How a 25-year-old ex-monk kept the Thai cave boys alive – and won the hearts of their parents
For many in Thailand the monk-turned-coach is an almost divine force, sent to protect the boys as they go through their ordeal
The head coach of the Thai soccer team spent the morning of June 23 preparing his young assistant for an important task: looking out for the boys by himself.
Nopparat Khanthavong, the 37-year-old head coach of the Moo Pa (Wild Boars) soccer team, had an appointment that morning. Ekapol Chanthawong, his assistant, was to take the younger boys to a soccer field nestled by the Doi Nang Non mountain range, a formation with numerous waterfalls and caves that straddles the Thai-Myanmar border.
“Make sure you ride your bicycle behind them when you are travelling around, so you can keep a lookout,” he wrote in a Facebook message to the children. Ekapol coaches the younger boys, so Nopparat told him to bring some of the boys from the older team for additional eyes.
“Take care,” he wrote.
The hours that followed kicked off a chain of events that has riveted the world: a dramatic search and rescue that found the boys alive nine days later, huddled on a small, muddy patch surrounded by floodwaters.
When he comes out, we have to heal his heart. My dear Ek, I would never blame you
Attention has focused on the only adult, 25-year-old former monk Ekapol, and the role he has played in both their predicament and their survival.