Jack Winkler Continuing His Remarkable Recovery Back to the Court
5/6/2021 1:22:00 PM | Men's Tennis
By Cera Powell
For MSUSpartans.com
Jack Winkler had his eyes set on playing tennis for Michigan State for his entire college career.
Winkler was an accomplished player throughout his high school career in Birmingham, Michigan, ranked 71st in the country and No. 2 in the state according to Tennis Recruiting.
His freshman season at MSU was strong, appearing in 17 singles matches where he played most dual matches at No. 6.
But something was clearly wrong. Winkler started having an upset stomach, along with some other symptoms, and didn't feel well. Winkler became so sick, so fast, that he lost 25 pounds – and didn't know why.
"I remember seeing him when they were playing Harvard and I hadn't seen him for a while. He had gotten really thin and I knew something was wrong. But I didn't know what was wrong," Kelly Winkler, his mother, said.
Winkler soon went to the emergency room because his symptoms had gotten worse with no solution. The doctors couldn't figure out what was going on and why he had lost so much weight.
"I remember talking to the doctor after he had a colonoscopy done the next day, and her telling me that his insides looked like hamburger meat," Kelly said. "She thought he had ulcerative colitis and they had to send the biopsy to get it confirmed."
Ulcerative colitis is chronic bowel disease, causing inflammation, ulcers and sores in the digestive tract. It can be debilitating, and sometimes, lead to life-threatening complications.
Now he knew what was wrong. But he wasn't sure about the path forward to getting better.
"It's not the prettiest disease out there, not a lot of people talk about it, but it actually affects over 700,000 Americans a year," Winkler said. "It's a disease that is not curable, but is treatable."
Winkler started taking medication – and it worked for about a year and a half. He returned to MSU at the start of his sophomore year and was able to play tennis again.
He was 18-14 overall in singles play with a 10-11 record at No. 1 singles and was ranked in the ITA Top 125 for a majority of the season. Winkler posted two victories over ranked opponents, including No. 19 Alex Lebedev of Notre Dame and No. 57 Vinny Gillespie of Drake. He was on track to start his junior season and was able to keep his UC tamed – until the medicine had stopped working.
And he grew sicker than before.
"Leading up into his junior year, he just wasn't himself, obviously trying to do everything he could to make every practice, but he wasn't feeling well," MSU head coach Gene Orlando said. "He was an Iron Man type of guy no matter what he was practicing and for him to say he couldn't practice that kind of pulled up a red flag."
Winkler's challenge returns
One day, while Winkler was at tennis practice, he asked if he could go to the restroom. Twenty minutes later, he asked if he could go again – and he knew something was wrong.
"My body had developed antibodies towards the medicine, so it almost treated the medicine as an illness," Winkler said. "It got so bad to the point that my colon stopped working and they just had to remove it completely from my body."
Orlando and his assistant coaches began to worry about Winkler, not knowing how sick he was.
"He went to see some doctors, and we thought he would be gone for a couple of days and come back. It just continued to get worse and became life-threatening," Orlando said.
The gastroenterologist at Beaumont Hospital in Metro Detroit, where Winkler was being treated, reached out to the University of Chicago for a clinical trial. Remicade, an autoimmunity drug originally used for cancer treatment, was tried on Winkler.
He did an extra dose of Remicade and had an allergic reaction, seeing his heart rate racing and developing hives. Winkler's mother and doctor became extremely worried. He ended up in extreme pain in the hospital, but refused narcotic pain killers because he didn't want to violate NCAA rules. But that changed when the pain became too unbearable for Winkler to endure.
He begged for the medicine.
"I'll never forget it, around 2 a.m., he's writhing in pain and his heart rate is skyrocketing like 150/160 and the alarms are going off in the hospital," Kelly, who was by his bedside, said. "The doctor called me, and she said he's going to lose his colon and I'm going to confirm it, I just want you to know most likely in the morning he'll be having an emergency colectomy."
Orlando didn't know how bad Winkler was until he and his assistant went to the hospital.
"It was probably the first time that I'd ever experienced the possibility of losing a player," Orlando said. "When I saw him, I was just blown away. I saw him when he was sick, and then I really saw him when he was really thin, and he just got sicker and sicker."
Fearing what could happen to him if they waited any longer, Winkler's family and doctors had to make a tough choice – fast.
"We had made the decision to remove my colon and I spent a couple of days in the ICU after surgery, but I don't remember any of it," Winkler said.
Kelly added, "It was the hardest thing I've ever done and as a parent I've never felt more helpless."
He spent three weeks recovering in the hospital, and knew it would be a long road back to regain his strength.
"Watching your child go from 182 pounds down to below 125 and not able to eat and not able to walk," Kelly said. "Here is a Division I athlete, top of his game, and he had to walk with a walker and somebody holding him with a belt to help him because he couldn't stand on his own two feet."
On his first day home, he crawled up the stairs because he lost so much muscle. He had his heart set on getting his strength back, getting healthy and returning to the tennis court to play with his team no matter how long the process took.
"When I think of Jack Winkler, I think of one of the Spartan greats," said Orlando. "He has lived up to what you think a Spartan is, and perhaps it might not be in wins or awards, but you talk about toughness, character and his values to me, he's a true Spartan whether he plays again – which I think he will."
The road back
Spending 75 days in the hospital and getting a major organ removed over the course of nine months changed Winkler's life in many ways. It was the challenge of a two-year journey, and now, it's time to regain his health and life.
"Going through that I didn't even know that was possible. I never knew you could live without a certain organ and so it was all just a big learning process and a learning experience," Winkler said.
Winkler's daily routine has changed. He takes more multivitamins, does iron infusions to make sure his blood levels are strong, eats healthier, and avoids flare-ups.
"Outside of the most general thing I just use the bathroom a little bit more, which I've gotten used to now," Winkler said. "Since I don't have a colon, my whole digestive system is shorter, and the colon is the part where everything slows down and absorbs in your body most."
And tennis is part of his life again. He is working his way back, feeling the comfort of being back on the court with his teammates, and helped coach the Spartans during home matches during the spring season.
"Last semester was great," said Winkler. "I've been dreaming of that for the past nine months. I hadn't played with them prior to that, and it just felt really amazing and almost like it came full circle. When I was able to step on the court, we were all wearing the same colors, we were all trying to get each other going and cheer each other on, and I think it was a huge hole in my life that started to fill up again."
Being able to get back out on the court with his team has been a major part of Winkler's goal. He has been striving daily to stay healthy and get back on the court by the end of this year knowing it will take patience and time.
"You kind of slowly lose the way you see the game," Winkler said. "Now it just feels like I'm always rushed, but I just have to get used to the speed of the game again where balls are getting hit at you at 110-120 mph, you're moving all over the place, but it all comes back with time."
This has been a tough battle for Winkler to fight, but he emphasized how much easier it was on him to have such a great support system – especially his mother.
Winkler has had his MSU tennis family by his side throughout the entire process. His coaches would visit him in the hospital before and after his surgery. Winkler's teammates also checked on him often, texting and calling which helped push him even more to recover and be able to get back on the court and make up for lost time.
It has not only brought a new perspective to his life but also helps them not take anything in life for granted.
"He doesn't take things for granted, he's even more appreciative than before and he sees things in a different light," Orlando said. "He's always been a great man and has helped others, but this has definitely opened his eyes to appreciate everything and make every moment count."
Winkler agrees, adding, "I realized how much I love being a part of the team and in the community as a whole. It made me become a little bit more thankful for not just athletic things but also just for the smaller things in life and I'm starting to not take everything for granted as I used to."
For MSUSpartans.com
Jack Winkler had his eyes set on playing tennis for Michigan State for his entire college career.
Winkler was an accomplished player throughout his high school career in Birmingham, Michigan, ranked 71st in the country and No. 2 in the state according to Tennis Recruiting.
His freshman season at MSU was strong, appearing in 17 singles matches where he played most dual matches at No. 6.
But something was clearly wrong. Winkler started having an upset stomach, along with some other symptoms, and didn't feel well. Winkler became so sick, so fast, that he lost 25 pounds – and didn't know why.
"I remember seeing him when they were playing Harvard and I hadn't seen him for a while. He had gotten really thin and I knew something was wrong. But I didn't know what was wrong," Kelly Winkler, his mother, said.
Winkler soon went to the emergency room because his symptoms had gotten worse with no solution. The doctors couldn't figure out what was going on and why he had lost so much weight.
"I remember talking to the doctor after he had a colonoscopy done the next day, and her telling me that his insides looked like hamburger meat," Kelly said. "She thought he had ulcerative colitis and they had to send the biopsy to get it confirmed."
Ulcerative colitis is chronic bowel disease, causing inflammation, ulcers and sores in the digestive tract. It can be debilitating, and sometimes, lead to life-threatening complications.
Now he knew what was wrong. But he wasn't sure about the path forward to getting better.
"It's not the prettiest disease out there, not a lot of people talk about it, but it actually affects over 700,000 Americans a year," Winkler said. "It's a disease that is not curable, but is treatable."
Winkler started taking medication – and it worked for about a year and a half. He returned to MSU at the start of his sophomore year and was able to play tennis again.
He was 18-14 overall in singles play with a 10-11 record at No. 1 singles and was ranked in the ITA Top 125 for a majority of the season. Winkler posted two victories over ranked opponents, including No. 19 Alex Lebedev of Notre Dame and No. 57 Vinny Gillespie of Drake. He was on track to start his junior season and was able to keep his UC tamed – until the medicine had stopped working.
And he grew sicker than before.
"Leading up into his junior year, he just wasn't himself, obviously trying to do everything he could to make every practice, but he wasn't feeling well," MSU head coach Gene Orlando said. "He was an Iron Man type of guy no matter what he was practicing and for him to say he couldn't practice that kind of pulled up a red flag."
Winkler's challenge returns
One day, while Winkler was at tennis practice, he asked if he could go to the restroom. Twenty minutes later, he asked if he could go again – and he knew something was wrong.
"My body had developed antibodies towards the medicine, so it almost treated the medicine as an illness," Winkler said. "It got so bad to the point that my colon stopped working and they just had to remove it completely from my body."
Orlando and his assistant coaches began to worry about Winkler, not knowing how sick he was.
"He went to see some doctors, and we thought he would be gone for a couple of days and come back. It just continued to get worse and became life-threatening," Orlando said.
The gastroenterologist at Beaumont Hospital in Metro Detroit, where Winkler was being treated, reached out to the University of Chicago for a clinical trial. Remicade, an autoimmunity drug originally used for cancer treatment, was tried on Winkler.
He did an extra dose of Remicade and had an allergic reaction, seeing his heart rate racing and developing hives. Winkler's mother and doctor became extremely worried. He ended up in extreme pain in the hospital, but refused narcotic pain killers because he didn't want to violate NCAA rules. But that changed when the pain became too unbearable for Winkler to endure.
He begged for the medicine.
"I'll never forget it, around 2 a.m., he's writhing in pain and his heart rate is skyrocketing like 150/160 and the alarms are going off in the hospital," Kelly, who was by his bedside, said. "The doctor called me, and she said he's going to lose his colon and I'm going to confirm it, I just want you to know most likely in the morning he'll be having an emergency colectomy."
Orlando didn't know how bad Winkler was until he and his assistant went to the hospital.
"It was probably the first time that I'd ever experienced the possibility of losing a player," Orlando said. "When I saw him, I was just blown away. I saw him when he was sick, and then I really saw him when he was really thin, and he just got sicker and sicker."
Fearing what could happen to him if they waited any longer, Winkler's family and doctors had to make a tough choice – fast.
"We had made the decision to remove my colon and I spent a couple of days in the ICU after surgery, but I don't remember any of it," Winkler said.
Kelly added, "It was the hardest thing I've ever done and as a parent I've never felt more helpless."
He spent three weeks recovering in the hospital, and knew it would be a long road back to regain his strength.
"Watching your child go from 182 pounds down to below 125 and not able to eat and not able to walk," Kelly said. "Here is a Division I athlete, top of his game, and he had to walk with a walker and somebody holding him with a belt to help him because he couldn't stand on his own two feet."
On his first day home, he crawled up the stairs because he lost so much muscle. He had his heart set on getting his strength back, getting healthy and returning to the tennis court to play with his team no matter how long the process took.
"When I think of Jack Winkler, I think of one of the Spartan greats," said Orlando. "He has lived up to what you think a Spartan is, and perhaps it might not be in wins or awards, but you talk about toughness, character and his values to me, he's a true Spartan whether he plays again – which I think he will."
The road back
Spending 75 days in the hospital and getting a major organ removed over the course of nine months changed Winkler's life in many ways. It was the challenge of a two-year journey, and now, it's time to regain his health and life.
"Going through that I didn't even know that was possible. I never knew you could live without a certain organ and so it was all just a big learning process and a learning experience," Winkler said.
Winkler's daily routine has changed. He takes more multivitamins, does iron infusions to make sure his blood levels are strong, eats healthier, and avoids flare-ups.
"Outside of the most general thing I just use the bathroom a little bit more, which I've gotten used to now," Winkler said. "Since I don't have a colon, my whole digestive system is shorter, and the colon is the part where everything slows down and absorbs in your body most."
And tennis is part of his life again. He is working his way back, feeling the comfort of being back on the court with his teammates, and helped coach the Spartans during home matches during the spring season.
"Last semester was great," said Winkler. "I've been dreaming of that for the past nine months. I hadn't played with them prior to that, and it just felt really amazing and almost like it came full circle. When I was able to step on the court, we were all wearing the same colors, we were all trying to get each other going and cheer each other on, and I think it was a huge hole in my life that started to fill up again."
Being able to get back out on the court with his team has been a major part of Winkler's goal. He has been striving daily to stay healthy and get back on the court by the end of this year knowing it will take patience and time.
"You kind of slowly lose the way you see the game," Winkler said. "Now it just feels like I'm always rushed, but I just have to get used to the speed of the game again where balls are getting hit at you at 110-120 mph, you're moving all over the place, but it all comes back with time."
This has been a tough battle for Winkler to fight, but he emphasized how much easier it was on him to have such a great support system – especially his mother.
Winkler has had his MSU tennis family by his side throughout the entire process. His coaches would visit him in the hospital before and after his surgery. Winkler's teammates also checked on him often, texting and calling which helped push him even more to recover and be able to get back on the court and make up for lost time.
It has not only brought a new perspective to his life but also helps them not take anything in life for granted.
"He doesn't take things for granted, he's even more appreciative than before and he sees things in a different light," Orlando said. "He's always been a great man and has helped others, but this has definitely opened his eyes to appreciate everything and make every moment count."
Winkler agrees, adding, "I realized how much I love being a part of the team and in the community as a whole. It made me become a little bit more thankful for not just athletic things but also just for the smaller things in life and I'm starting to not take everything for granted as I used to."
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