Feature

Logos photo by Levi DeYounge Alex Korth (center) spends time with friends in the Activity Center.

Loss of foot doesn’t slow down Korth

Levi DeYounge
For the Logos

Alex Korth is the most happy-go-lucky guy at NIACC, and you’d never know that he has a heart condition and half of a foot.

“I just don’t let it get to me,” Korth, who pitches for the Trojans, said.

Most days one could find Korth sitting at a table in the Activity Center crowded around a group of friends with a big smile on his face, laughing.

That’s right, Korth is always laughing and making the most out of life when most people, if put in his situation, would just worry about making it to the next class without a problem.

Korth lost half of his right foot at a very early age when it was severed in a skid loader accident.

He said his grandfather gave him a Purple Heart that belonged to his (Korth’s grandfather’s) uncle for being so brave about it.

Korth said that his having half of a foot has never affected his pitching except “sometimes it (the foot prosthetic) rubs raw on my skin, and sometimes my balance is off. That’s the only thing, I just make the best of it.”

Korth has also learned to embrace his unique situation.

“I like to have fun with it,” Korth said. “Sometimes I put my shoe on backwards to freak people out. It’s good fun.”

He said he also likes to tell people who ask about his foot that he lost it while “wrestling with an alligator while on vacation in Florida.”

Then, when he gauges the listener’s reaction, he’ll tell the individual what really happened.

Along with missing half of a foot, this pitcher with a cavalier attitude towards life, has a serious heart condition.

Although he said that it has never affected him during baseball season.

“Christmas Break last year was the worst,” Korth said. “My heart was leaking in two places.”

However, this life-threatening ordeal is long behind him and he said he is only looking forward to the future and pitching for the Trojans this spring.