Brad Heinrichs

While I was in high school, there was a kid that only had one leg. I had known him since we were in elementary school, but at that time he had two legs. He had a handicap that made one of his legs shorter than the other one. While going through the 5 years of elementary school, he had over thirty surgeries to try and fix the problem, but they were never successful and they eventually were forced to amputate his leg just above the knee. They tried all kinds of braces to fix the problem, but they never worked.

However even with this problem, he still had a tremendous desire to be a part of sports in any way possible. He found a new sport that he loved and that was wrestling. He had such an incredible upper body that he was able to do extremely well. He was only about four foot and some odd inches tall and probably did not way close to one hundred pounds, but he competed and he was good. Our wrestling coach did not look down on him or treat him any differently. The coach worked Brad just as hard because he was just another team member. He was always active in the practices and was a quality competitor.

He also was a trainer for the varsity football team for all four years of his high school career and he did it just to be involved with one of his favorite sports. His story was heard all around Northwest Ohio and because of his handicap, but he never complained and just worked that much harder. Granted he never did get to actually work with the football team in practices, but he was always there trying to do whatever he could to help out. Finally, in our Senior Night of the football season against Marion Harding, the two coaches agreed to allow Brad to dress for the final game of the season and if the game was no close near the end, then they would let him go into the game to receive recognition for being such a tremendous person and his desire to be a part of the team. It was a non-contact play, but that play meant the world to him.

If I were to have a handicap, I am not sure that I would have been able to fight through that much adversity to be a part of a team. I loved playing sports all the way through high school. I played football, basketball, and baseball, but I could not even imagine not having a leg and trying to compete against others that have the upper hand. I do think that I would have received plenty of moral support from my family to continue to try to find something that I could do to be a part of a team, but it would have been very hard to try to stick it out when things were not going good. I have always been impressed with what Brad did and hopefully he was able to inspire others that have handicaps and want to be involved too.