The Arachnid Kid : Littlerock’s Ulate Returns After Painful Spider Bite--His Second in Two Years

LITTLEROCK —  To know Joe Ulate is to know perhaps the unluckiest high school football player in the region.

The Littlerock High offensive lineman has been plagued with so many unusual ailments--causing him to miss more games than he has played--that Coach Jim Bauer says he is snake bitten.

Actually, Ulate has been spider-bitten.

The 6-foot-2, 260-pound senior was bitten in August by a poisonous brown recluse.

The bite was never considered life-threatening, but Ulate, 17, has missed all but a few downs because of headaches, dizziness, vomiting, fatigue and respiratory problems--the symptoms of those who have the potentially deadly venom of a brown recluse coursing through their veins.

After being cleared last week, Ulate expects to play in Littlerock’s Golden League opener tonight at 7:30 at Quartz Hill. But don’t be surprised to find the Lobo guard out of breath and limping. He suffered an ankle sprain after playing only briefly last week in a 34-12 victory over Valencia.

“He’d be our best lineman,” Bauer said. “He’s big, strong, intelligent and he’s got a mean streak in him.”

And he’s popular with his teammates--even those who now attempt to avoid him.

“He offers guys rides home and they won’t even ride with him,” Bauer said, “because they’re scared he’ll get into an accident.”

Said quarterback Bruce Johnson: “We say we need to put him in a bubble and not take him out until right before the game.”

Two years ago, Ulate was bitten by a black widow shortly before the season but didn’t miss a game. Last year he missed five games because of anemia, an iron deficiency in the blood. Over the summer, he had minor surgery to remedy a circulatory problem.

Ulate required dental work last week because heavy doses of penicillin used to combat the latest spider bite had softened his teeth.

“It’s been a heck of a year for Joseph,” his mother, Debra, said.

Ulate, who has received recruiting letters from San Jose State, said he just wants to play.

“I’d like to help the team--be out there playing with my buds,” said Ulate, coughing and wheezing last week while taking a break from his first practice since early September. “They need a couple more big linemen.

“I was really sick. I always felt down. It wasn’t until [last week] that I started to feel pumped up again.”

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A brown recluse has a body about three-eighths of an inch long and a violin-shaped mark on its back. It hides in dark places during the day, typically under furniture, and is active at night. Ulate was bitten Aug. 29 while sleeping on a couch his family had, only days earlier, inherited from his aunt.

At first he had a pimple on his right forearm that itched. But then his arm became numb and swollen.

“His arm got so big he looked like Popeye,” Debra Ulate said. “The doctor said he said he was lucky he didn’t lose his arm.”

Ulate was taken to the High Desert Medical Group emergency ward that evening and given massive injections of penicillin for several days.

The medication didn’t prevent the big lineman, who bench-presses 300 pounds and squats 450, from getting a Staph infection and a severe case of flu--both resulting from a weakened immune system.

For those who do not get prompt treatment, a bite from a brown recluse can be fatal. Two days after his own attack, Ulate recalled having seen a television news report about a bite victim whose arm and leg required amputation.

Said Ulate, “I thought back to that lady and I said, ‘This is not going to happen to me.’ I knew God would bring me out of it.”

His teammates, who call him Spider-Man, are glad to have Ulate back.

Littlerock has a record of 3-2, thanks mainly to a talented group of running backs. Johnson has been forced to throw on the run, and the lack of protection in the pocket reflects in his statistics: He has completed 25 of 64 passes for 320 yards, an average of only 64 yards a game.

“We really want him to come back in a hurry,” Johnson said. “We should be able to do a lot more things than we have with him back.”

Said Bauer, who at one point was missing four starters on the offensive line: “We need him badly. But he’s so out of shape now, I don’t think he can go both ways for more than a quarter.”

If he can keep away from spiders, Ulate might last the whole game.