Mitz full of heart

Logwone Mitz has carried the ball 143 times for 601 yards in two seasons as a backup running back for the Washington State football team.

The biggest play of his career was a 57-yard touchdown run in the 2008 Apple Cup. He talks of fulfilling potential, and he's looking forward to what this season will bring.

But forget about that for now. What he did last Friday, far away from any practice field or playbook, gives a truer glimpse of the kind of person Cougar fans will be watching on Saturdays this season.

Chanel Cogan, an 18-year-old recent graduate of Redmond High School, was badly injured in a hiking accident near Kachess Lake in Kittitas County on the morning of July 31. She's in a medical-induced coma at Harborview Medical Center. The hospital bill will be pricey.

Mitz, who graduated from Redmond in 2007 with Cogan's sister, Tiffany, decided after overhearing a conversation between their family at the hospital that something had to be done.

"I just felt it was my time to step in and do something," Mitz said after WSU's first fall practice on Sunday.

And so began the most remarkable 24-hour accomplishment of the promising running back's young career. Mitz put together a charity home-run derby, the proceeds all going to the Cogan family, at Harmon Park in Redmond.

He got the idea on Thursday -the event was on Friday - but word spread fast.

"Half the news reporters and whatnot knew about the story before I even called them," Mitz said, smiling.

There were between 100 and 175 people at the park, he said, some of them simply donating money and leaving, others hanging around to knock a few balls out of the park and have a good time.

"It was just crazy to see how fast someone's heart can want to help somebody else they don't even know, or haven't even heard the news about," Mitz said. "And as soon as you hear something, you're there. It was really neat to see the community come together so quickly."

They raised nearly $2,500 that afternoon. But the efforts aren't stopping there. A car wash was put together by friends of Chanel at the Redmond Athletic Club on Saturday, and a family friend tells the Redmond Reporter that plans for a benefit concert and other fundraisers may be in the works.

Mitz is back in Pullman now, of course, participating in fall camp with the rest of the team as the Cougars begin a new season, one they hope is void of the struggles that made the last two years almost unbearable.

They won't lack heart.

Mitz didn't publicize his heroics any more than what was needed to make sure people came out to the park that day. He hadn't even mentioned it to his own coach, Paul Wulff, who said he wasn't surprised. That's just the kind of guy he is.

"We work on leadership with our players, and we want guys to take initiative and instead of self-serving, be selfless," Wulff said after practice yesterday. "We talk about that as a key definition of leadership and Logwone, that's not the only thing he's done. He's very supportive of a lot of things."

Even if the Cougars are better this year, they might still finish in the Pac-10 cellar. A winning record would be asking a lot. And there will be questions about just where exactly this program is headed if they don't turn things around soon.

But Mitz proves that in some ways, they already have.

"We're trying to raise quality people first," Wulff said. "You've got to be a great person before you can be a great player. That's the message we're giving."

Mitz has proved he is listening.

Christian Caple can be reached at (208) 882-5561, ext. 230, or by e-mail to ccaple@dnews.com.