When I got hurt in football, I never thought it would be the best thing that ever happened to me. But life is funny like that.

At the end of my sophomore year, I decided that I really wanted to play football. Joining the sport as a junior was hard, but I liked the work and the camaraderie with the other players. I liked that I was working out twice a day and getting to hit people. 

But in early September, I took a weird hit during practice, and my back began to hurt a lot, not enough for me to stop but enough to be in pain. I finished practice that day and could barely move the next day. I have had back problems my whole life, but this felt different.

I went to the doctor, and I was told I had a stress fracture in my spine. I couldn’t continue with football. I was pretty upset because I have always played sports, before football it was basketball, and before basketball, it was soccer. I didn’t know what I was going to do with myself if I didn’t play a sport.

Then, I went to the homecoming dance. I know — kind of weird for a junior. But at the dance, I saw one of my special needs friends from elementary school. He was alone, talking to no one — at a dance with 1,000 students. So I hung out with him.

The next day, I knew I needed to do something. I thought back to when I helped special needs students in elementary and middle school. I really loved doing that. I saw how important it was for special needs students to mix with the general education students — to make friends, have school experience and really be a part of the school. 

That week, I heard about a club called Unified Champions, which is a club that unites general ed and special ed students. I knew that this could be something special. I could make a real difference in these kids’ lives.

I talked to a deaf education teacher Ms. Budd and  associate principal Mr. Edwards  and told them about my plan. But I wanted to do more than just start this club. I wanted to be in the classrooms helping special needs students and building bonds with them. They loved the idea, and three days later, I was out of football and in the special needs classroom.

It was so surreal. I didn’t know it yet, but it was the best decision of my life.

I started to build the club with the help of so many people who believed in me. We had our first meeting last year. I was so nervous, but I made sure everything was perfect. I got our special needs kids there and they were so happy to be a part of something. 

What made me smile more was there were so many general education students there. I was so excited and so blessed that it went well. We had games and snacks, all of the kids were talking with each other, playing games and laughing, they were having a great time.

We were meeting once a month in the cafeteria, but I wanted to do something bigger. I wanted to expand what we did with each other, so I talked to the basketball coach. I asked if the players would give up their flex time to hang out with special needs kids and play basketball.

I was nervous he was going to say no, but when I asked, the coach had a big smile on his face and said, “Of course, we can set that up.” The next week we went to the gym and played basketball with all the basketball players. It was incredible to see these players give the ball to our kids and cheer as loud as they could when they made a basket. It almost brought a tear to my eye because the basketball players didn’t even realize how much that meant to the kids.

When we got back to the J wing, they couldn’t stop talking about how fun that was. And later, the coach told my mom that he thought his players had even more fun than the special needs kids.

One of the goals of making this club was to get the kids out of the J wing where they don’t get to interact with any other students. This gave them that opportunity.

But I knew I could do more. Not all of the students could go to the prom thrown by the school because of a number of different reasons. But I thought every kid deserves a prom. I figured we could throw them if we met their needs. The teachers and I got to work, and over the next couple of months were able to pull everything together.

So many amazing people helped make the prom happen. We got dresses and suits from the theater department, and they helped with makeup. We got the PTSA to give us all the decorations we need to make a disco themed prom, and they also bought us pizza.

We had more volunteers than we needed to help set up the prom and that, more than anything in my life, was so beautiful. Everyone came together to help the students that so often are overlooked. But they weren’t overlooked that day.

I knew at that moment this club has made a difference, and it will continue to. This club is about bringing people together — no matter who you are, what you look like, if you can talk or if you can’t. It’s just about having fun and being together — being together as friends.

If I am honest, getting hurt in football sucked. But it turned into the best thing that could ever happen to me. I would have never started this club or met all these amazing people. My life would have been so different. As I look back, I am so grateful for that blessing, and I wouldn’t change it for the world.