ROGERS -- Drew Avery spent most Friday nights during his Rogers High Mounties football career on the sidelines.
As a sophomore and junior, he was a little-used receiver in former coach Ronnie Peacock's pass-oriented offense. As a senior, and for the first time in Peacock's coaching career, Avery was called upon to signal in the plays to the Mounties' quarterback. In essence, Avery became another coach.
It's a job Avery did well, and he said his experiences being part of the Mounties' football team helped him through his undergraduate studies at Arkansas and then through medical school.
Dr. Avery recently graduated from the University of Texas-Southwestern Medical School and he is now one of the most decorated graduates in Rogers High's history. Avery, who is doing his medical residency in general surgery at Vanderbilt, became just the second doctor in the school's history to be given the top two awards given annually to graduating doctors.
"I'm so thankful for that time and experience in high school," Avery said. "I wasn't a great athlete, and I didn't necessarily contribute on the football field. I got more out of my participation than I offered some times. But I learned the value of hard work in the face of adversity. The coaches did a good job of making it tough on us. But striving for a common goal and overcoming adversity was not that much different from medical school.
"As medical students we learned to encourage one another through the difficulties of academics or work at the hospital or family life. On the football team is where I started to become a man. A man that could meet challenges and love and partner with the people who you serve in the trenches with. That experience, I hope, will get me through this difficult medical training."
Former Rogers quarterback Johnny Brewer was a volunteer coach during Avery's senior season and he helped him in his role signaling in the plays. Brewer is currently a graduate assistant coach at Auburn.
"Drew has leadership qualities that you do not see very often,"Brewer said. "There is no doubt that Drew was the smartest guy out there. Drew is a hard working dude that is going to make a difference in the world."
The first award Avery was given was the Ho Din Award. It honors outstanding knowledge, understanding, and compassion and is presented by the Southwestern Medical Foundation and is the oldest award on campus. Ho Din is a Greek acronym representing "the spirit of medical wisdom."
The Ho Din Award, which comes with $10,000, honors Dr. Edward H. Cary, the first president of Southwestern Medical Foundation and the award was first given in 1943.
The Iatros Award, first presented in 1984, is sponsored by the UT Southwestern Medical School Alumni Association and is determined by a vote of the graduating medical class.
"I was really honored and humbled," Avery said. "The Iatros Award really means a lot to me. It just means the world to me that they thought I deserved the award. I hope to live up to that standard, that expectation."
During medical school, Avery participated in a program at Parkland Hospital in Dallas called No One Dies Alone, a vigil endeavor for patients who have no family or loved ones present in their final hours. Nurses at the hospital would activate the system when a patient was expected to die in the next 24 hour and participants would then stand vigil with the patient.
"That is a program that was started up by one of my classmates, Evan Ross," Avery said. "Parkland serves a lot indigent patients who don't have a lot of means to pay for their health care. So, it is not uncommon for patients to not have any family or friends as they are approaching their last hours. If a patient was going to die in the next 24 hours, medical students would come and sit with the patient for four hours before switching off with another medical student.
"Those experiences were meaningful."
Avery recently started his surgical residency at Vanderbilt, which was his first choice after graduating from medical school. Avery said graduating doctors generally apply to several dozen residency programs.
"I'm starting general surgery residency and that lasts between five and seven years," Avery said. "After that, people go on to study a surgical specialty, but I am not sure what direction I will take. That is something I will learn in due course. The surgery training here at Vanderbilt was something I was really interested in.
"I'm thankful that I have this opportunity, and I trusted God to put me where I needed to be."
One of Avery's future goals is to do Global Missions work overseas.
"It settled into my mind after my freshman year at the U of A (Arkansas) that I wanted to be a doctor," Avery said. "After spending part of the summer after that first year in India, I was drawn toward some sort of international work. I realized that medicine offers a unique opportunity that I was looking for. It is a means to help and serve others, particularly those that are under served.
"My plan is to go overseas when I finish my training and have all my debts paid off. But in 10 years from now a lot can happen. But that is what I hope to do."
Sports on 06/29/2014