University of North Carolina Athletics
GoHeels Exclusive: Corrales Makes An Impact
November 1, 2019 | Football, Featured Writers
By Pat James, GoHeels.com
Around 2:20 p.m. last Saturday, just under two hours before North Carolina's showdown with Duke, Beau Corrales started walking down the home tunnel to the Kenan Stadium field.
Before every game, the junior receiver begins warming up about 90 minutes before kickoff. But on this day, he exited the locker room even earlier than usual, not for any reason related to the rivalry game or trying to stay alive in the ACC Coastal Division race, but for something – someone – even more important.
Corrales barely took two steps out of the tunnel and onto the turf before a pair of arms wrapped around his waist. The 6-foot-4, 210-pounder looked down, and there was 8-year-old Wyatt Woods, the very person he came to see.
Like close friends who haven't seen each other in months, they struck up a conversation. No one could've guessed they'd never met. Nor could anyone have known, just by looking at them, of the special bond they share as Type 1 diabetics.
According to the American Diabetes Association, diabetes affects about 30 million Americans. Only 1.25 million have Type 1 diabetes, a condition in which the pancreas produces little or no insulin, the hormone that allows sugar into cells to produce energy.Â
The disease is manageable. There is, however, no cure or way to prevent it.
Corrales learned of his diagnosis when he was 12 years old. Wyatt, from Hillsborough, N.C., was only 5. And upon meeting before Saturday's game, which Wyatt attended with his family as the UNC Children's Hospital Kid Champion, they discussed what they have in common.
"It felt like I had already known him and had met him several times before," Corrales said, "because with anyone like that, it's an instant connection. You know the kind of stuff they've been through and they know what you go through, as well."
Because even though Type 1 diabetes is an invisible illness, it requires continual care. People with the condition must monitor their blood sugar and take insulin several times a day. If one's blood sugar gets out of line – too high or too low – it could lead to serious medical issues, such as loss of consciousness, seizures or a diabetic coma.
Some days are certainly harder than others, both for Corrales and Wyatt. But neither has let Type 1 diabetes hold them back.
"I've kind of always thought of it as, 'It's life. This is the hand I got dealt,'" Corrales said. "There are definitely way worse hands that I could've been dealt, and I was going to make the most of it."
'Everything happened so quick'
The first time Corrales sensed something was off, he was sitting in the back of his seventh-grade classroom, trying to read the words displayed on the projector screen. The Georgetown, Texas native had always had perfect vision. But suddenly, everything was blurry.
As much as that worried him, his concerns heightened when he started losing weight.
Already standing close to 6 feet tall, he said he dropped about 25 pounds, going from roughly 110 to 85 in just a short while. Always active, he soon found himself constantly exhausted. He was also using the bathroom at least every five minutes. Some nights, he couldn't even control his bladder. So, he slept on the toilet.
"It was miserable going through that," Corrales said. "But I just didn't know what the heck was wrong with me."
When he went to see his physician, Corrales said he wasn't there. He instead visited with a nurse, who thought he might be dealing with allergies. But after going through all his prescribed allergy pills, he said he still felt "absolutely terrible." So, he sought medical help again.
This time, he met with his physician. And upon describing all his symptoms, he said the physician immediately diagnosed him with Type 1 diabetes, then called an ambulance.
"Everything happened so quick after that," Corrales said.
For nearly a week, he stayed at a children's hospital in Austin, Texas, where he learned more about his condition and everything it takes to manage it. The news of his diagnosis, he said, hit his parents, Greg and Tammy, hard. But at his age, he didn't understand "how long a life-term medical condition is." What he did know, though, was that he wasn't going to let it define him.
Unable to eat anything but saltine crackers in the weeks before his diagnosis, he said the first thing he did upon being discharged from the hospital was devour a burger from Five Guys. He then went home and started working out, hoping to accelerate his return to football.
Before he started feeling unwell, Corrales was on his middle school's seventh-grade A team. He started off on the B team once he started playing again. That, however, didn't last long.
"I got on the field and I was just tearing it up out there," he said. "It was one of the best times I've had playing football. No offense to the kids I was playing back then, but it was the B team; I wasn't supposed to be playing against them. It was a fun time, just being able to get back to what I love and being able to do it so quickly."
And it's remained an outlet for him.
"I can't even speak words to how much football means to me and how much it's meant to me growing up," Corrales said. "Diabetes is a part of me, but football is definitely a part of me, too. It's gotten me through a lot and it's helped me out with a lot of things. I just really feel blessed to be in the position that I'm at right now."
Making the right decisions
On almost every college visit Corrales made, members of the team's athletic training staff told him how they'd help him control his Type 1 diabetes. But only Carolina, he said, "was so ready and prepared and made a whole slideshow" telling him its exact plan.
Ultimately, that went a long way in his decision to become a Tar Heel.Â
Still, as thankful as he is for the support around him, Corrales knows his body best. Almost eight years have passed since he was diagnosed. And although he has a strong grasp of how to properly manage his blood sugar, it's far from easy.
With the help of adhesive tape, Corrales wears a continuous glucose monitor, which connects to his phone via Bluetooth and he changes every 10 weeks, on the back of his left hip. That, he believes, is the best spot for it because his football pants keep it pressed against his body. But even then, there have been times when he's jumped up to catch a pass, landed on his back and slid, causing the monitor to fall off.
For a similar reason, he said he doesn't wear an insulin pump. So, he always carries with him a bag that contains a disposable insulin pen and several disposable needles.
Whenever Corrales' blood sugar is too high, he said he feels almost overwhelmed. It can also cause him to have a headache and trouble breathing. To bring his blood sugar down, he takes insulin, which he also administers whenever he eats since carbohydrates raise blood sugar. On the flip side, whenever his blood sugar is too low – which can cause him to feel lethargic and lightheaded – he eats, drinks or takes something that contains sugar.
Generally, Corrales said he likes to keep his blood sugar between 150 and 180 milligrams per deciliter. Trying to stick to one specific number is too hard. But his monitor helps him stay within that range.
"On my phone, it will have trending dots with it and it gives me time to react no matter which way it goes," he said. "If it starts getting higher, I'll have some time to take some insulin and it'll start dropping before it gets too high. If it starts dropping, then I have some time to drink a little bit of Gatorade or whatever I need to do just so it can balance out."
Kelsee Gomes, UNC's director of sports nutrition, said Corrales' blood sugar can also elevate when certain hormones are triggered due to the excitement around a game or practice. Exercise will tend to bring it down – which is when Gomes and her staff step in.
Throughout each week of practice, two athletic trainers take turns overseeing Corrales and the receivers. Whoever is with them that day always has Corrales' phone in close proximity so his blood sugar continues to be tracked. They'll also have some green apple-flavored Gatorade energy chews, Corrales' favorite, to give him if his blood sugar drops closer to 100, Gomes said.
"There are some days where I'm really hydrated and I just don't feel like drinking anything, so I'll just eat something instead," Corrales said. "And there are days whenever my blood sugar might be dropping really, really quick and I'm going to need both at the same time anyway. (The athletic trainers) always do a good job of helping out."
At the same time, Gomes said Corrales doesn't need much else.
Before each game, she said she'll ask him how he's feeling and if he ate enough that day. But she never feels the need, not then nor at any other point during the week, to sit down and have a 20-minute conversation with him.
"If he knows he doesn't feel well for whatever reason, he'll ask for his phone, he'll ask to check his sugars, he'll ask for a snack," Gomes said. "But I just feel like he's been really good about being really in tune with his body. I don't feel like I've had to be a hover dietician or a hover person who is over him all the time being like, 'What's your sugar?'"
There have been times, though, when Corrales acknowledges his condition has gotten the best of him.
Because blood sugar drops when a person is asleep, Corrales said he's in an almost unconscious state some mornings, making it hard for him to get out of bed. When he was in high school, his parents often woke him up. But they also told him he would have to do a better job of getting up before leaving for college. Corrales knew they were right. But it took longer than he would've like to devise a plan that worked.
Shortly after Mack Brown and his staff arrived in Chapel Hill last November, Corrales said he showed up late to two meetings. Both Brown and receivers coach Lonnie Galloway recognized the severity of his condition. But they stressed he needed to meet the standard.
Phil Longo, whose daughter Gianna also battles Type 1 diabetes, has been able to relate to Corrales' situation more than anyone else on the staff. Yet, he also said he expected more from Corrales.
"That was whenever I really got the wakeup call was whenever Longo especially was really getting onto me about making sure I was on time to stuff and I couldn't use this as an excuse," Corrales said. "Just hearing that from him, I really had to think about what I want to do personally, where I wanted to get to personally, and how the way I had been preparing, I guess, wasn't good enough.Â
"So, I had to really think about what I had to do and make the right decisions to make sure I stuck to a good plan that benefited me and the team."
Every day since then, he has. And now, he finds himself amid a breakout campaign, having tallied career highs in catches (25), receiving yards (331) and receiving touchdowns (5) entering Saturday's home game against Virginia.
"I think Beau has been one of the most pleasant surprises since we've been here," Brown said. "He has really stepped up. And he has done an amazing job of fighting through the stuff that he has to fight with, with his sugar blood level and all that stuff and playing and being consistent."
Moments to live for
Corrales said he was the first person in his family to be diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. But that wasn't the same case for Wyatt.
His father, Brian, is also Type 1. And because of that, his mother, Hannah, said she and her husband always knew there was a chance Wyatt or their youngest son, Cohen, would be, too. That, however, didn't make it any easier once Wyatt started showing symptoms of the disease.
"It was devastating," Hannah said. "The UNC Children's Hospital, everything about that was as amazing as it could be. But it's hard because, for me as a mom, I felt very different, even about his diagnosis. You're realizing that for the rest of their life they need somebody around them to be aware of what's going on and to teach them not to use it as an excuse to get out of things."
But that's not a concern with Wyatt.
Just last year, Hannah said Wyatt, now in the third grade, ran his fastest mile at school. He loves playing baseball and basketball and football in the yard. And although his blood sugar drops the more he runs around, he always knows when he needs to go and ask his mom for some candy. As soon as he gets some, he darts back outside.
The enthusiasm with which Wyatt lives, Hannah said, is "totally inspiring," not only for her and Brian, but also Cohen, who wants to be like his brother and his dad. Like all of her patients, Dr. Nina Jain, Wyatt's pediatric endocrinologist at UNC Children's Hospital, said Wyatt "just loves life."
"I think Wyatt is just the embodiment of really understanding that, yes, he has diabetes and, yes, he has to take care of it," Jain said. "But you know what? He's still an 8-year-old kid. His goal every day is just to have fun, just like every other 8-year-old. Yes, (diabetes) is a part of who he is, but hopefully, it's a small part of who he is and not the main part."
Wyatt had already been selected as the Kid Champion for the Duke game when almost two weeks ago, Hannah said Mary Brooks Rice, the director of special events at UNC Children's Hospital, sent her an article about Corrales and his battle with Type 1 diabetes.
Hannah started crying as she read it on the drive back from Wyatt's travel baseball tournament, taken aback by Corrales' honesty. She then told Wyatt, a huge Carolina fan, about Corrales – who is now his latest role model.
"For it be somebody like Beau, who is this tangible, made it more real, I think, for Wyatt," Hannah said. "And that Beau seems to have his head on straight, you want your kid to look up to somebody who is doing all those things."
For Corrales, he's honored that something he's had to learn from – and adjust to – has put himself in a position to make such an impact.
"It's just humbling being able to be in a position where little kids like Wyatt can look up to you and to be able to see it right there in front of you," Corrales said. "It's heartwarming and it's humbling. I'm extremely grateful and I'm blessed that I'm in this position and I can be aware of it and just watching it all unfold. It's moments like that that you live for."
Around 2:20 p.m. last Saturday, just under two hours before North Carolina's showdown with Duke, Beau Corrales started walking down the home tunnel to the Kenan Stadium field.
Before every game, the junior receiver begins warming up about 90 minutes before kickoff. But on this day, he exited the locker room even earlier than usual, not for any reason related to the rivalry game or trying to stay alive in the ACC Coastal Division race, but for something – someone – even more important.
Corrales barely took two steps out of the tunnel and onto the turf before a pair of arms wrapped around his waist. The 6-foot-4, 210-pounder looked down, and there was 8-year-old Wyatt Woods, the very person he came to see.
Like close friends who haven't seen each other in months, they struck up a conversation. No one could've guessed they'd never met. Nor could anyone have known, just by looking at them, of the special bond they share as Type 1 diabetics.
According to the American Diabetes Association, diabetes affects about 30 million Americans. Only 1.25 million have Type 1 diabetes, a condition in which the pancreas produces little or no insulin, the hormone that allows sugar into cells to produce energy.Â
The disease is manageable. There is, however, no cure or way to prevent it.
Corrales learned of his diagnosis when he was 12 years old. Wyatt, from Hillsborough, N.C., was only 5. And upon meeting before Saturday's game, which Wyatt attended with his family as the UNC Children's Hospital Kid Champion, they discussed what they have in common.
"It felt like I had already known him and had met him several times before," Corrales said, "because with anyone like that, it's an instant connection. You know the kind of stuff they've been through and they know what you go through, as well."
Because even though Type 1 diabetes is an invisible illness, it requires continual care. People with the condition must monitor their blood sugar and take insulin several times a day. If one's blood sugar gets out of line – too high or too low – it could lead to serious medical issues, such as loss of consciousness, seizures or a diabetic coma.
Some days are certainly harder than others, both for Corrales and Wyatt. But neither has let Type 1 diabetes hold them back.
"I've kind of always thought of it as, 'It's life. This is the hand I got dealt,'" Corrales said. "There are definitely way worse hands that I could've been dealt, and I was going to make the most of it."
'Everything happened so quick'
The first time Corrales sensed something was off, he was sitting in the back of his seventh-grade classroom, trying to read the words displayed on the projector screen. The Georgetown, Texas native had always had perfect vision. But suddenly, everything was blurry.
As much as that worried him, his concerns heightened when he started losing weight.
Already standing close to 6 feet tall, he said he dropped about 25 pounds, going from roughly 110 to 85 in just a short while. Always active, he soon found himself constantly exhausted. He was also using the bathroom at least every five minutes. Some nights, he couldn't even control his bladder. So, he slept on the toilet.
"It was miserable going through that," Corrales said. "But I just didn't know what the heck was wrong with me."
When he went to see his physician, Corrales said he wasn't there. He instead visited with a nurse, who thought he might be dealing with allergies. But after going through all his prescribed allergy pills, he said he still felt "absolutely terrible." So, he sought medical help again.
This time, he met with his physician. And upon describing all his symptoms, he said the physician immediately diagnosed him with Type 1 diabetes, then called an ambulance.
"Everything happened so quick after that," Corrales said.
For nearly a week, he stayed at a children's hospital in Austin, Texas, where he learned more about his condition and everything it takes to manage it. The news of his diagnosis, he said, hit his parents, Greg and Tammy, hard. But at his age, he didn't understand "how long a life-term medical condition is." What he did know, though, was that he wasn't going to let it define him.
Unable to eat anything but saltine crackers in the weeks before his diagnosis, he said the first thing he did upon being discharged from the hospital was devour a burger from Five Guys. He then went home and started working out, hoping to accelerate his return to football.
Before he started feeling unwell, Corrales was on his middle school's seventh-grade A team. He started off on the B team once he started playing again. That, however, didn't last long.
"I got on the field and I was just tearing it up out there," he said. "It was one of the best times I've had playing football. No offense to the kids I was playing back then, but it was the B team; I wasn't supposed to be playing against them. It was a fun time, just being able to get back to what I love and being able to do it so quickly."
And it's remained an outlet for him.
"I can't even speak words to how much football means to me and how much it's meant to me growing up," Corrales said. "Diabetes is a part of me, but football is definitely a part of me, too. It's gotten me through a lot and it's helped me out with a lot of things. I just really feel blessed to be in the position that I'm at right now."
Making the right decisions
On almost every college visit Corrales made, members of the team's athletic training staff told him how they'd help him control his Type 1 diabetes. But only Carolina, he said, "was so ready and prepared and made a whole slideshow" telling him its exact plan.
Ultimately, that went a long way in his decision to become a Tar Heel.Â
Still, as thankful as he is for the support around him, Corrales knows his body best. Almost eight years have passed since he was diagnosed. And although he has a strong grasp of how to properly manage his blood sugar, it's far from easy.
With the help of adhesive tape, Corrales wears a continuous glucose monitor, which connects to his phone via Bluetooth and he changes every 10 weeks, on the back of his left hip. That, he believes, is the best spot for it because his football pants keep it pressed against his body. But even then, there have been times when he's jumped up to catch a pass, landed on his back and slid, causing the monitor to fall off.
For a similar reason, he said he doesn't wear an insulin pump. So, he always carries with him a bag that contains a disposable insulin pen and several disposable needles.
Whenever Corrales' blood sugar is too high, he said he feels almost overwhelmed. It can also cause him to have a headache and trouble breathing. To bring his blood sugar down, he takes insulin, which he also administers whenever he eats since carbohydrates raise blood sugar. On the flip side, whenever his blood sugar is too low – which can cause him to feel lethargic and lightheaded – he eats, drinks or takes something that contains sugar.
Generally, Corrales said he likes to keep his blood sugar between 150 and 180 milligrams per deciliter. Trying to stick to one specific number is too hard. But his monitor helps him stay within that range.
"On my phone, it will have trending dots with it and it gives me time to react no matter which way it goes," he said. "If it starts getting higher, I'll have some time to take some insulin and it'll start dropping before it gets too high. If it starts dropping, then I have some time to drink a little bit of Gatorade or whatever I need to do just so it can balance out."
Kelsee Gomes, UNC's director of sports nutrition, said Corrales' blood sugar can also elevate when certain hormones are triggered due to the excitement around a game or practice. Exercise will tend to bring it down – which is when Gomes and her staff step in.
Throughout each week of practice, two athletic trainers take turns overseeing Corrales and the receivers. Whoever is with them that day always has Corrales' phone in close proximity so his blood sugar continues to be tracked. They'll also have some green apple-flavored Gatorade energy chews, Corrales' favorite, to give him if his blood sugar drops closer to 100, Gomes said.
"There are some days where I'm really hydrated and I just don't feel like drinking anything, so I'll just eat something instead," Corrales said. "And there are days whenever my blood sugar might be dropping really, really quick and I'm going to need both at the same time anyway. (The athletic trainers) always do a good job of helping out."
At the same time, Gomes said Corrales doesn't need much else.
Before each game, she said she'll ask him how he's feeling and if he ate enough that day. But she never feels the need, not then nor at any other point during the week, to sit down and have a 20-minute conversation with him.
"If he knows he doesn't feel well for whatever reason, he'll ask for his phone, he'll ask to check his sugars, he'll ask for a snack," Gomes said. "But I just feel like he's been really good about being really in tune with his body. I don't feel like I've had to be a hover dietician or a hover person who is over him all the time being like, 'What's your sugar?'"
There have been times, though, when Corrales acknowledges his condition has gotten the best of him.
Because blood sugar drops when a person is asleep, Corrales said he's in an almost unconscious state some mornings, making it hard for him to get out of bed. When he was in high school, his parents often woke him up. But they also told him he would have to do a better job of getting up before leaving for college. Corrales knew they were right. But it took longer than he would've like to devise a plan that worked.
Shortly after Mack Brown and his staff arrived in Chapel Hill last November, Corrales said he showed up late to two meetings. Both Brown and receivers coach Lonnie Galloway recognized the severity of his condition. But they stressed he needed to meet the standard.
Phil Longo, whose daughter Gianna also battles Type 1 diabetes, has been able to relate to Corrales' situation more than anyone else on the staff. Yet, he also said he expected more from Corrales.
"That was whenever I really got the wakeup call was whenever Longo especially was really getting onto me about making sure I was on time to stuff and I couldn't use this as an excuse," Corrales said. "Just hearing that from him, I really had to think about what I want to do personally, where I wanted to get to personally, and how the way I had been preparing, I guess, wasn't good enough.Â
"So, I had to really think about what I had to do and make the right decisions to make sure I stuck to a good plan that benefited me and the team."
Every day since then, he has. And now, he finds himself amid a breakout campaign, having tallied career highs in catches (25), receiving yards (331) and receiving touchdowns (5) entering Saturday's home game against Virginia.
"I think Beau has been one of the most pleasant surprises since we've been here," Brown said. "He has really stepped up. And he has done an amazing job of fighting through the stuff that he has to fight with, with his sugar blood level and all that stuff and playing and being consistent."
Moments to live for
Corrales said he was the first person in his family to be diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. But that wasn't the same case for Wyatt.
His father, Brian, is also Type 1. And because of that, his mother, Hannah, said she and her husband always knew there was a chance Wyatt or their youngest son, Cohen, would be, too. That, however, didn't make it any easier once Wyatt started showing symptoms of the disease.
"It was devastating," Hannah said. "The UNC Children's Hospital, everything about that was as amazing as it could be. But it's hard because, for me as a mom, I felt very different, even about his diagnosis. You're realizing that for the rest of their life they need somebody around them to be aware of what's going on and to teach them not to use it as an excuse to get out of things."
But that's not a concern with Wyatt.
Just last year, Hannah said Wyatt, now in the third grade, ran his fastest mile at school. He loves playing baseball and basketball and football in the yard. And although his blood sugar drops the more he runs around, he always knows when he needs to go and ask his mom for some candy. As soon as he gets some, he darts back outside.
The enthusiasm with which Wyatt lives, Hannah said, is "totally inspiring," not only for her and Brian, but also Cohen, who wants to be like his brother and his dad. Like all of her patients, Dr. Nina Jain, Wyatt's pediatric endocrinologist at UNC Children's Hospital, said Wyatt "just loves life."
"I think Wyatt is just the embodiment of really understanding that, yes, he has diabetes and, yes, he has to take care of it," Jain said. "But you know what? He's still an 8-year-old kid. His goal every day is just to have fun, just like every other 8-year-old. Yes, (diabetes) is a part of who he is, but hopefully, it's a small part of who he is and not the main part."
Wyatt had already been selected as the Kid Champion for the Duke game when almost two weeks ago, Hannah said Mary Brooks Rice, the director of special events at UNC Children's Hospital, sent her an article about Corrales and his battle with Type 1 diabetes.
Hannah started crying as she read it on the drive back from Wyatt's travel baseball tournament, taken aback by Corrales' honesty. She then told Wyatt, a huge Carolina fan, about Corrales – who is now his latest role model.
"For it be somebody like Beau, who is this tangible, made it more real, I think, for Wyatt," Hannah said. "And that Beau seems to have his head on straight, you want your kid to look up to somebody who is doing all those things."
For Corrales, he's honored that something he's had to learn from – and adjust to – has put himself in a position to make such an impact.
"It's just humbling being able to be in a position where little kids like Wyatt can look up to you and to be able to see it right there in front of you," Corrales said. "It's heartwarming and it's humbling. I'm extremely grateful and I'm blessed that I'm in this position and I can be aware of it and just watching it all unfold. It's moments like that that you live for."
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