Newspaper Article

Amputation can't keep Mississippi teen from basketball

2016

Overview

\"One of the rules is if you miss practice and you don't let the coach know, you get put off the team, and I was thinking to myself, 'Even though I'm in the hospital, I didn't let the coach know. He probably doesn't know,'\" Tay said. \"He called me and he said, 'Coach, am I still on the team?' So, for him to ask if he's still on the team really touched my heart... so I said, 'Tay, what can you do?'\" junior varsity basketball coach Charles Williams said. \"He said, 'I'm gonna get my prosthetic and I'm going to play hard for you and Coach (Darrin) Chancellor.' So that's all I wanted to hear.\" \"When you see a kid who, despite the challenges, is continuing to work and not letting it get him down, that's an inspiration to everyone who walks these halls -- from the kids to the teachers to us as administrators, it's an inspiration to not give up,\" [Keith Reed] said. \"It's like nothing happened. You can tell he's lost a step, but he's running every suicide in practice and he's running bleachers. He's not going to let it stop him.\"

• Publisher: USA Today, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, Inc
• Subject: Apel, Therese / Williams, Charles