Cody carries it home: Teen with cerebral palsy scores his first touchdown
Angela Walker-Wright has seen her son do almost everything.
Ziplining through West Virginia, hiking the Grand Canyon, traversing the Sedona vortexes by jeep: Walker-Wright exposed Cody, 19, to every possible activity to quench his thirst for exploration. Despite his adventures — and a knack for beating the odds — there was something Walker-Wright never thought she’d see Cody do: score a touchdown on a football field.
In fact, she never thought she’d see Cody step on a football field at all. The teenager has been living with cerebral palsy — a disability that affects one in every 345 children, according to the CDC — and epilepsy since he was an infant.
Cody was born with gastroschisis, which meant about a foot of his intestine was outside his body. His case was minor, Walker-Wright said, and the procedure to repair it was supposed to be simple. But a post-op bacterial infection turned into spinal meningitis, cutting off the oxygen supply to his brain and leaving him with difficulty walking, speaking and performing other functions.
More: 2023 Venice Shark Tooth Fishing Tournament
Walker-Wright and her family have tried to include Cody in everything they do since then, and they’re mostly successful. Organized sports, though, have been a challenge.
“There’s no safe space,” Walker-Wright said. “Tackle football. Where’s the space in that?”
The Venice Vikings Football and Cheer Organization 11U football team made that space for Cody in more ways than one at a Sept. 16 game. Lined up at the 5-yard line sporting his custom yellow and green Vikings jersey, #52 found the ball in his hands and beelined toward the endzone — players on both sides clearing the way as he took it straight to the house.
Kids circled around him, and parents cheered from their seats. Chants of “Co-dy! Co-dy! Co-dy!” rang out, just as they had the entire time Cody was on the field.
All Walker-Wright could do was cry from the sideline. She knew her son Nathan, a nose guard for the team, would take the field that day, but she had no clue Cody would join him.
As the rest of the field rallied around Cody, Walker-Wright embraced Vikings president Jamie Fraser, who orchestrated the plan and kept it secret.
“I know this was you,” she said to him.
She was right. Fraser had pulled the plan together in a matter of days, gaining approval from the team’s Peace River Conference and looping coaches.
Fraser had always made a point to include Cody in the organization, gifting him the same gear his brother and the rest of the players received for the season and chatting with him at games and practices. He’s been a regular presence since his brother started playing two years ago, Fraser said.
Cody’s nonverbal, but he speaks with a smile. It’s one that shows up in the selfies he takes with Vikings players and staff and one that even 13 surgeries couldn’t wipe away.
“No matter how bad your day is, you go near him, and you just release anything that’s holding you back from enjoying the moment,” Fraser said. “He just unlocks that happiness in everyone."
More: Trial begins in 'Take Care of Maya' case, attorneys lay out what to expect
The play was a chance to further include Cody in the team. But it wasn’t just for Cody, Fraser said: It was for his mom, who’s also the 11U team mom, the Vikings’ social media director, and a frequent volunteer in the team’s spirit shop.
With seven kids and her own business, Walker-Wright never meant to become so involved in her son’s football team, but once she saw how tight-knit the Vikings organization was, she said, she was all in.
“She does so much for us,” Fraser said. “We wanted to make it a special moment a special moment for him as well as for her.”
Cody’s play was a lesson for the Vikings players as well. The plan was hidden from them until Steven McCord, the 11U coach, announced Cody would take the field at running back for the first play of the game.
High school football: Sarasota and Manatee previews and predictions for Week 5
The boys were through the roof, McCord said, rallying and chanting as soon as they heard the news. His son and the team’s quarterback, Owen, handed Cody the ball for his score.
McCord hopes the play instilled the spirit of inclusivity in his team.
“You don’t have to just be a football player or a cheerleader. You can be like Cody,” McCord said. “He’s still part of our family.”
The play lasted all of 30 seconds, but for a kid who doctors swore would spend his life in a vegetative state, it was the run of a lifetime.
For Walker-Wright, it was the culmination of years of making the impossible possible. Now, her son is doing everything the doctors said he couldn’t: walking and exploring on his own, earning his diploma at Oak Park School, even scoring a touchdown.
“Doors open up. Windows open up,” Walker-Wright said. “Jump through them, and do it scared.”
Contact Growth and Development Reporter Heather Bushman at hbushman@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @hmb_1013.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Teen with cerebral palsy scores first touchdown
