(NOTE: This is the second part of a two-part series about Jim Marshall. Yesterday: The Hall of Fame coach has announced his retirement after coaching cross country and track and field the last 38 years. Today: Marshall will keep busy in the days and years ahead, as he's educating students throughout Missouri about drug abuse through Cody's Gift.)

May 22, 2018

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. ---- It was Christmas, either 2008 or 2009, when Cody Marshall received some North Star Base and American Eagle clothes from his dad. Quality stuff, no doubt.

But then, the clothes started disappearing.

"I remember lecturing Cody," said dad Jim Marshall. "I had noticed that a lot of the nice clothes we'd given him for Christmas gifts were missing. I figured he was just giving them away to other kids, but he was giving them to a homeless guy in town.

"Cody would literally give you the shirt off his back. If he had two shoes, he would give you one so you'd at least have one. He was that type of kid."

Jim was a coach for nearly four decades, but sports weren't for Cody.

"My daughter (Brittanny) was the rough and tumble Tomboy, she was the kid who did all the sports," Jim said. "Cody was more of a soft-hearted kid. Competition was okay, but he wasn't big into those venues.

"He was happy, he was a loving kid, he got along with all types of kids. There were kids with disabilities at his visitation who came because Cody was one of the few kids who high-fived them and paid attention to them."

The visitation for Cody Marshall was held Sept. 29, 2011. Two days earlier, he had died of a heroin overdose.

"Here I am the health educator and the coach," Jim said, "and I didn't see this coming around the corner, or understand what my son was going through. Because I didn't have enough knowledge to understand the signs.

"I kind of knew he was experimenting, but who thinks their kid is doing heroin? Or popping opioids, or Xanax or benzoids? I mean, that's your worse-case scenario in your mind and you're blocking it out. That can't be what he's doing, it's probably the synthetic marijuana or regular marijuana. That's the farthest extent of what I thought was going on.

"I think there's a belief out there with our youth that you can self-medicate away your problems."

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JIM MARSHALL KNOWS THOSE PROBLEMS will never completely go away, but he's doing everything he can to hopefully --- hopefully --- limit them to some extent.

"After we lost Cody, I became curious about how prevalent this was," Marshall said. "I didn't know we were in the midst of an epidemic --- a lot people refer to it as an invisible epidemic, because nobody's talking about it.

"So I wanted to know why. Was this a lighting strike, or is this something that's happened to a lot of people?"

Sadly, it's the latter.

In 2011, a drug overdose caused a death every 19 minutes. Now, it happens every eight minutes, hitting the 18-25 age group the hardest.

"As I started researching it, and talking to a lot of Cody's friends and people that age, I found out that it was more common than I knew of," Marshall said. "Eventually, I think my coaching persona --- which is I hate to lose --- took over and I'm not losing any more kids like this.

"We're going to use Cody's story to try and prevent other people from falling into this trap."

Cody's Gift (codysgift.org) was born. The title was chosen because Cody was an organ donor, "for others to potentially live, that's the kind of kid he was."

But it's so much more than that, because of the gift Jim is sharing with others. He's telling Cody's story, educating people --- especially young people --- about this horrible, lift-threatening danger.

It started with Town Hall forums at the Jefferson City Police Department in the spring of 2012. From there, Marshall was asked to speak at middle schools and high schools.

"All of a sudden, six years later," Marshall said, "I've done 300 of these. I've already done 40 this year, all around Missouri. I'd like for schools not to have these problems, that would be great if nobody thought the subject needed to be dealt with. But unfortunately, it's a national epidemic.

"I've been blessed to still have the ability to make a difference with Cody's Gift. It's a chance to speak to kids and maybe giving them a little more light into making better choices, and how that can help them down the road.

"When I talk about mental health and substance abuse, I can potentially help the people who hear you. The reality is, when they hear me talk, they hear I had a normal profession with a normal kid and I think they're a little bit more understanding, I think they have a little bit more perspective."

Marshall continued.

"On the surface, you think you're trying to stop somebody who may be into it," he said. "But really, there are multiple reasons, like creating dialogue --- these kids going home and telling their parents what I said.

"As parents, if their kids starts to struggle, I want them to know what's going on. Then they can have discussions about this, because I really don't think we have enough going on at home, talking about mental health issues and substance abuse to prepare the kids to make proper choices.

"They're not walking into the hurricane with no knowledge."

Marshall knows his efforts may be largely in vain, but the response he's received may suggest otherwise. Just imagine, saving a life by something you said.

"I basically want to educate the kids on the hurricane of substance abuse and how to handle mental health issues, with healthier coping skills," Marshall said. "I really think we have large contingency of youth who don't have very good coping skills right now.

"You don't have much time to stop, that's what's sad about it. You try to teach these kids that they control their choices, but they don't control the consequences of those choices."

His talks have also proven to be self-therapy.

"This is a healthy coping mechanism for me," Marshall said. "I tell them that this is my Xanax, this is my heroin, this is how I'm self-medicating for the loss of a son. So if I can take a negative and make it into a positive to help myself cope, you guys can do this without substances, too."

Last year, the Missouri State Legislature passed Bailey and Cody's Law. The law prevents those who bring overdosing victims into emergency rooms or hospitals from being prosecuted.

"A lot of kids, younger people, are afraid of being implicated or accused," Marshall said.

In Cody's case, he was with friends the night he died.

"They basically brought him home while he was overdosing," Marshall said, "and laid him on the living room floor."

Marshall is doing God's work, he's performing an amazing service. But he would rather not be doing it ... none of us would.

"I tell the kids," Jim said, "that I'm basically a wounded animal speaking. I tell them: 'I don't like what I do, I absolutely hate it.' It's like cutting your guts open and letting them roll out, because it reopens the wounds.

"But that's what makes the message real."

Cody's Gift: Marshall trying to turn
his tragedy into triumph for others

Loeffler's Link

Jim Marshall has given more than 300 Cody's Gift presentations in the last six years, mostly to middle schools and high schools throughout Missouri.

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