Yahoo Movies Coach Ek Got The Thai Soccer Team To Meditate While Trapped In The Cave
Back in 2018, the world became enthralled with the terrifying story of a youth soccer team, the Wild Boars, who got stranded inside a cave in northern Thailand. The team, which consisted of 13 teenagers and their assistant coach Ekkapol Chantawong, a.k.a. Coach Ek, entered the cave in June 23 and were trapped by rising flood waters as oxygen ran out, per CNN.
The team was located on July 2, but getting them safely out of the cave became an incredibly dangerous mission, requiring careful maneuvers through dark underwater tunnels. The boys and Coach Ek were eventually evacuated one at a time with help from a team of international divers, but it wasn’t an easy feat.
Last month, Netflix dropped a limited series, Thai Cave Rescue, which presented a fictionalized account of what actually took place, and now another doc is dropping on Oct. 5. The Trapped 13: How We Survived The Thai Cave goes into even more detail about the ordeal using first person interviews with the boys and their coach.
Who is Coach Ek?
Coach Ek is the assistant coach for the Wild Boars. He appears in the documentary with the boys.
He's a former monk.
Coach Ek actually trained as a monk before he became a soccer coach, The Guardian says. And his skills came in handy during the whole rescue process.
Lt. Gen. Werachon Sukondhapatipak, who worked on the operation to get the team out, told The Guardian that Coach Ek encouraged the boys to meditate to try to stay calm and preserve oxygen.
“The coach is advising them that they need to lie down, of course [try] meditation, try not to move their bodies too much, try not to waste their energy. And of course, by meditation, they stay conscious all the time, so their mind will not be wandering around,” Sukondhapatipak said.
He was also only 25 at the time.
When Coach Ek found himself stranded in the cave in charge of 11 young boys' survival, he was just 25 years old.
He'd been coaching the boys for three years.
When the incident occurred, Coach Ek and the boys had a rapport with each other. “Coach Ek always thinks of others before himself,” 13-year-old Songpol Kanthawong who was on the soccer team, told The Guardian.
He was considered "stateless."
At the time of the recovery mission, Coach Ek was a "stateless" person, meaning he had no passport was not technically Thai. He is a member of the Tai Lue minority, whose people have moved around the region for several generations.
After the rescue, Coach Ek and another stateless player were granted citizenship by the Thai government, and was able to travel with a passport, per France24. And the team and its coach did lots of traveling for press events following their rescue.
Where is he now?
It's not totally clear what Coach Ek is up to these days, but he apparently appears in the documentary to talk about his experience alongside the boys.
Back in 2019, after the harrowing experience, Coach Ek was back coaching the boys in their hometown, according to France24. He also started a soccer club, the Ekkapol Academy. "After the storm came calm, this is a new life for him," assistant coach Noppadol Kanthavong told the outlet.
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