New Apartments in Moore
Affordable Solution
USA Basketball Prospect
Aaliyah Moore
Vet of the Month
Chuck Hatch
Return of the Daug
February | CONTENTS 2020
08 by Roxanne Avery
Be My Neighbor
Moore Public Library features Mr. Rogers reading program.
12 by Bill Moakley
PHOTOGRAPHY
20 by Chelsey Kraft
For the Sake of Safety
Moore schools establish school violence prevention program.
24 by Steve Marshall USA Prospect
Chip Minty
School teacher turned marine officer never looked back.
Technology center student honored for innovation, entrepreneurship.
Mark Doescher
MANAGING EDITOR SENIOR EDITOR
16 by Sharla Bardin
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Something Different
Thinking Outside the Bag
ISSUE 2 - VOLUME 3
Lindsay Cuomo Mark Doescher
CONTRIBUTORS
Roxanne Avery | Sharla Bardin Lindsay Cuomo | Chelsey Kraft Steve Marshall | Chip Minty Bill Moakley | Chris Plank
ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES
Tracie Gray - tracie@sportstalk1400.com Trevor Laffoon - trevor@sportstalk1400.com Perry Spencer - perry@sportstalk1400.com Jess Haralson - jess@sportstalk1400.com
PUBLISHER Randy Laffoon
Aaliyah Moore emerging among nation’s top players.
28 by Chip Minty
Affordable Solution
New apartments being built for Moore’s lowincome families.
34by Chris Plank
Return of the Daug
Beloved OU bsketball mascot adds new source of energy to LNC.
44 by Lindsay Cuomo
American Heart Month
SportsTalk Media 2020 E. Alameda Norman, Oklahoma 73071 Phone: (405) 321-1400 E-mail: editor@boydstreet.com Copyright © SportsTalk Media Any articles, artwork or graphics created by SportsTalk Media or its contributors are sole property of SportsTalk Media and cannot be reproduced for any reason without permission. Any opinions expressed in SportsTalk are not necessarily that of SportsTalk management.
Managing heart health is a lifelong journey. Cover photo by: Mark Doescher
COM M U N I T Y
BY:ROXANNE AVERY
Be My Neighbor
Moore Public Library Features Mr. Rogers Reading Program
T
he Moore Public Library is paying homage to a beloved character in its new special Sunday story time. “Won’t You Be My Neighbor,” is a program that debuted at the library in January and will continue most Sunday afternoons. The activities are inspired by Mr. Rogers, famous for decades on the television program “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” which is garnering a lot of attention now because of the recent movie starring Tom Hanks. Elaine Harrod, children’s services assistant at the library said “Won’t You Be My Neighbor” story times are created for all ages and parents are encouraged to attend with their children. “Sunday is great for working parents or parents who can’t come during our traditional hours,” Harrod said. The program, which is held from 2 to 3 p.m., will end the last Sunday in February. So far, the program has had a great turnout, Harrod said. The story time with inspiration from Mr. Rogers has a different theme each week. They include community helpers and families as well as love and kindness. Programs include singing, music and other interactive activities. “We have a display of books that go along with our theme and people are encouraged to check them out,” Harrod said. A playtime is also incorporated into the story time. “As we are finishing, we encourage people to stick around and play with the interactive toys and activities. For exam8 | February 2020
ple, during our “Families” theme, we set up a play area with baby dolls, a pretend cooking area and a building area where children and parents can build a house to put their baby dolls in.” All ages are welcome, and no advance registration is required.
OTHER STORY TIME EVENTS INCLUDE:
Preschool Story Time - 10 a.m. Tuesdays, for ages 2 and up Lapsit Story Time - 10 and 10:45 a.m. Wednesdays, ages 24 months and younger Pre-K Play - 10 a.m. Thursdays for preschool age Families Explore - 11 a.m. Sundays Yoga, Nursery Rhymes and More will be held Feb. 7 and 21 from 10 – 11 a.m. “It’s a yoga, nursery rhymes and more,” Harrod said. All ages are welcome, but it is designed for early pre-school age and younger. Design Squad Junior is a spinoff of Design Squad for older kids, but this is for Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd graders and requires registration. It will be held Thursdays in February from 4:30-6 p.m. and explores engineering through funpacked high impact activities. “They’ll learn about some type of engineering concept and then they will actually put that concept into build something,” Harrod said. Story time also goes on the road once a month to The Boxcar Coffee, 2100 N. Eastern Ave., typically at 2 p.m. on the third Thursday of each month. – 19SM
COM M U N I T Y
BY: BILL MOAKLEY
Something Different
PRESENTED BY
CENTURIONCG.NET
School Teacher Turned Marine Officer Never Looked Back
C
huck Hatch is not a man that feels as if his country owes him anything, which it does. Instead, Hatch feels as if he’s a fortunate man because of his country.
Hatch reported to Quantico, Virginia, went through Officer’s Candidate School, earned his commission and was sent to Del Mar, Calif. His next stop was Da Nang, Vietnam.
“We live in a great country, and I’ve been very lucky,” Hatch said on a rainy morning at the Norman Veterans Center, where he still walks over three miles a day and lifts weights daily.
His first deployment was for 13 months, and he began in a tank with the 1st Marine Division. Hatch finished his deployment in an Amtrac LTV unit, which involved amphibious landing craft.
A graduate of Healdton High School and Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Hatch was teaching school in Coalgate before scratching an itch to do something else.
Hatch returned home, but he didn’t stay long, telling the Marine Corps that he wanted to go back to Vietnam and fly as an aerial observer. So, he was off to flight school to earn his wings. Next stop, the 3rd Marine Division where he flew for about 11 months before he got an opportunity to command a tank company for the remainder of his time in Vietnam.
“I decided I wanted to go do something different, so I headed off to the Marine Corps,” Hatch said. 12 | February 2020
“I think Vietnam, from each individual’s perspective, was a little different,” Hatch said about his experience in the war. “It’s hard to explain. It’s hard to communicate it with someone who wasn’t there. You don’t have a common starting point, if you will. I thought it was a just cause, and we were helping the Vietnamese people out. The political ramifications and all of the corruption and graft that you heard about, I don’t know. I was just out in a bush trying to stay alive. Everything else took a back seat.
“The Marines were good to me. I tell young people, ‘it’s not for everybody,’” Hatch said. “It was good for me, but it’s not for everybody.”
“In my estimation, I was in hog heaven that I got to lead troops,” Hatch said. “A desk job is not all that exciting. I feel really fortunate to have been a part of it,” he said. “I saw some things I didn’t necessarily like seeing, but that kind of comes with the territory.”
Along his service honors, Hutch earned the Meritorious Service Medal, Bronze Star with the Combat V, Purple Heart and many more.
Hatch would go on to command troops at almost every level of the Marine Corps. Starting out as platoon commander, he rose to captain, major, lieutenant colonel and eventually colonel.
After retiring in 1993, Hatch decided to pursue another dream. “I bought a ranch south of Marlow and tried to become the next John Wayne,” he laughed. “I fell a little short of that, but I enjoyed it.”
“I don’t know whether it was luck, or someone had pity on me, but I’ve learned not to look a gift horse in the mouth,” Hatch said. “I’ve been very fortunate.”19SM
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COM M U N I T Y
BY: SHARLA BARDIN
Thinking Outside the Bag
Technology Center Student Honored for Innovation, Entrepreneurship
M
ason Love has created a product that gives people the chance to showcase their business logo or other custom designs on wood. Love, 19, and his business are leaving an imprint in other ways, too. The student at Moore Norman Technology Center was a winner at last year’s Norman Innovation Challenge, which highlights business concepts and innovations from students at the center and the University of Oklahoma. Love, of Oklahoma City, is in the entrepreneurship program at the technology center. He said the win was a confidence boost, a great learning opportunity and a chance to generate more exposure for the business he calls Rusentic, which combines the words rustic and authentic. “I really wanted to get myself out there, get myself known and let people know what I’m doing and what I’m trying to achieve,” he said. The Norman Innovation Challenge is held by the Norman Economic Development Coalition and it features students from the technology center and OU, competing and pitching their busi16 | February 2020
ness concepts to judges. Love was the winner from the center with his product, which is a custom wooden bag tag that can be attached to purses, backpacks, gym bags or keychains. For the win, he received a trophy and $500, which he invested into his business. Love said the bag tag idea began to form after his class visited the Tom Love Innovation Hub at OU, which offers resources, equipment and space for innovation and entrepreneurship. Love learned more about using a laser cutter for materials and started to consider a product made of wood that could be customized using a laser cutter. Love said the tags combine his interest in carpentry and the enjoyment of creating an item with his own hands, as well as offering customers a unique product. A next step with his business is to create a website. Love also hopes to sell the product through Etsy and Facebook Marketplace. He alsot also wants to learn as much as
he can about entrepreneurship at the technology center. “With choosing the entrepreneurship program, I found that it gives you the freedom to see how far you really can take an idea you come up with,” he said. Love said he also enjoys challenging himself and learning how to refine and enhance business ideas. The center’s program helps students learn how to envision, develop and manage their own business. They also learn how to develop business plans, identify market demand and manage finances.
Love said he also appreciates the knowledge and encouragement he’s received from Nancy Pierce, entrepreneurship instructor. “She really wants us to succeed in the world and she cares enough to share all this valuable information with us,” he said. Pierce said she’s impressed with Love’s ingenuity and dedication. She also said
it’s been exciting to watch him grow his skills in the program. Love said another benefit of the program is the camaraderie that has developed with his classmates. Pierce said that support between students lasts long after they’ve graduated from the program. She describes it as a family atmosphere with many of her graduates becoming mentors for current students. “They care about each other,” she said. “They support each other. It’s a whole village of people who care,” Pierce said. – 19SM
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COM M U N I T Y
BY: CHELSEY KRAFT
For the Sake of Safety
Moore Schools Establish School Violence Prevention Program
T
he health and safety of students and staff are the top priorities of the Moore School District’s administration, so with that in mind, officials have launched a school violence prevention training program. The initiative is a proactive effort to inform students how they can recognize potential threats and take proper steps to report them. According to the district’s website, the training will help students identify warning signs of violent and unsafe behavior and to understand the importance of reporting threats. Students also learn how and who to contact for additional help. The district’s seventh through 12th grade teachers, with assistance from administrators and counselors, presented the training in their classrooms in December. The training included a discussion and other resources, such as a video on the Moore Public Schools’ website and YouTube channel. The training will continue to be conducted at the start of each school year, said District Superintendent Robert Romines. A key acronym highlighted in the training is CARE, which stands for community, awareness, responsiveness and engagement. The training video also includes “Evan,” a public service announcement created by the organi20 | February 2020
zation, Sandy Hook Promise, which demonstrates how people can overlook the warning signs of violence. “We’re trying to teach our students there are warning signs, whether you’re in schools, in church, at the mall, in a movie theater … this isn’t just a school thing,” Romines said. “The overarching goal here is to teach awareness for our students, and not only students but for any adults who watches it as well.” The training is the result of collaboration between the district’s administration, mental health groups and local law enforcement agencies, including the Moore Police Department, the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office and the Oklahoma City Police Department. The district wanted parents to understand the training program’s goals, so the video was first shared through social media and the student information system. So far, Romines said he has heard positive feedback from both parents and students, including his daughter, who is a freshman at Westmoore High School. Moore’s administrative team is always looking for ways to improve safety in the district, said Dustin Horstkoetter, director of safety and security, who took his position five years ago after retiring from the Moore Police Department.
“Hopefully, we can make that impact with our kids and prevent something bad from happening in our district with our students understanding how big of a role they can play,” Horstkoetter said. “The reality is if the kids feel safe at school, they’re going to perform better. We’re in the business of educating them, and if their mental health and
their mental wellbeing is stable, and they feel safe inside the walls of the schools, they’re going to do better … We’re always looking for ways to better serve our students and our staff and keep them as safe as possible.” – 19SM
S P O RT S
BY: STEVE MARSHALL
USA Prospect
PRESENTED BY
Aaliyah Moore Emerging Among Nation’s Top Players
T
he college offers continue to roll in for one of the top basketball players in the country. Aaliyah Moore is a junior forward for the Moore Lady Lions. Moore is currently ranked the No. 7 player in the country, according to ESPN’s HoopGurlz Recruiting Rankings for the 2021 graduating class. She has received offers from Oklahoma, Texas, UCLA, Michigan, Oklahoma State and Kansas, to name just a few. “She’s a real competitor,” says Moore head coach Brent Hodges. “She works so hard in practice and works relentlessly on her own. Whether it’s after practice or on the weekend just to get some extra shots up, I think that’s what makes her so good, her work ethic, her drive. She’s just relentless.” The 6’3” standout is in her third year for Moore, averaging 16 points and 10 rebounds each season, and she was selected to play for the 2019 USA Women’s U16 National team, where she started all six games, averaging 7 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game to help the U.S. national team to a 6-0 record and gold medal in Puerto Aysen, Chile. This year, Moore has taken her game to the next level, averaging 23.5 points per game to go along with 11.5 rebounds each contest. When asked about where she could contin24 | February 2020
ue to improve, coach Hodges said, “Maybe using her left hand a little more. There’s not really one big gap in her game.” Moore also participated in the 2019 USA Basketball 3x3 U18 National Championship at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. But even with all the accolades, national teams and scholarship offers, Moore and the Lady Lions have one primary goal for this season. “We don’t feel like we finished the way we could have last year,” Moore said. “Last year, you could say we got tired at a certain point, so this year, we’re trying to get into tip-top shape. The biggest goal of all is to win state and get the Gold Ball.” Basketball runs in Moore’s family. She is trying to follow in the footsteps of her mother, Lashowan, who played at Alabama A&M and guided Moore as she began playing in the fourth grade. “My mom basically played her whole life,” Moore said. “She was a beast, and she knew I could be pretty good if I kept at it, and I was also taller than everybody else at the time.” Some of Moore’s favorite players include Maya Moore, Candace Parker, Lebron James and Tamika Catchings.
“I got to meet Tamika Catchings a couple of years ago, and I almost passed out,” Moore said. “She’s so versatile. She can take you off the dribble, she can shoot and is basically unstoppable unless the whole team guards her.” “My man, Lebron, that’s my dude right there,” Moore said. “Not everybody knows this, but I call myself ‘Lady Lebron.’ I love him. He’s so strong. That’s one thing I’ve been working on.”
Besides being an outstanding basketball player, Moore also played soccer while growing up, and she was a member of the volleyball team the last two years. She’s also a member of the National Honor Society and the FUSE Mentoring Program. All that’s missing is a trip to the state tournament and the Gold Ball. – 19SM
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COM M U N I T Y
BY: CHIP MINTY
Affordable Solution
New Apartments Being Built for Moore’s Low-Income Families
E
ver since the F-5 tornado tore through, killing 25 people and causing billions of dollars in damage nearly seven years ago, the Moore community has been putting itself back together in glorious fashion. New homes, new businesses, new schools, a new hospital and much more have allowed the city to bounce back better than before. Later this year, the community will add another important piece that has been largely overlooked through the recovery process. A large apartment complex with nearly 250 units will open on Moore’s west side, providing affordable housing to replace low-cost homes that were lost. The storm flattened nearly 100 duplexes, more than 50 mobile homes and a few small houses, leaving hundreds of Moore’s elderly, handicapped and low-income families with no place to live, said Kahley Gilbert, project grants manager for the City of Moore. Following the storm, Moore had very little affordable housing left, forcing people to relocate to Oklahoma City or to Norman, she said. Affordable housing is essential for low income families, people who are elderly
28 | February 2020
or people who are disabled, experts say. The lack of affordable housing is also attributed to homelessness. The National Low-Income Housing Coalition says the nation needs more than seven million more affordable housing unites to fill the needs of the country’s population of extremely low-income families. The organization points out that affordable housing is the most cost-effective strategy for reducing childhood poverty and increasing economic mobility in the United States. Based on the need for affordable housing in Moore, Gilbert said the new apartments are not likely to be empty for long. “There is a huge demand,” she said. “We get calls on this daily, and we anticipate this filling up very quickly. We’re excited about it.” Gilbert said the apartment complex will be called The Curve, and it is being built on about 14 acres of land where the duplexes and the trailer park were located. The structure will be two to three stories tall with parking in the back of the building. Belmont Development of
Oklahoma City is building the complex. The City of Moore is subsidizing the project through a $52.2 million Community Development Block Grant the federal government provided for disaster recovery, she said. The city paid $5.3 million for the property and site preparations, and it is covering about $10.6 million of the apartment complex construction for a total investment of about $16 million. The apartments will be composed of 244 units and two additional units of space that will be available for retail businesses or offices. The apartments will range from studio dwellings to one, two- and three- bedroom apartments. Gilbert said 90 percent of the apartments will be leased for rates prescribed under the federal government’s afford-
able housing standard. That means rent costs will range from, 60 to 80 percent of the market rate. The remaining unites will be leased for the market rate. Families and individuals qualify for affordable housing based on their income. For example, a family of four could qualify if their annual income is less than $59,050, Gilbert said. – 19SM
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Return of the Daug
34 | February 2020
Beloved OU basketball mascot adds new source of energy to LNC
“
L
adies and gentlemen, for the first time in 16 years, welcome back to the Lloyd Noble enter… Top Daug!”
As those words were announced to the capacity crowd at the Lloyd Noble Center on Jan. 14 against the Kansas Jayhawks, the moment marked the official return of the beloved Sooner mascot. “Who Let the Dogs Out” played throughout the arena, and as the smoke cleared from the entrance ramp, there he was… Top Daug. In true form, Top Daug performed his signature ear tug, and proceeded to slide onto the court, sprint across the Lloyd Noble Center floor and launch himself into the base of the basketball goal. The crowd roared as Top Daug, a beloved figure of University of Oklahoma basketball, was restored.
Somewhere inside the Lloyd Noble Center, Jacob Potter was watching with a huge smile on his face. There might not be a bigger Top Daug fan than Potter, who serves as the assistant athletic director for broadcasting, overseeing the operation at SoonerVision. “To say that I’m a fan would be an understatement,” Potter said. “Top Daug was the reason why you are an OU fan if you grew up in my era during mid-80s and early 90s. It was “Billy Ball” and Top Daug was right there with it. That is what made it special.” Top Daug’s roots didn’t sprout on the basketball court, however. He was the idea of an OKC psychologist named Logan Wright, who was a part of the OU Wrestling Club. He dreamed up the idea of having a dog mascot for the Under
19th STREET MAGAZINE | 35
Dogs. The Oklahoma Under Dogs were a group of aspiring wrestlers who wanted to make the Olympics. He called the mascot “Under Dog.” Wright approached the basketball team during the 1979-80 season to see if basketball would be interested in having Under Dog appear at games. During this time, a costumed Chicken was the basketball mascot but Under Dog started to attend home games.
While the name underdogs fit the basketball and wrestling programs at the time, it would not last long. During the 1981-82 basketball season, the Sooners were picked last in the Big 8, but ended up in the Final Four of the NIT. The next year, with Wayman Tisdale on board, then head coach Billy Tubbs stated, “We are not underdogs any more… We are the top dog.” It was at that point the name changed, with a minor spelling adjustment, and a legend was born. 36 | February 2020
“He was different than Boomer and Sooner,” said Doug Kennon, a student trainer from 1984 to 1988 who still owns a Top Daug costume. “He was iconic. We were so great during those years in basketball. There was just a lot of passion around the team and program. You look back on it now and it was Billy Tubbs, Wayman Tisdale and Top Daug.” As the Sooners continued to pile up wins, the popularity of Top Daug continued to grow. The personality inside the suit was different than most ordinary mascots.
There was much more personality to Top Daug. Kenny Evans was inside the Top Daug costume beginning in the 1987-88 season. Many credit Evans as the best to represent what Top Daug was all about. “Every mascot, I’ve always given it a character,” Evans said during an interview on the SportsTalk Network. “This is a 14- or 10-year-old kid and you try to imagine how he would react.” “I thought Top Daug was a big part of the program while I was at OU,” former Sooner head coach Billy Tubbs said. “I thought
he added a lot of excitement to the game. Of course, I never really watched him because I was coaching, but I know he did a lot of tricks and a lot of fun stuff. He was a part of our team. Everyone really seemed to like and be impressed with Top Daug.” In his 14 seasons at OU, Tubbs held a 333132 record and helped the Sooners to nine NCAA Tournament appearances, including a Final Four and National Championship appearance in 1987-88. “Everyone remembers a Top Daug moment, everyone,” Evans added. “You get inside that costume, and you’re a completely different person. Making people laugh has always been medicine. Laugher has no dialect. You can entertain people all over the world, everyone laughs the same.” “We created a singular mascot that could be engaging with fans at each and every game, not just one for one sport and one for another,” Oklahoma Athletic Director Joe Castiglione said. “We had three different colors of crimson in our football uniforms when I first got here… We had several different logos including the slanted OU logo. We were going 20 different directions and … it wasn’t productive in the long run.” So, in 2005, Top Daug was retired and the university moved forward with Boomer and Sooner. “It wasn’t a devious plot to do away with Top Daug. It was just how it evolved,” Castiglione said. “We were trying to find a costumed mascot we could use for all of our sports.” As time progressed, Castiglione was periodically asked about the mascot. In a wild twist, Potter, as a student in 2005, actually posted “Missing Daug” posters across campus to keep the memory of the beloved mascot alive. Potter went as far as even wearing a Top Daug shirt to every home game when he was a student. “Any time you experience success, anything you can associate to that success you hold on to and appreciate,” Potter said. “For the most part, Top Daug is right there with Billy Ball and Billy Tubbs. It’s hard to think anything but positive things about Billy. When you look at something successful, you think that makes sense. Let’s bring this back.” 38 | February 2020
Potter finally got his chance to bring Top Daug officially back during the off season. It happened during a meeting where many of the creative minds within the Oklahoma Athletic Department sat down to come up with ways to increase attendance at Oklahoma men’s and women’s basketball games. “We really had a variety of conversations related to continuing to build greater attendance,” Castiglione said. “We put everything on the table. We didn’t leave any stone unturned. We thought historically, we thought in creative, innovative ways, some ridiculously, out of the box ways. Just trying to think of ways we could continually strengthen fan engagement. That’s where the idea started coming from. Obviously we knew Top Daug was popular and people have asked us about it periodically each year. We have brought Top Daug back a couple of times over the years. This particular time, we decided for Top Daug to have a presence the rest of the season, not just a one game here or their deal.” For Oklahoma Marketing Director Drew Gaschler, he knew it was going to be big and started to work on a fun and creative way to re-introduce the popular mascot. “A lot of people were behind the scenes on this one, our AD Joe Castiglione understands what it takes to get the crowd going. He’s a former marketing guy. He cleared the way for all of this and allowed us to be creative with this,” Gaschler said. “We had countless meetings throughout the summer and in early fall as we tried to figure out the best way to bring him back and that’s where we came up with the Twitter take over and it kind of took off from there.”
TOP DAUG HACKED THE OKLAHOMA MEN’S BASKETBALL TWITTER FEED “We all sat and thought the image of a dog with his paws trying to type on a text message was really funny. I remember thinking about that in my head, and I couldn’t get the hilarious nature out of my mind,” Potter said. As a couple of jumbled tweets were sent, many speculated. Initially some thought it was a tweet that was mistakenly sent by OU Men’s Basketball SID Ben Coldagelli. Coldagelli had about 20 messages from
media members and friends alerting him to the fact that either he had been accidentally tweeting or his young son had captured his phone. Neither was true. Norman Transcript writer Joe Beuttner even came up with a way to decipher the tweets as some sort of code announcing the return of Top Daug. But, there was not a code at all. “I’m pretty sure we picked random letters and just threw them out there,” Potter said of the social media reaction. The social media campaign was a rousing success. Everyone was talking about Top Daug and to show support for his return, the crowd for the Oklahoma basketball showdown with Kansas was the biggest of the 2019-2020 college basketball season to date. “I knew he was beloved. I didn’t know so many people loved him as much as I love him,” Potter said. “I didn’t realize there were that many Top Daug fans to my level.” “I’ve been in Norman for five years now. The first year I was here, they started talking about bringing him back, so I got to know
the history,” Gaschler added. “But even I was surprised it got the response it did. We knew he was a staple of Oklahoma basketball. We didn’t know he would create that much excitement going into this.” For former Top Daug Kenny Evans, it was exciting and necessary in his mind to see Top Daug return. “He adds the 12th man essentially,” Evans said. “Watching games on TV there is no energy in the crowd. Bringing Top Daug back will be something where a lot of fans will be bringing their kids out to see the game.”
TOP DAUG IS BACK “It is an emotional thing for OU basketball fans. Top Daug elicits an emotional response from a lot of fans,” Potter added. “The pictures they took at OU basketball games when there were kids with Top Daug and the memories were with Top Daug, and we felt like we could bring that back … to the LNC and bring some energy and excitement.”– 19SM
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American Heart Month
BY: LINDSAY CUOMO
Managing Heart Health is a Lifelong Journey
H
eart health is often something many people think they don’t have to worry about until their later years. However, Sara McMillan, the cardiovascular accreditation and quality coordinator with Norman Regional Health System, tells a very different story.
“People think about heart disease as something they only have to worry about when they’re older,” McMillan said. “Your decisions from early in life can affect your heart health later in life. Even the foods you eat as a kid make an impact and developing good eating habits early on in life matters.” That’s her message to the young people she speaks to through Norman Regional’s educational outreach.
“Eating healthy, exercising, not smoking - those habits are so much easier if you start earlier.” While genetics do impact your risk, lifestyle choices are a significant contributing factor.
“Heart disease is the number one cause of death, not only in Oklahoma, but actually all across the nation. It is very important that we take care of ourselves,” explained interventional cardiologist Archana Gautam. “We Oklahomans need to make healthy lifestyle changes, and part of this starts with the diet.” Living in a landlocked state, many people do not automatically think to eat seafood to help fight heart disease, but Gautam said there is science to why people should.
“As a cardiologist, we try to educate our patients about unsaturated fats versus saturated fats – that is, good fats and bad fats,” Gautam said. “We want people to work on substituting bad fat with the good fat, and fish is a prime food source because it has Omega-3 fatty acids, which are the good fats.” McMillan also says that it’s never too late to make a difference. 44 | February 2020
“No matter your age, if you start changing your bad habits and living healthier, you can see results. Even if you’ve smoked all your life, there is a significant reduction in the risk of cardiovascular disease, even in that first year.”
McMillan shared some key things people of all ages can do to reduce their risk of heart disease. She put an annual checkup with your primary care doctor as priority number one, even for those in their 20s and 30s. “It’s important to know your numbers, paying attention to blood sugar levels, cholesterols, your lipids,” McMillan advised. “So many young people are just naturally thin, but you could still be doing damage to your heart.” Second and not surprisingly, she suggested focusing on living a healthy lifestyle that includes a healthy diet, regular exercise and quality sleep. It’s easy in those early years to put sleep on the back burner, but you should try to get six to eight hours of sleep, McMillan said.
As the years progress, other health factors come into play. In your 40s and 50s, the body’s metabolism begins to slow down and stress levels tend to increase. McMillan said. People should pay attention to their body fat, learn how to manage stress and know the warning signs.
“Your risk naturally increases with age, especially for women after menopause,” she said. “Most of the time, heart disease is not sudden. People have warning signs and ignoring them can cause damage to their heart.”
Symptoms can include sudden shortness of breath, chest pain and nausea. However, symptoms can vary, especially for women.
“Women’s symptoms are usually more atypical,” McMillan said, listing fatigue, sleeplessness, flu-like symptoms and/or pain in other areas in their upper body including the stomach, jaw or upper back. McMillan added one particularly important note.
“Many of these symptoms could be confused as something else, but you’ll notice that symptoms get worse upon exertion and go away when you rest. If you have any concerning symptoms, get checked out. It’s better to find nothing than end up in a serious condition.”
Once you reach 60, many of the same priorities remain including staying active and maintaining a regular relationship with your primary care doctor, but another factor rises in importance. McMillan said having a good social life is important too. “You might not be working and having those daily social interactions that can help reduce stress and lower blood pressure. People who are more active in retirement are more likely to live longer, so keep your friends close.” In observance of February being Ameri-
can Heart Month, Norman Regional has some special events planned.
Its annual Heart Health Fair returns on Feb. 18 at the Porter Campus Education Center. There will be educational booths focused on heart health with representatives from several of the health system’s departments, including The Health Club and Oklahoma Sleep Associates. During the second hour, Dr. Kyle Toal, Norman Regional chief cardiothoracic surgeon, and Benjamin Robinett, executive chef, will conduct a cooking demonstration with heart healthy recipes. The fair is free and open to the public. “At Norman Regional labs, you can get a free lab draw before the fair,” McMillan said. “You’ll get your results at the event and a free risk assessment.” Officials are also hosting a lady’s night out sushi night, titled Be Sweet To Your Heart. On Feb. 27 at the Countdown Event Center, 480 24th Ave NW, ladies can get all their heart health questions answered by an expert panel and take part in a sushi-making class. Tickets are $35 and activities begin at 6 p.m. To learn more visit www.normanregional.com. – 19SM
