Hingham Track Coach Among First Responders to Marathon Explosions

Hingham Track Coach Rick Kates was standing just 50 yards from the Boston Marathon explosions last Monday on Bolyston Street.

Instead of running for his life, Kates ran towards the mayhem in hopes of saving lives.

“My God, I was just horrified,” Kates said. “I have never seen so much blood in my entire life.”

Kates, who is the Head Coach of the Indoor and Outdoor Track teams at Notre Dame Academy, was working as a track and field official for the Massachusetts Track & Field Officials Association at the finish line Monday for the wheel chair division.  The 18-year veteran head coach, who also works as an EMT in Carver, said the day started off full of excitement as he greeted  his former and current runners at NDA but quickly turned horrific.

When Kates first heard the explosions he thought it might have been fireworks for Dick Hoyt, who pushing his son, Rick’s wheelchair each year.  Kates said he heard rumors it would be the Hoyt’s last marathon and wondered if the explosion could have been for the father and son.

“It was one gigantic boom,” he said . “It sounded like the Patriots scoring a touchdown, when they fire the muskets- but louder than that” he said.

When he quickly realized it was anything from a celebration, he ran to help. 

 “It was just horrible… In 25 years (of being an EMT), I have never seen so much blood and carniage,” he said. “There is no video, no picture that can explain how horrible it was.”

Kates saw severed body parts, bones and traumatic leg injuries. He said the bombs were like a bowling ball hitting pins; It struck spectators from their legs underneath and knocked them down.

“Here we are at a marathon where people need their legs to run, and people were losing them,” he said.

Kates used his EMT training to try to stop the bleeding on patients and get them to the Boston hospitals as soon as possible.  The Associated Press even captured a photo of him rushing a bloody patient to a medical tent.

He said he tried to comfort many of the patients by telling them he was an EMT and felt very fortunate that so many great hospitals were nearby.

As Kates returned to teaching Science at Notre Dame on Monday he said he still feels numb from the "ubelievable" events that transpired. He thanks his family and friends who have helped him make it through the week.

Just days after he was honored at the State House for leading his Indoor Track and Field Team to a Division 2 State Championship, the Hingham coach is now being congratulated again. On Facebook, some of Kates’ former and current students are praising his actions.

The varsity track coach says he is just trying to process everything that happened and that he plans to be working the Boston Marathon next year. For now, he hopes to focus all his attention on the Spring Track season and the upcoming MIAA Division II Track Championships that will be held at NDA on May 25.