Back in the spring of 1999, during finals week, longtime Lake Murray Little League coach and Patrick Henry High assistant Rich Lansner sprinted across the outfield during an over-the-line pickup baseball game at Hardy Elementary School.
Lansner, then a San Diego State University student, was attempting what he later described as a “Willie Mays-style catch.” The move would turn out to have long-term repercussions.
Lansner, who grew up playing in the Arabian Gulf Little League in Saudi Arabia while his father worked for Northrop – he later won a junior college state championship at Cypress College – tracked a ball hit directly over his head in a full sprint.
He never saw the sandbox in his path, stumbling over it and launching headfirst into the jungle gym beyond.
“I quickly went from thinking I was Willie Mays to ‘Will-he-get-back-up,’” Lansner said. “That joke was funny in my twenties, but it’s not as funny anymore when you wake up in the hospital in your fifties and don’t know why.”
He remembers dropping to his knees moments after the impact, his right foot shaking uncontrollably, “almost like a seizure.” Friends drove him to Alvarado Hospital, where he spent several hours as doctors stitched a deep gash in his head.
“I looked like I got into a bar fight and lost — or maybe even came in third,” he said.
An on-call doctor later warned him, after sedation, that a traumatic brain injury could carry long-term neurological risks.
“When I was more clear-eyed and ready to listen, that’s when he mentioned there was a possibility something could come up later,” Lansner said. “It was in one of those frontal lobes that’s sensitive and can create issues.”
More than two decades later, on Feb. 18, 2023, those warnings became reality, when Lansner suffered the first of what has become a series of recurring seizures.
That night, he remembers walking around the Catamaran Resort in Pacific Beach with his wife, Fabiana, and son, Lucas, celebrating Lucas’ 11th birthday. His memory then cuts out completely before resuming in a hospital room — a pattern that has repeated itself several times since. The grand mal seizures, he said, almost always occur during sleep.
“I couldn’t tell you what a seizure is or feels like,” he said. “I’m a flopping fish. I wake up with soreness in my mouth, my cheek — I’ve bitten down on it. After every round, my memory gets worse. I’ll meet somebody and see their face and think, is that Larry, Gary, Barry? It’s like I don’t have anything on the tip of my tongue anymore. I’ve been diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment.”
Cory Hazlewood, who has coached alongside Lansner in the San Diego Cowboys youth baseball program, recalled a seizure episode during a youth tournament in Irvine.
Rich Lansner, left, on the baseball field. The coach continues to be treated for seizures that have continued for three years. (Photo courtesy of Rich Lansner)“It was scary for his son, it was scary for himself, and it was a tough moment for us to get through as a team,” Hazlewood said.
The impact has been far-reaching. Lansner said the seizures have been traumatic for his wife and son — who has, at times, been the first to find him after episodes — and have cost him his ability to drive and maintain a normal daily routine. He has stepped away from his restaurant management job and long stretches of coaching, and despite having health insurance, the financial strain has been significant.
“There were multiple times where I had less than $500 total,” he said. “I’ve gone through the savings.”
Yet within youth baseball circles around Lake Murray, San Carlos and beyond, Lansner has remained a constant presence — and the community has rallied around him.
Hazlewood described him as a “pitcher whisperer,” a coach defined by calm encouragement and emotional steadiness for young players navigating adolescence.
“I’ll never forget a tournament we played in Yuma, Arizona,” Hazlewood said. “Before the championship game, while I was getting the lineup card ready, Rich sat all the kids down on the grass and led a kind of meditation — a mental reset. He had them visualizing success, and we went on and won that tournament. We used to call it ‘flush it’ — don’t dwell on it, be ready for the next play. It was about building the mindset not to carry one moment into the next.”
Medication brought stability, Lansner said, but at a price. He’s experienced unexpected changes in personality. “I didn’t recognize myself,” he said. “I became short-tempered.”
Those changes, he said, were hardest on Lucas.
“I took myself out of the baseball dugout,” Lansner said. “I wasn’t good to be around kids. I was crossing the line at times. My son hated the way I was acting, and he enjoyed the dugout better when I wasn’t in it.”
Still, the baseball community continues to close ranks around him. Families have driven him to and from fields. Parents have organized support efforts. Patricia Iqbal, whose son Sammy trains with Lansner, started a GoFundMe that has raised more than $11,000 toward a $75,000 goal.
“Their personalities really matched well because he was positive and Sammy was new to baseball,” Iqbal said. “We saw immediate improvement right away. He’s been a constant in Sammy’s life as a positive mentor.”
Her son was quick to respond.
“Mom, what can we do?” Sammy asked. He brought her $100 from his savings. “Can we give that to him?”
Sammy also proposed a fundraiser of his own.
“I wanted to do either a home run derby or a tournament, and all the teams who want to play pay, and all the money goes to Rich,” he said.
On the outpouring of support, Lansner said the response has been overwhelming.
“When you see people step up like that, contribute, and talk about how you’ve impacted their families, it makes me feel like I’m making my soul rich …” he said. “I get emotional thinking about it.”
Now, Lansner is entering a new and uncertain phase of treatment.
He and his medical team have begun an open-ended observation period at a hospital in Los Angeles. He will be taken off medication and monitored while he sleeps, with the goal of capturing seizure activity that could determine whether brain surgery is a viable option.
“No one wants to be away from their family,” he said. “But if this is the long-term answer, it’s a two-sided coin. I’m scared as crap, no one wants brain surgery. A small step backward to take a long leap forward — that’s the hope.”
The online fundraiser for Rich Lansner continues at Gofundme.com.
Hence then, the article about mom what can we do community steps up for little league coach struck by recurring seizures was published today ( ) and is available on Times of San Diego ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( ‘Mom, what can we do?’ Community steps up for Little League coach struck by recurring seizures )
Also on site :