisions being made by people who can control your fate and destiny. I just feel a connection with that.
“Kieran (McKenna) had his own adversities (retiring early through injury) and, without having said this to him, I can relate to that. I also had a plan, I had a career that I was going to do, I had things I was going to achieve and it didn't work out that way.
“There were some reactions from the players afterwards that were so profound. They came up and said some very personal things to me. We’re hugging and smiling. I had no idea I would be able to get through to them like that or touch them in the way they were.
“I left there that day just trying to really understand what I had experienced.
“I’ve done that speech hundreds of times to tens of thousands of people. I fly in, I get room service, I go to sleep, I do the speech and then I want to get home to my family.
“This time I was sad when I got on the plane to go home.
“Why was this different? I don’t exactly know. It was like I was meant to be part of the Ipswich family.”
After watching the season opener, a 1-1 home draw with Bolton, Jason returned to the Grand Canyon State blown away by the passion of Town fans and 'fully invested'.
“I wear this (Ipswich baseball) hat every day and people ask me ‘what is that?’ I find myself talking very affectionately about ‘my team’ or ‘my boys’," he explains.
“I look forward to Saturdays. That’s usually the morning to sleep in a little bit, but I’m there ready to watch the game on my computer at 7am. I get my coffee, shut the door and sit there yelling and screaming. My wife’s asking ‘who’s Samy?’
“I kept in touch with quite a few of the players and I couldn’t wait to get back.”
Last Wednesday, Jason finally returned to Ipswich. The next morning, he turned up at Playford Road to surprise the players. You can see the pure joy on their faces in the photo which captured that moment.
On Friday night, he attended the club’s annual Hall of Fame Dinner. On Saturday morning, he had breakfast with Marcus Stewart, the Town legend in the early stages of his battle with Motor Neurone Disease.
Later that day, he watched Town’s 2-0 home win against Shrewsbury. At half-time he gave a live interview that was broadcast on the big screen. The reaction of a 26,432-strong crowd was so warm.
Early this week he delivered some workshops to players and staff on ‘grit’ and ‘resilience’. Today, Jason once again boards the plane for home with his heart full to the brim.
“I can’t stop smiling,” he said.
“This love and joy that I have for the whole club and community has become so strong.
“My career has never been better and I credit Ipswich Town for that. Coming here last year gave me a renewed sense of inspiration, motivation and purpose.
“I hope this never ends. I know it will, because players, coaches, managers and CEOs come and go. But right now I’m going to soak up every bit of this.”
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Jason Schechterle closed his latest talk to the Ipswich Town players with the proverb of the cow and the buffalo.
"Both animals have the ability to sense a storm is coming,” he explains.
"Cows will always run away from the storm. Buffalo, every time, will turn towards the storm and run into it.
"By the time the storm catches up with the cows they’re exhausted and have no fight in them to face it. By running towards adversity, the buffalo gets through it quicker.
"I can just picture the buffalo laying under the clear blue sky afterwards. That truly is a metaphor for our lives. Every time you go through adversity and you survive it there is a lot of beauty that is left behind.
"I’ve got 30% eyesight and I see clearer than ever because it’s beautiful what my life has turned into."
It was Town chief executive Mark Ashton who came up with the 'running towards adversity' mantra. Jason's story is the embodiment of its message.
"I talk about trying to make three feet a day. You take the small steps and you honour the small victories," he says.
"Let's say we get promoted. That's when a lot of people are going to sit back and remember all of the small things that went into building this one huge thing.
"You don't just go from wanting something to happen to it happening. It's constant adversity.
"One of the biggest things I try to get across is 'do not compare your adversity to somebody elses''.
"I get that all the time. People say to me 'Jason, my problems are nothing compared to what you've been through'. Stop! You’re being so unfair to yourself.
"If you're on your way to an important meeting tomorrow and you get a flat tyre are you going to stand on the side of the road and think 'well, at least I don't look like Jason'? Please don't do that. My scars are not going to air up your tyre. This is your adversity right now.
"People will always think 'thankfully I don't have cancer'. No. Adversity is adversity and when it's yours you've got to own it."
Jason's 'Burning Shield' logo – which contains the image of the mythical flaming phoenix bird – has been put up in the home dressing room at Portman Road.
Together. 💙#itfc pic.twitter.com/zIHHrZP5p9
— Ipswich Town FC (@IpswichTown) March 18, 2023
Staff and players have also put their signatures around a 'running towards adversity' sign, as a formal commitment to the phrase, and that sits above the doors which leads to the pitch.
"The irony isn't lost on me that I was a Phoenix police officer and, like a phoenix, I actually did catch on fire and rise from the ashes," says Jason.
"Knowing that the players see that image and get a brief reminder of 'this is why I did everything I did this week' before they go out is a wonderful feeling to me.
"But I say to them, when you are down one-nothing and you really need to win the game, please, I beg of you, don't think about me! Don’t! I can't help you! I can't score a goal! I'm not in good enough shape! I don't even know how to play football!
"Just run towards your own adversity."
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How, after all he’s been through, does Jason Schechterle still find meaning in sport?
"I got asked that question last time I was here and being able to tell the players why was my favourite part of the talk," he says.
"I got out of the hospital in August 2001 and the fall of 2001 is when the Arizona Diamondbacks were on their journey to winning their one and only World Series.
"It went all the way to game seven, it was against the New York Yankees, and it was arguably one of the greatest baseball games ever played the way the Diamondbacks came back in the bottom of the ninth.
"I'm 6'3, but at that time I weighed about 120lbs. I was incredibly frail and thin. I was completely blind.
"But I was sat right next to the TV, listening to it unfold, losing my mind with excitement!
"Down the line my wife was interviewed and – sorry, I get emotional thinking about this - she was asked 'when did you know Jason was going to be okay?' She said 'his reaction to the World Series’."
Jason continues: "I don't degrade athletes at all if they lose sight of this, but I remind them that they have no idea what they're doing for any one of those fans and their lives at any given moment.
"They could be the ones behind a 'they’re going to be okay' moment. Man, that is powerful!
"If the players remember that it will feel good for them. I feel good when I finish a speech and someone says 'hey, thank you, that gave me a new perspective'. I feel like king of the world, so I can't imagine what it would be like to make 27,000 people go absolutely crazy when you score a goal or win a game."
Jason adds: "Nothing in this world can do what sports can do for us. Nothing can bring us together the way sports can. I feel bad for people who don't get into it.
"If it wasn't for music and sports, I promise you I wouldn't be as healthy and happy as I am right now."
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When it was announced that Ipswich Town had been taken over by a pension fund, collective eyebrows were raised.
Football clubs lose money, they don't provide returns on investment.
"I used to be a police officer, so the investigator in me was asking the same questions," admits Schechterle.
"This made no sense to me. It was almost comical.
"PSPRS is everything to people like me. It helps the families of the ones that didn't make it home and it's obviously there for the many people that retire after 30 years of service and sacrifice.
"So I reached out to Mark Steed (PSPRS chief investment officer) and quickly saw that this is a smart guy who knows what he's doing. He's an incredible person in every facet.
"They took their time and did a lot of due diligence before the takeover. I was shocked by how many clubs they could have bought. Ipswich was the one that they carefully chose.
"Look what it's turned into. It was announced a few weeks ago that PSPRS is the most successful, largest, fastest growing pension fund in the United States. I think Ipswich is a big part of that."
Jason also believes the club is in safe hands when it comes to the man driving the day-to-day operations at Portman Road – chief executive Mark Ashton.
"He can move chess pieces around a board like nobody I've met," says Jason.
"I hold him in very high regard and I'd like to say we are friends.
"On my first trip I handed out something we call 'challenge coins' in law enforcement.
"If you and I are at a pub and you whip it out and I don't have mine, I have to buy the drink. But if you whip it out and I can do the same, then you have to buy the drinks.
"Every Saturday morning I wake up to the exact same message from Mark Ashton. He takes a picture of his hand holding the challenge coin on top of that day's line-up card. No words.
"I just love that. But if he happens to have forgot it when I see him then I will make him buy me a pint!"
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