April 10, 2006

Senior outfielder Louie Alamia (Edinburg, TX/Edinburg North H.S.) has played his way into The University of Texas-Pan American record books as the all-time leader in base hits, triples and at-bats.

Alamia was selected as a Freshman All-American by Collegiate Baseball in 2003 and was named to the Brooks Wallace Award watch list for the top collegiate baseball player in the country for the 2006 season. He has been selected to three All-Independent teams, once to the first team and twice to the second team, and twice competed in the Texas Collegiate League All-Star Game. He also took part in the TCL Futures Game, featuring the top 52 professional prospects in the league.

What makes the Edinburg native's accomplishments even more impressive is the fact that he has done it all while dealing with Type-I Diabetes. Formerly known as Juvenile Diabetes, Type 1 Diabetes develops during childhood and occurs when the body is not producing insulin, which takes sugar from the blood to cells in the body. Sugar is basically what fuels a body's cells.

Alamia first developed diabetes at the young age of 11, and the 22-year-old recalls going to the doctor's office and feeling scared because he did not know what was happening to his body.

"When they admitted me to the hospital and kept me overnight for three or four nights it was kind of shocking. I didn't know what was going on with me, and I was just an innocent kid with no idea what was going on or what diabetes was. I didn't know I would be dealing with this for the rest of my life," said Alamia.

There are multiple methods for keeping insulin and sugar levels at a normal status, including insulin shots and also an insulin pump. Alamia uses a pump which is connected a catheter on the side of his torso. With the pump, a person can program certain amounts of insulin to be delivered at different times of the day. During games, he keeps the pump tucked in the back of his baseball pants.

"I usually tuck the pump in the back of my pants on the left side because I usually slide on the right side of my body," he added.

While he has to maintain his blood sugar level at all times, in the middle of a game is not a good time for any problem. He keeps a machine in the dugout during games in order to check his blood sugar level; however, he said it doesn't really take a machine to tell if it isn't where it's supposed to be.

"I will probably use the machine to check my blood sugar two or three times during the game to make sure it isn't going high or low," he explained. "Normally though, if it is either of those, I will be able to notice because I will usually feel weak, dizzy or fatigued. Another symptom is abnormal sweating, more than I usually would from playing baseball, and it's pretty easy to tell if it is high or low."

As a result of taking care of his body, he has only had to miss playing time as a result of his diabetes once during his collegiate career.

"There were a couple of times where I got a little dizzy in the field. I remember during my freshman year, we were playing a doubleheader, and I started having small convulsions during a pitching change. They had to call a timeout again right after the pitching change so the trainers could come out and check on me. My blood sugar was in the 30's or 40, which is really low so they brought out some granola bars and peanut butter. I became a little more aware after that but felt so drained they had to carry me off the field. I spent the rest of the game on the side," Alamia said.

Alamia has been the top hitter for UTPA this season and is batting .362 with 24 runs scored and 21 runs batted in. He has 10 doubles, three triples and one home run while drawing 21 walks. His all-time hits record currently stands at 253 and his 13 triples are tops in program history. With five more doubles this season he can tie the all-time career record of 44 set in the mid-1990's by Matt Siskowski.

As of Monday (Apr. 10), Alamia is riding a 15-game hitting streak, the fourth-longest in school history and the third-longest of his career. He has already had two previous streaks of 22 and 21 games.

With 14 games left in the season and in his career at UTPA, Alamia has proven that not even diabetes can slow him down from becoming one of the top players to ever don a UTPA Bronc uniform.

UTPA Sports Information