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Bruce Cooper knows the official version of what happened to his son. One of four people clinging to an overturned boat in the Gulf of Mexico, his son Marquis gave in to the wind, the cold, the pounding waves. He slipped away from the boat and died.
Cooper says he knows better.
"I raised the kid, I lived with the kid, I can tell you that is not his personality," Cooper said during a news conference Wednesday afternoon.
"I'm telling you, that didn't happen that way."
The Coast Guard rescued one of the
four men - Nick
Schuyler - just before noon Monday, but officially ended the search for the other three at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. Cooper, though, isn't ready to give up hope.
He and other friends and family of
Marquis Cooper are calling for pilots and "experienced and qualified" boaters to continue the search.
Three pilots combed the area Wednesday, he said, and he's hoping for more.
Marquis' friends and family are subsidizing the pilots to the tune of $50 an hour, plus fuel, he said. They also are helping pay for the fuel for at least one
private boat that searched as well.
Cooper acknowledged the situation can seem hopeless. The boat carrying his son and
three friends capsized Saturday in
rough seas where the temperature was in the mid- to low 60s. He says he's having trouble sleeping and eating.
"I find myself quite despaired to the point of saying, 'I've lost a son,'" he said. "But then as I begin to think on his character, on his personality, I start getting a smile. I start getting optimistic."
If anyone can survive, he says, it's his son, a
linebacker with the
Oakland Raiders and former Tampa Bay Buccaneer. His son's top-notch
physical shape and
mental toughness make him special, he said.
"This kid is going to fight to the bitter end," Cooper said.
'That Closed It For Me'
While
Bruce Cooper and others continue to hope for the best, more clues continue to come in about what happened on the ill-fated trip. Those on the boat with
Marquis Cooper were
Schuyler and Will Bleakley, who were longtime friends and former football players at the University of South Florida, and Cory Smith, also a former Buc and NFL free agent.
Bleakley's father, Bob, said he talked to
Schuyler earlier Wednesday on the phone.
Schuyler told him Bleakley, delirious and vomiting, succumbed after 36 hours to the cold and the pounding of relentless waves.
"Nick said to me that he would not be alive today if Will hadn't been on the boat," Bleakley said. "His mother and his older brother and myself felt and knew this all along. When Nick said it, we were proud and relieved."
Bleakley said
Schuyler told him: "Will stayed with me for 36 hours and was in my grasp when he lost consciousness and died."
"Nick tried CPR but Will did not respond," Bob Bleakley said. "Then a wave hit and he couldn't hold on to him anymore. That closed it for me."
Survivor Grateful To Be Alive
Schuyler continued to recover from hypothermia and dehydration at Tampa General Hospital on Wednesday. He is aware of what happened to his friends, said his doctor, Mark Rumbak. "There is a television in the ICU."
Schuyler himself was dangerously close to succumbing to the cold and had at most 10 hours left to live when he was plucked from the seas, Rumbak said at a news conference Wednesday outside the hospital.
When
Schuyler was rescued, his body temperature had dropped to 89 degrees, considered moderate hypothermia, Rumbak said.
Schuyler likely will fully recover and may be released by the end of the week or the beginning of next week, said the doctor, who now is watching for lingering symptoms of hypothermia that may surface.
The doctor said it was Schuyler's toughness, both physical and mental, that pulled him though.
"It's a miracle," said the pulmonary and critical care physician, who is also a professor of medicine at USF. "I can't explain it. Divine providence, I think."
The psychological impact remains unresolved. Rumbak said it is normal for someone in Schuyler's position "not to fully appreciate the gravity of the situation."
Schuyler was upbeat Wednesday, however, the doctor said. He's visiting with family and his girlfriend and asked about getting pesto for lunch.
"He's in much better spirits this morning," Rumbak said. "He is happy to be alive."
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission recovered the 21-foot boot Wednesday, bringing it into a St. Petersburg boat ramp about 8:30 p.m.
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