The "The Tale Of Never Surrendering" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Mid-April and I was pulling weeds in my front yard when a black pickup pulled to the curb next to me.  I knew right away who it was and walked over to greet Andy.  Andy has been taking sports team photos for Manheim Township School District for years.  I used to show up when he had photos scheduled and take the same photos for the MT Middle School yearbook.  Then he told me he could give me copies of the photos he took to save me the trouble of taking them myself.  Andy is one of those guys that would do anything he could to help make life easier for a friend.  I continued to make visits to his photo shoots to get the names of the players until he told me he would do that also for me.  He has all his prints made at a photo lab a block from my house and swings by my house most days on his trips to the lab.  Whenever he sees me working in the yard, he pulls his truck to the curb to chat.  Just as he was about to leave today he pulled out one of his prints he had just picked up at the lab to show me.  A photo of his son taken at the 2015 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships in the Netherlands.   I loved the photo and thanked Andy for sharing it with me.  Didn't think too much about the photo or our visit until I  opened my Sunday, June 14th newspaper and saw the story of his son covering over a full page in the sports section.  Story was titled "The Cycle Of Life" and talked about his son Steve and how his life changed in 2008.  Steve was in the Air Force at the time and was on tour in Afghanistan when he fell and landed on his hip while walking down stairs made of sand bags.  He thought he had dislocated and eventually was sent back to the states for treatment.  A few months later, after having an MRI of his hip, he was told by an Air Force doctor that he had one of two forms of bone cancer and would have to have his leg amputated.  The doctor, a friend of Steve, said, "The plan is to cut your leg off at the hip."  It's been over six years ago that he had that prognosis and he has just finished pedaling his bicycle across the finish line at an indoor velodrome in the Netherlands at the 2015 Union Cycliste Internationale Para-cycling Track World Championships.
  

Steve Kelly at the UCI Para-Cycling Track World Championships. Courtesy of Andy Kelly

His 15th place finish gave him his personal best time of 1:17.28 minutes.  You can guess by now that he did not have his leg amputated, but went through months of recovery from a complicated surgery to save his left leg that resulted in his giving up his career as a pilot.  After surgery his goal was to ride a bike to get some physical exercise, but it turned out to be much more than that.  Steve was a 1981 graduate of Manheim Township High School where I taught.  He was involved in athletics his entire high school career.  He was one of the best football players Township ever had and earned Varsity Letters in all four of his high school years.  I remember being in the pressbox in 1980 when he played every down of a game where he played just about every position on defense and offense, changing shirts to reflect different positions.  On offense he was a tackle, running back and kicked the extra points while he played linebacker on defense.  He was also a wrestler where he won a District Gold Medal in 1981 at 185 pounds.  He was rewarded with entry to the Air Force Academy where he started along the defensive line for them.  Cycling has given him the outlet he needs to be successful once again in sports.  He can't lift his left leg at all so he adapts and uses his right leg for the majority of the stroke needed to power the cycle.  Still having his left leg was made possible by surgery at John Huntsman Cancer Research Institute in Salt Lake City.  A prosthetic hip was inserted in a 17-hour operation to allow him to be able to ride his bicycle.  Rehab after the operation took over seven months where he went from wheelchair to a walker to crutches before finally walking on his own.  He did have to give up his career  as an Air Force pilot where he spent 12 years flying and eventually ended up in 2008 in Afghanistan.  In 2011 he earned a spot on the US Paralympic cycling team and participated this year as one of the 16 riders who made up the USI Para-cycling Track World Championship team.  The team ended up #1 in the world where Steve was picked as the recipient of the Stars & Stripes Award.  He is now preparing to qualify for the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  What had taken so much away from Steve has now led to so many other positive experiences in his young life.  And, I found I had no idea how special that photo Andy showed to me really was at the time.  I now do!!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.