Photo: Staci Youngwirth
A teen baseball star from Kansas may never walk again after he was seriously injured in a freak accident, and his community is now rallying to help his family in their time of need.
Nolan Sprague, a baseball pitcher from Mill Valley High School in Shawnee, was injured on August 9 when he and a group of friends visited a local neighborhood pool last week, reportsFox4KC. The 17-year-old miscalculated the water’s depth when he dived into the shallow pool and broke his neck upon plunging into the water.
“It’s always shocking when it’s somebody that you’re close to,” Jeff Strickland, Nolan’s baseball coach, told the news station. “You hear about things like that happening, but when it happens to somebody that you’re close to, I guess that’s the shocking part of it.”
Nolan was taken to Overland Park Regional Medical Center, where doctors discovered he was paralyzed from the waist down and only has a slim chance of ever walking again. Strickland told theKansas City Starthat Nolan was a good pitcher and was set to play baseball when he went to college.
“He didn’t have an enemy. Everybody likes Nolan,” Strickland toldFox4KC. “He treats people the right way. He’s just a good kid.”
In the days since the accident, the high school began selling T-shirts and decals emblazoned with the words “Team Nolan” to raise donations for Nolan’s family. Friends have also set up aGoFundMe pageto help the family with medical expenses and financial needs. It has raised $106,000 from over 900 donors in just under a week.
“Words cannot describe what the family is going through right now,” the description on the donation page reads. “Nolan and his family will need many prayers, positive thoughts, and of course money going forward to get through this.”
“Not just financial [support], financial has been amazing, but really just the outpouring of love that we have felt,” Carmen Sprague said. “It’s genuine, very genuine.”
Nolan’s father, Kevin Sprague, said he has felt “love” from other parents during the heartbreaking ordeal.
source: people.com
