By Bri Davis

Each year at High Point University, all 15 Division one athletic teams gather in the Calicutt Auditorium in Congdon Hall for a mandatory speaking event. The event is typically dreaded by most of the student-athletes who attend, as it takes place in the evening, in a cramped room with each athlete squeezed together, shoulder to shoulder in their seats. The smell of sweat and cleats usually fills the already stale air, leaving most crawling for the exit door after the two-hour speech. However, last Thursday, September 21, none of that seemed to matter when Timothy Alexander took the stage.

A room that, only five minutes before, was filled with laughter and side conversations from the talkative athletes, seemed to stand still in time. As a bright spotlight moved onto T.A., who rolled onto the Callicutt auditorium floor in his black wheelchair, wearing a black polo, jeans, and Air Jordans, smiling so brightly that he closed his eyes when he did.

The room went dark as the projector began to play T.A.’s voice, “On October 28, 2006, I was in a horrific car crash that left me paralyzed from the neck down. They said I would never play football again. They said I would never be able to read, write, twist, or talk… they were wrong.”

“We don’t need it to be easy. We just need it to be possible,” T.A. said as the lights came back on in the silent room, eyes following him as he maneuvered the stage in his wheelchair.

He began his story.

Explaining his early life, how he grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, poor, in an abusive household that left him mentally challenged and unable to focus in school. This carried on into grade school, where he seemed to find himself in constant trouble.

“I remember how we were always told that there were only two real paths for us, in the streets or out the streets,” said T.A., as he looked into the audience of eyes.

Right before his freshman year of high school, his grandmother got sick. Although he was raised by his mother, it was his grandmother, whom he credits for raising him and instilling values of what it meant to be a man and work for someone other than yourself.

“I remember she made everyone get out of the hospital room, and she told me two important things. That I was her favorite and that I needed to step up and be the man of the family.” To some, that may have only sparked a laugh, but for T.A., it was something that would stay with him for years to come. Only a few days after that conversation, his grandmother passed away.

T.A. began to invest heavily in school, trying his hardest to stay out of trouble. He managed to do what his grandmother asked of him until two years after her passing. In his junior year of high school, his house burned down, and he almost lost his life.

“My older brother actually saved my life that night because I was trapped in the house,” said T.A. “It felt as if every time I was moving forward, I got knocked back down.”

They lost everything they owned in that house fire that night. Except for two things: his family and football. “My mom was not perfect, but she always showed up for me,” T.A. said. He also had two older brothers, but it was David, the oldest, whom he regarded as his hero.

“After everything happened between my mom and my dad, it was David who stepped up and became that male role model in my life,” said T.A.

By the time his senior year rolled around, he was a star football player who was looking forward to playing in front of a dozen college coaches on homecoming night. “I remember I was getting ready for the game when I got called to come to the front office,” said T.A. He walked from the locker room down into the office, wondering what could have been so important right before kick-off. When he got there, someone handed him the phone.

“Tim, David is gone.”

T.A. took a deep breath before continuing his speech. “My brother died in a car crash that afternoon, on the way to my game,” said T.A. The audience that was once filled with silence now filled with faint gasps; no one had been expecting that.

T.A. said after he heard the news, he dropped everything and ran. “I ran away from school that day,” said T.A. On what should have been one of the biggest days of his life had become one of the worst. After his high school coach heard what had happened, he went to go find T.A., who was almost a mile from school when he was found.

“My coach looked at me and said, ‘Son, you can use this to make you bitter or you can use this to make you better,’” said T.A. He recalled somehow managing to find the strength to come back to the homecoming game, where he played one of the best games of his life. His mom, his coach, his team, the college coaches in the stands, and his school, who cheered and screamed for him, he credits as to why he was able to push on that day.

“I remember everyone coming up to me after that game and telling me how I was going to be able to go to any school I wanted for college,” said T.A.

The very next day, his school prepared to throw a celebration for T.A., where all his teammates, friends, and loved ones would be there to honor all of his accomplishments. After all, he was their hometown hero. He was riding in the passenger seat with a friend who was taking him to school.

“It was early in the morning; we were driving to school, and my friend fell asleep at the wheel. We crashed and hit a telephone pole that was holding us from going over a hill,” said T.A. The telephone pole that held the car snapped, causing the car to roll multiple times down a hill. When it finally came to a stop, T.A. recalled looking at his friend.

“You have to save my life,” said T.A. He recalled how he started to cough up blood and how he was pinned in the passenger seat. When his friend managed to get to his side of the car, he pulled T.A. from the seat but slipped on oil that had come from the engine. T.A. fell, hitting his head on a rock, that broke his neck and left him paralyzed.

“I’ll never forget my mom coming into the hospital room when I told her, ‘If I’m going to be like this for the rest of my life, you might as well pull the plug,’” said T.A.

T.A. went through grueling months of rehabilitation, where he oftentimes found himself questioning his place in the world. He pointed to the many colorful tattoos that lined his arms, as he looked into the audience of athletes. “Behind all of these tattoos, are nothing but scars, from where I cut myself,” said T.A. “I went from being the talk of the town because I was the star athlete to being the talk of the town because doctors said I would be a vegetable for the rest of my life.”

After three attempts to take his own life, T.A. said he realized, “There must have been a reason that they continued to be unsuccessful.”

T.A. used this newfound awakening to fuel him, defying the odds and going from a quadriplegic to a paraplegic, regaining movement from the waist up. Learning how to read, write, and talk. However, his true goal was to make it back on the football field.

He would do just that when he became the first paraplegic to earn a Division 1 football scholarship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Although he could no longer play, that wasn’t going to stop T.A. from being an integral part of the UAB football team.

As the High Point University Division one athletes sat attentively in their tight seats, Timothy Alexander’s message of perseverance was becoming clear.

“We can’t control how life comes at us, but we can control our response to it,” said T.A. There were plenty of times T.A. could have thrown in the towel, but he played the cards he had been dealt in life, with a smile.

Becoming an inspirational speaker and visiting schools like High Point University to tell his awe-inspiring and motivational story. He ended his two-hour-long speech, that had captivated his audience and had them glued to their seats, the same way he began it.

“We don’t need it to be easy. We just need it to be possible.”