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Friday, July 13, 2012

Coach of ECHL's Las Vegas Wranglers saves man drowning in Boston Harbor - Yahoo! Sports (blog)

Ryan Mougenel, surrounded by his players

Ryan Mougenel is the head coach of the Las Vegas Wranglers, a team in the East Coast Hockey League, as well as the General Manager of the franchise.

He's also a hero, after rescuing a man drowning in the Boston Harbour.

Mougenel was in Boston with his wife, a native of the area, visiting her family and vacationing after a successful Wranglers' season in which the team won the franchise's second Western Conference championship. They were down at the harbour, near Commercial Wharf at Columbus Park, when a man stripped off his clothes and jumped into the water.

He took a few strokes, then went under. That's when Mougenel and two others -- including Megan Blomberg, a former lifeguard, fortunately -- went in after him. From the Las Vegas Sun:

Mougenel, who was on his cellphone at the time of the man's fall, handed the phone to his wife and dove into the water after the drowning man, along with two other good samaritans.

"An older gentleman in his underwear slipped underneath the barrier and I jumped into the ocean," Mougenel said. "By the time me and two others got to him he was already unconscious. We kept his head up until the water taxi came to us."

But the ordeal didn't end there, as they couldn't get the man into the water taxi. From Boston's WHDH:

The three rescuers say they tried to pull the man up on to a water taxi. But they couldn't manage, so they got him close to a dock and waited for the police boat.

"We were definitely in the water for probably too long," said Mougenel.

Mougenel was in the water over thirty minutes.

Once the Massachusetts State police boat arrived, they were able to get the man on board, and paramedics rushed him to Massachusetts General hospital, where his condition remains undetermined.

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