[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Great to hear that Tyson is on the road to recovery. Lets all hope we see the day when he walks back into Ohio Stadium.


Dispatch

7/28/06

AN EMOTIONAL RETURN

Undeterred

Ohio State walk-on punter and receiver Tyson Gentry stays positive despite disabling injury from April scrimmage

Friday, July 28, 2006

Ken Gordon
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

<!--PHOTOS--><TABLE class=phototableright align=right border=0><!-- begin large ad code --><TBODY><TR><TD><TABLE align=center><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle></IMG> </TD></TR><TR><TD class=credit width=200>NEAL C . LAURON DISPATCH </TD></TR><TR><TD class=cutline width=200>Ohio State head football coach Jim Tressel and his wife, Ellen, offer encouragement to Tyson Gentry as Gentry’s sister Ashley looks on. Gentry was partially paralyzed in an Ohio State spring football practice. </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>


Tyson Gentry’s voice was firm and his gaze steady. His smile came easily, darting over his thin face.

Not once in nearly an hour of talking yesterday did the Ohio State football player become emotional about the fact that he was sitting in a motorized wheelchair, partially paralyzed after suffering a broken neck during a spring practice.

The only time Gentry’s voice wavered was when he recalled the outpouring of support he has received from teammates, fans and strangers.

"I guess I was really in awe over how much everybody really cares," said Gentry, who estimated he has received more than 2,500 cards or letters.

"There are so many good people out there. It’s really blown me away.

"One of cards I got said, ‘(If) one Buckeye is down, then we’re all down.’ "

The 21-year-old continued softly, "So we’re all kind of going through this together."

He attended yesterday’s news conference at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center with his mother and father, Gloria and Bob, and Ashley, one of his two sisters. It was the first public appearance Gentry made since breaking his C4, or fourth from the top, vertebra April 14 while making a catch in a scrimmage.

Gentry, a walk-on punter and receiver who had not appeared in a game, said the hit he took was unremarkable by football standards.

"I didn’t black out at all," he said. "I remember catching the ball and going a few steps to turn upfield, and the ball started to slip. And I think I looked down to go to grab it, and just the way I was dragged down to the ground — it wasn’t even a hit, just throwing me down to the ground.

"I think the way my head went down, it kind of went to the side and that’s pretty much how it happened."

He underwent two surgeries to fuse the third and fifth vertebrae to the fourth for stability and to implant titanium plates. He was in OSU Medical Center for 10 days before moving to Dodd Hall for rehabilitation.
He said he always had sensation throughout his body. He is able to move his head, shoulders and arms, but not his wrists, hands or legs.

While Tyson spoke yesterday, Mrs. Gentry, sitting to the left of her son, occasionally held up a water bottle for him to sip from.

Doctors have not given him a definitive prognosis. Gentry said they have told him they have seen people whose spinal cords suffered more damage who are walking, and others with less damage who remain paralyzed, so they are hesitant to predict how he will fare.

But Gentry is optimistic.

"I’ve definitely noticed progress," he said. "The sensation is going down further into my arms. It’s been a big spiritbooster to know that I’ve got sensation, and hopefully it just continues to progress.

"My goal is to make a complete recovery and walk again."

He and his family were relentlessly positive. Mr. Gentry, an Ohio State player in the mid-1970s, put the ordeal in football terms.

"It’s just something the good Lord gave us to deal with, and that’s what we’re doing," he said. "You’ve got to keep that positive approach. You’ve got a game plan like coach (Jim) Tressel has each week for the Buckeyes, and we’re going to beat the opponent and we’re going to be a national-championship family today."

Tressel, who watched the news conference, said he is amazed by the family.

"I just continue to be moved by the strength of the family and the togetherness; it’s incredible," Tressel said. "And just to see Tyson’s perspective and his glow. … You just pray for him constantly and hope that he can meet those goals."

Two weeks ago, Gentry moved into an apartment near campus. Ashley Gentry, a recent Capital University graduate, will live with him. Gentry, a junior, said he plans to take fall classes as he pursues a double major in psychology and speech pathology.

Tressel said the NCAA has a catastrophic-injury program that has allowed Ohio State to help take care of many of Gentry’s needs.

Still, Mr. Gentry said people in the family’s hometown of Sandusky have organized numerous fundraisers.

And donations have poured into a trust fund set up in Tyson’s name through National City Bank.

But the family’s attitude could be summed up by something the father said about that trust fund.

"Our goal for the entire thing is to give it away," Mr. Gentry said, "because we get to give it away when he walks, and that’s the bottom line."
kgordon@dispatch.com

Friday, July 28, 2006

Dispatch

7/28/06

COMMENTARY

Gentry, his family exude quiet strength, love

Friday, July 28, 2006


TODD JONES

<!--PHOTOS--><TABLE class=phototableright align=right border=0><!-- begin large ad code --><TBODY><TR><TD><TABLE align=center><TBODY><TR><TD align=middle></IMG> </TD></TR><TR><TD class=credit width=200>NEAL C . LAURON DISPATCH </TD></TR><TR><TD class=cutline width=200>Even before his accident, Ohio State’s Tyson Gentry, left, was close to his family, including mother Gloria, father Bob and sister Ashley. </TD></TR><TR><TD align=middle></IMG> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>


It’s strange to think that Tyson Gentry is a lucky young man when you see him sitting upright in that damn, awful motorized wheelchair.
Here he is, a few days past his 21 st birthday, he can’t move his legs and there’s no guarantee that he’ll ever walk again.
Certainly, Gentry is not lucky at all in regards to his current physical status, not
April when the Ohio State punter and receiver caught a pass in a scrimmage, took a routine hit and fell awkwardly.
Gentry suffered a broken C-4 vertebra, necessitating two surgeries, rehabilitation, the big, black wheelchair and the uncertainty of ever regaining movement below his waist.
Yet when Gentry, poised and brave, spoke to the local media yesterday, there was a vibe surrounding him suggesting he’s forever fortunate in a manner measured by love, not steps.
His parents, Bob and Gloria, sat next to him as did his sister Ashley. Their eyes rarely left Tyson during a 40-minute news conference. They looked on with tight faces and pursed lips. They held hands throughout.
And the family’s collective strength radiated through the room.
There was talk, and rightfully so, about how the "Ohio State family" has come forward to support Gentry in this time of need. It was, however, the power emanating from Gentry’s own family that cut through the contrived atmosphere of a news conference.
That strength of the Gentry family suggested this young man, who has encountered terrible misfortune, will always be lucky in love, forever fortunate to be swaddled in care.
The Gentry family — missing daughter Natalie on this day (back in their hometown of Sandusky) — was so upbeat yesterday it made you feel as if everything is going to be all right for Tyson.
"At times when things don’t go our way we turn a negative into a positive," said Bob Gentry, a middle-school teacher.
It didn’t take a wheelchair to bring the Gentry family together. The parents and three children have always been close, always shared laughs in good times and bad, always been unafraid to say each day that they love one another.
"There’s nothing we learned (from Tyson’s injury)," Bob said. "Our strength as a family is kind of tough to beat."
Still, any parent’s strength would have been tested by what Bob, an OSU reserve defensive back from 1973 to 1975, and Gloria witnessed on Good Friday when their son lay motionless on the ground during that April scrimmage.
"When he didn’t get up," Gloria recalled, "I just sat there thinking, ‘Ty, move. Ty, move.’ "
The parents were called onto the field.
"Bob, I’m really scared," Gloria told her husband as they walked toward Tyson.
Their son was placed in an ambulance. Gloria rode up front. Bob followed in their car.
"It was awful," Gloria said. "They only went 10 mph or less. They pulled over. I thought he had stopped breathing. They were trying to make him comfortable."
Ashley Gentry has now taken on the role of daily comforter. Tyson recently moved out of OSU’s Dodd Hall, a rehabilitation center, and into his sister’s Columbus apartment. She has put aside plans to pursue her master’s degree in school counseling to help her brother return to his own classes and home routine.
"This is nothing he wouldn’t do for me," she said.
There were smiles and some small laughs among the Gentry family yesterday. They, in their own way, were beacons of light for all of us facing far less obstacles.
"We’re thankful we’ve got our son," Gloria said. "We’ve got God, a strong family and a good attitude."
"We’re going to beat this," Bob said. "We’re going to be a national championship family."
They already are, and, for that, Tyson Gentry is lucky — just as all of us will be when we hopefully see him walk into Ohio Stadium again.

Todd Jones is a sportswriter for The Dispatch
.
tjones@dispatch.com