UPDATED - Coaches Talk About Serious Accident and How Fortunate Ferrari and Rodriguez Were

UPDATE; After the news conference and after this stroy was written, later in the afternoon, both Isai Rodriguez and A.J. Ferrari were both released. Rodriguez went back to campus. Ferrari went home with his parents to begin his healing at their home.

STILLWATER – The faces at the desk in the front of the theater room in Gallagher-Iba Arena belonged to two coaches and two former athletes that have had lots of success. John Smith, are you kidding me? The two-time Olympic Gold Medal winner and six-time World Champion in wrestling, not to mention the winningest coach in the hallowed history of Cowboy wrestling has set in front of cameras and microphones and talked of pure athletic glory. Dave Smith knows much success on the track and on cross country course. A championship competitor and a coach of multiple national champion teams and individuals Smith is comfortable talking about champions. Tuesday afternoon they were talking about survivors, fortunate survivors as Oklahoma State track standout Isai Rodriguez and NCAA wrestling champion A.J. Ferrari both were alive and, all considered, doing well after a head-on collision around 8 p.m. Monday evening.

“It was a lot of polices officers and a lot of ambulances that were there,” John Smith said of the scene when he drove up on it. “You’ve got a helicopter coming in and it wasn’t a good scene. It was a head-on collision, and I got a call from Coach (Kasey) Dunn and he was kind of shook up. I could barely hear him, and he let me know enough and that A.J. had been in a car accident on Highway 33. I hopped in my truck and eight minute later I was there.

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Cowboys football offensive coordinator Kasey Dunn stopped to pull Ferrari out of the vehicle.

“I didn’t see the vehicle until late last night and they are lucky, definitely someone watching over those two,” John Smith continued. “They were definitely lucky and to walk away from it with minor injuries and A.J. may be a little longer. It was definitely a bad feeling not being able to get to them. It was a sight that you don’t want to see again.”

Oklahoma State assistant athletic director for track and field and cross country Dave Smith never went to the scene but went to Stillwater Medical Center hoping to catch up with his star runner there.

“Fortunately, that is where they took him and I got to see him,” Smith said.

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Rodriguez competing in cross country.

To magnify how bad the crash was, Dave Smith said a police officer came up to him at the hospital and asked him what color the Dodge Durango was that the two athletes were in. Apparently, Ferrari was driving but it was Rodriguez vehicle. Smith said he looked at the officer and said, “You were there, you know what color it was.”

The officer said it was so burned out from the fire that he couldn’t tell.

“It was white,” Dave Smith said he told the policeman.

Ferrari was taken by Medi-Flight to Oklahoma City.

“For A.J. I went out to the scene, and we could not get to him, so I did not see him. That is when he was helicoptered to the hospital in Oklahoma City and with protocol (COVID) I never got to see him. I waited for his father and he was in there with him the whole time. He was relaying me the messages. They scanned his body and everything they could to check him pretty thoroughly. He was out of at the scene, but after they examined him at the hospital, they said there were no broken bones, but they kept him overnight for some other reasons.”

Dave Smith described Isai’s injuries as facial. Some reports had a broken nose.

“From what I saw last night at the hospital, he is feeling good and in pretty good spirits. Thankfully, it didn’t seem like it was anything real serious. They wanted to run some tests and kept him overnight. He should be getting out soon. I think from what I’ve seen he is coming out of this okay.”

It really is miraculous that both athletes and the driver of the other vehicle, Valenda McKee, 56, of Ripley, Oklahoma came away with the limited injuries. McKee walked away uninjured and rejected treatment at the scene.

Both coaches gave credit to Oklahoma State offensive coordinator in football Kasey Dunn. Dunn was actually one of the cars that the vehicle passed. Dunn was on his way home from a recruiting visit. He stopped and along with another man that remains unidentified helped pull Ferrari out of the burning vehicle.

“He was doing his duty as a citizen,” John Smith said. “I’m grateful he was there for A.J.”

The official cause of the accident was that the vehicle Ferrari and Rodriguez were in passed vehicles in a no passing zone. The two coaches were asked by one reporter about that and both resisted the answer they had in their eyes. The answer that right now, the cause is not of great concern and the welfare of all involved is paramount.

In fact, both coaches were asked about their athletes coming back. Oklahoma State track has a meet indoors this weekend and Rodriguez was set to race.

“He told me he was going to race this weekend, the doctor said no,” Dave Smith smiled. “He’s not going to race.”

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Ferrari is not just a local or national celebrity, he is a worldwide celebrity.

“I don’t know when A.J. will be back or even if he will be back this season,” John Smith said of Ferrari. “We’ll see but that is not the most important thing. You see that accident and one of your young men is involved. There are more important things and you hope you don’t see that again.”

Rodriguez is a three-time All-American in cross country and a Big 12 Champion. He is a two-time All-American in track.

Ferrari is the defending NCAA National Champion at 197-pounds and was 20-1 in his freshman season. So far this season he is 10-0 and ranked No. 1 at 197-pounds.

The most important fact on Tuesday is they are both alive, and all things considered, doing well after what they went through.