Search narrows off Fla. Gulf Coast; Man rescued

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-03-03 09:58

CLEARWATER – The Coast Guard on Monday narrowed the search area for two NFL players and a third man missing since a weekend fishing trip off the Florida Gulf Coast after crews rescued a fourth man clinging to their capsized boat.

This photo released by the US Coast Guard shows former University of South Florida football player Nick Schuyler clinging to the engine of an overturned boat in the Gulf of Mexico Monday March 2, 2009. [Agencies]

Survivor Nick Schuyler, a former University of South Florida player, told rescuers that the boat the four friends were aboard was anchored when it flipped Saturday evening in rough seas, said Coast Guard Capt. Timothy M. Close. Since then, Schuyler, who was wearing a life vest, had been hanging onto the boat found by a Coast Guard cutter 35 miles off Clearwater.

Schuyler said the other three men got separated from the boat. The 21-footer belongs to Oakland Raiders linebacker Marquis Cooper, who, along with free-agent defensive lineman Corey Smith and former South Florida player William Bleakley, remained missing.

Schuyler was conscious but appeared weak as he was being taken off a helicopter at Tampa General Hospital and placed on a stretcher. His father said his son was in serious but stable condition and that he "looks OK."

"He's got some cuts and bruises. He's dehydrated," said Stuart Schuyler.

Schuyler's mother, Marsha Schuyler, said her son told her that he survived by thinking about how he didn't want her to go to his funeral.

The family's joy at him being found alive was tempered by the search for his friends.

"We still have three men missing, and we're not going to talk too much until we find these guys," said his father, Stuart Schuyler. "We're all praying for them. These guys are all very close friends."

Coast Guard photos showed Schuyler wearing a yellow jacket and orange life vest and sitting on the hull of the capsized boat as a rescue cutter approached. A helicopter lowered a basket to haul him aboard. The search area is now "substantially smaller," based on where they found the boat and Schuyler, Close said. Searchers had previously covered 16,000 square miles of ocean.

Smith's family planned to drive to Florida from Richmond, Va., Tuesday, after the snowy weather in the East made getting a flight impossible, said Yolanda Newbill, one of Smith's sisters. She said they have been in contact with the Coast Guard every few hours since the search began.

"We have never lost hope," Newbill said. "We have total faith that (he) will be coming home."

Ray Sanchez of Tampa, a cousin of Cooper, said he was told the men were together "for a good period of time" after the boat flipped. He said the family was confident the Coast Guard would find them.

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