Hello everyone!
Fall is flying by for us. We had a great Halloween. Isabella was a "Chef", inspired by her love of watching The Food Network and the fact that my Dad used to have his own catering business. My Dad (PaPa) also gave her a giant whisk he used in his catering business. She was adorable and loved trick-or treating. Nick went to the Daughtry concert in Toledo in our new arena. His friend, Stephen, got him the tickets for his birthday and they went together along with Stephen's Mom. What a great birthday gift! Nick had a great time!
New news, which many of our friends and family have heard, Nick had joined the wrestling team at Perrysburg High School!
About a month or so ago, Nick came home and told us he wanted to join the wrestling team. We thought, great, but "how will that work?" He told us he spoke to one of the coaches and they told him to come to the meeting, then we attended the parent meeting, and immediately, the coaches said, "sure, we'd love to have him, we don't know how this is going to work, but we'll give it a try".
I cannot stress enough how important this attitude has been in all of Nick's successful experiences: "we haven't done this (maybe) but WE"LL TRY!" How refreshing. We don't have all of the answers. This is a new experience for us and the coaches. I know nothing about wrestling. (Greg knows more than me!) Obviously, Nick is physically challenged due to his CP. Nick's CP affects all of his body, all four limbs, his fine and gross motor skills, his speech. He's quadriplegic. One of the coaches sent an e-mail to Greg stating their willingness to try this, stating that they will treat Nick as much as possible like any other wrestler and adapt what they can. That is all Nick, all we, have ever asked for and want! So, Nick started conditioning with the team this week. He is SO SORE. Greg and I decided we are taking this "one day at a time", then one week at a time. We don't know how much Nick will be able to do. So far, we've had to have myself, Greg, or my Dad there to assist Nick with changing his clothes after school, taking his service dog, Charger home, and helping him in whatever way we can. We don't know if we can continue this but we will try because Nick is trying. He is loving it. The coaches have had a wonderful attitude and so have the other wrestlers. We have spoken to Nick's physical therapist and she has agreed to meet with the coaches to consult with them and make any suggestions she can for adaptations. We have told the coaches to "ask us anything" as well. Together, we can figure out a way for Nick to be meaningfully included and I'm sure Nick will work his A _ _ off as well! (pardon the language but it's true!) This entire experience has started off in this positive way, so different from Nick's previous experience wanting to help out with the high school basketball team as he had done in Jr. High. The High School basketball coach and one of the Vice Principals, told asked us how Nick could actually "contribute" to the team (we made several suggestions and gave them a pile of research I printed from the Internet showing individuals with disabilities in coaching and managing roles, real life examples, in high schools and colleges....), that he would be a distraction and this could interfere with the boys getting scholarships, safety issues, ETC. Basically, they said no in many ways. Nick did not want to be part of the team after that anyhow because he felt he did not want to be where he wasn't wanted, and we agreed with that. How sad that he had that experience but if that hadn't happened, we may not be having this experience today. The wrestling coaches seem to be more open-minded, inclusive, and willing to try than the basketball coach had been.
Nick wrote the following as a small part of something he wrote for an assignment at school called "Sports and Me":
Sports and Me
Sports are my number one passion in my life. I’ve loved sports for as long as I can remember. I believe it is so ironic how because of my disability, how limited I am when it comes to being involved with my number one passion. But I’ve never let it stop me from doing them. My grandpa says that the first type of ball I used to play was called “sock ball”. He says when I was three years old, he would take a rolled up pair of socks, and we would play catch with it. We would play catch for hours, and I’d have a smile on my face the whole time. He still tells me to this day, “as long as you’d have a ball in your hand, you were happy”. I’ve never heard anything more true, because I’m still that way today.
Because of my CP (Cerebral Palsy), I’m very limited and restricted as to how involved I can become with sports. But I have found a couple of leagues in the area for kids with disabilities. My first involvement with a sport was Challenger League of Greater Toledo baseball. I started in the league when I was eight years old, and I’m still on the same team I was on eight years ago. It’s my favorite sports league that I’ve been involved in because it’s not about winning or losing, it’s simply about giving everyone a chance to get involved with something and having fun. The age group is from age six to eighteen. So, when I go out on the diamond now, and I see a six or seven year old or anyone step up to the plate, it puts a smile on my face, because I see that even though these kids are disabled, they don’t let that stop them. They don’t let it get in the way of doing something that nobody thought they would ever do. And whether the disability is blindness or something that causes them to have no use of their hands, when they find a way to swing that bat, and they hit the ball, you see the smile and laughter, and sometimes tears of happiness, of accomplishment, and there is no better sight or feeling in the world.
Another league I was involved with for a while was a soccer league here in Perrysburg for kids with disabilities. I was involved with it from age ten to thirteen. Because I can’t walk that well, I played the goalie position on my knees the majority of the time. I got involved with it because at the time I just wanted something to do. Soccer wasn’t my favorite sport but I still really enjoyed playing it and meeting new kids. And even though I wasn’t involved with it for very long, again it was just amazing to see more kids with disabilities just go out there and have fun.
Since the sixth grade, I’ve had this dream/goal about me playing a sport for my school. The reason why I call it a dream, is because of my disability, realistically I am not good enough to compete at the level of the kids on the school teams. But, I believe that I do have the ability to compete in more advanced leagues than I’m in now. I want to be challenged and pushed to my limits, so it’s hard to find a league that’s the perfect amount of challenge for me. From my seventh grade year to my freshmen year, I got involved with the school basketball team as a so-called “manager”. Basically, I sat on the bench and was kind of a “mascot” for the guys. Which was a wonderful experience, but again it wasn’t something where I was challenged because I couldn’t even play.
Ever since I’ve had this dream, I’ve tried doing some research. I’ve tried to find people that had physical disabilities and actually played on a sport for their school. As a result of my research, I found two cases where a teen in high school actually had the ability to play on a team. One guy I saw in person, Steven Klorer was on the Clay High School wrestling team, and he had spina bifida and had no use of his legs because of it. The other guy played a defense position in football, and he didn’t have legs. So, after I did my research, I’ve told myself ever since, “if they can do it, why can’t I?” I am still chasing after this dream, at the moment I am very close to pursuing it; I want to be on my school’s wrestling team just like Steven Klorer was. The coaches are fine with it; the only thing that’s standing in the way is I have to get my doctor’s approval. Hopefully, he gives me a chance.
I was having a conversation with my Dad last week, and he asked me, “ Why do you want this so bad, why do you want to wrestle?” He didn’t doubt me, he was just curious. My response was, “I’m not doing this just for me. See, I idolize people like Steven and that guy with no legs who played football because they are two of the very small amount of people with physical disabilities that have the ability to actually play at that level. Those people are my role models. If I achieve this, look at what I’m representing, myself, my school, and every guy out there with a physical disability that has that dream of becoming a part of something nobody thought they could ever be. I could be the research for one of these guys the same way Steven was for me. I could be that extra push someone needs to see that if I was able to become a part of this, then they can too.” I say it’s ironic how my disability makes my number one passion in life so limited, but without my disability, would sports be my number one passion?
Sports are my number one passion in my life. I’ve loved sports for as long as I can remember. I believe it is so ironic how because of my disability, how limited I am when it comes to being involved with my number one passion. But I’ve never let it stop me from doing them. My grandpa says that the first type of ball I used to play was called “sock ball”. He says when I was three years old, he would take a rolled up pair of socks, and we would play catch with it. We would play catch for hours, and I’d have a smile on my face the whole time. He still tells me to this day, “as long as you’d have a ball in your hand, you were happy”. I’ve never heard anything more true, because I’m still that way today.
Because of my CP (Cerebral Palsy), I’m very limited and restricted as to how involved I can become with sports. But I have found a couple of leagues in the area for kids with disabilities. My first involvement with a sport was Challenger League of Greater Toledo baseball. I started in the league when I was eight years old, and I’m still on the same team I was on eight years ago. It’s my favorite sports league that I’ve been involved in because it’s not about winning or losing, it’s simply about giving everyone a chance to get involved with something and having fun. The age group is from age six to eighteen. So, when I go out on the diamond now, and I see a six or seven year old or anyone step up to the plate, it puts a smile on my face, because I see that even though these kids are disabled, they don’t let that stop them. They don’t let it get in the way of doing something that nobody thought they would ever do. And whether the disability is blindness or something that causes them to have no use of their hands, when they find a way to swing that bat, and they hit the ball, you see the smile and laughter, and sometimes tears of happiness, of accomplishment, and there is no better sight or feeling in the world.
Another league I was involved with for a while was a soccer league here in Perrysburg for kids with disabilities. I was involved with it from age ten to thirteen. Because I can’t walk that well, I played the goalie position on my knees the majority of the time. I got involved with it because at the time I just wanted something to do. Soccer wasn’t my favorite sport but I still really enjoyed playing it and meeting new kids. And even though I wasn’t involved with it for very long, again it was just amazing to see more kids with disabilities just go out there and have fun.
Since the sixth grade, I’ve had this dream/goal about me playing a sport for my school. The reason why I call it a dream, is because of my disability, realistically I am not good enough to compete at the level of the kids on the school teams. But, I believe that I do have the ability to compete in more advanced leagues than I’m in now. I want to be challenged and pushed to my limits, so it’s hard to find a league that’s the perfect amount of challenge for me. From my seventh grade year to my freshmen year, I got involved with the school basketball team as a so-called “manager”. Basically, I sat on the bench and was kind of a “mascot” for the guys. Which was a wonderful experience, but again it wasn’t something where I was challenged because I couldn’t even play.
Ever since I’ve had this dream, I’ve tried doing some research. I’ve tried to find people that had physical disabilities and actually played on a sport for their school. As a result of my research, I found two cases where a teen in high school actually had the ability to play on a team. One guy I saw in person, Steven Klorer was on the Clay High School wrestling team, and he had spina bifida and had no use of his legs because of it. The other guy played a defense position in football, and he didn’t have legs. So, after I did my research, I’ve told myself ever since, “if they can do it, why can’t I?” I am still chasing after this dream, at the moment I am very close to pursuing it; I want to be on my school’s wrestling team just like Steven Klorer was. The coaches are fine with it; the only thing that’s standing in the way is I have to get my doctor’s approval. Hopefully, he gives me a chance.
I was having a conversation with my Dad last week, and he asked me, “ Why do you want this so bad, why do you want to wrestle?” He didn’t doubt me, he was just curious. My response was, “I’m not doing this just for me. See, I idolize people like Steven and that guy with no legs who played football because they are two of the very small amount of people with physical disabilities that have the ability to actually play at that level. Those people are my role models. If I achieve this, look at what I’m representing, myself, my school, and every guy out there with a physical disability that has that dream of becoming a part of something nobody thought they could ever be. I could be the research for one of these guys the same way Steven was for me. I could be that extra push someone needs to see that if I was able to become a part of this, then they can too.” I say it’s ironic how my disability makes my number one passion in life so limited, but without my disability, would sports be my number one passion?
By Nicholas Austin Hyndman October 2009
So, we'll keep you posted on the wrestling............I know this was a longer post, but I had so much to tell!
Blessings:)
Amy
PS-We have a bumper sticker on our van that says, "Attitudes are the Real Disability".
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