By Kimberly Dunbar

Reed Powell takes note of the vibrant colors in the room he’s sitting in. It brings him back to a time ~ less than two years ago ~ when all he could see was green and blue and sometimes nothing at all.

“My vision was so bad,” Reed said of one of the after-effects of the motorcycle accident that nearly killed him. “I thought, ‘What if this is my life forever?’”

It was a day in June 2011 that started out like any other. Powell, a 2010 Clark University graduate and member of the basketball team during his time there, and his cousin decided to take their motorcycles for a ride. Powell wasn’t speeding, but when he took a turn, the wheels slipped on sand and out from underneath him ~ he lost control and crashed into a telephone pole.

Powell tried to get up but couldn’t move. His right side was basically shattered ~ his ribs, shoulder and clavicle were all broken; both lungs were punctured; and his spleen was lacerated. He couldn’t breathe.

“I looked up at the sky and it was pitch white,” Powell said. “It’s true what they say about your life flashing before your eyes. I thought about everything that had happened in my life and all of the people that I met.”
He told his cousin to tell his family that he loved them and his mother ~ who was against Powell getting a motorcycle ~ that he was sorry.

At the hospital, Powell flatlined three times and was in a medically induced coma for six weeks. “I had a lot of time to think when I was in the ICU,” he said. “I decided that if I got a second chance, I would do everything I said I’d do. I didn’t want to put things off or procrastinate because I thought I had another day.”

Powell fought hard and was home in time to celebrate his 23rd birthday two months later. He kept his promise to his mother and returned to school, enrolling in Clark’s MBA program. A year later, he defied doctors, who said he’d probably never run again, when he suited up for the Cougars this past season, cashing in his final year of collegiate eligibility.

“It was a huge accomplishment for me to be back out there and to compete at a high level,” Powell said. “It meant a lot.”

Powell also kept his promise to himself and started giving back to those who had given so much to him. “As soon as I was able to get around, I started coaching a [recreation] league,” he said. Powell, now 24, spends his Saturday mornings at St. Peter’s Church in Worcester coaching youth basketball.

He also speaks to kids at his alma mater, University Park Campus School in Worcester, and finally heeded his father’s advice and became a referee. “I work with the younger kids a lot; it’s pretty rewarding,” he said. Powell, who is one of the youngest refs on International Association of Approved Basketball Officials Board 26 (which covers Central Massachusetts), was recently honored with the Joe Lane Award for Outstanding Achievement for overcoming adversity.

“Sometimes I can’t believe I’m here and able to talk about [my story],” he said.

Powell will graduate in May, and other than sitting for the CPA exam before starting his accounting job in the fall, he doesn’t have a plan for the future. “I’m not a planner anymore,” he said. “I take a one-day-at-a-time approach to everything now. I appreciate the small things in life.”