MAPLE CITY -- On Saturday, Glen Lake softball coach Gary Galla was back at the diamond.
It was a stark contrast to the way he left it on Thursday.
Chest pains forced Galla to leave between games of a doubleheader against Elk Rapids. After getting checked out Thursday night and passing a stress test on Friday, Galla was back in the dugout at the Glen Lake Invitational in a reduced role on Saturday.
Galla asked coach Heidi Barber to return to the third-base coaching box at the tournament. He also leaned on assistant coaches Brian Brzezinski and Tesha Galla, his daughter, to direct the team and prepare the fields.
"Sports or softball brings family together," the 47-year-old Galla said. "I have a lot of great friends and it showed. We're privileged to have coaches like Brian Brzezinski and Tesha and it's great to have Heidi come back for us."
Galla felt a pain as Stephanie Love scored the winning run as Glen Lake beat Elk Rapids 7-6 in the first game of a doubleheader. As he was yelling for Love to score on a bunt by Hali Sobczak, Galla felt a tingle in his arm and a pain in his chest.
"I thought that was it," he recalled.
A couple of Glen Lake parents work as emergency medical technicians and first responders. After checking his blood pressure, they found it was 170 over 105.
After initially not wanting to leave the field, Galla went to the hospital. Tests and observations didn't find any major medical issues, so Galla was allowed to return to the diamond as long as he promised to take it easy.
"It was scary because we weren't sure what was going on at first," senior pitcher Cori Kahler said. "We wanted to show him we could keep going and play."
The Lakers lost the second game against Elk Rapids, but Galla was said he was proud of the way his team handled the situation.
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