Patric Young's newfound adversity has set him on a mission to inspire.
'I will be the one who defines this chapter of my life'
Tuesday, September 6, 2022 | General, Men's Basketball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
JACKSONVILLE — The third-ranked Florida Gators were locked in a tight and physical road game against the Tennessee Volunteers. Approaching 90 seconds to go and his team protecting a six-point lead, UF center Patric Young took a jumper from the elbow as the shot clock was set to expire. The ball hit off the right side of the rim and caromed toward the baseline.
Young, the 6-foot-9, 250-pound senior, made a dash for the loose ball and launched his massive physique horizontally, knifing while airborne through a couple of Vols also giving chase, and not only secured the offensive rebound, but managed to pitch it to a teammate as he spun on the floor. The Gators maintained possession, ran more clock and closed out a huge road victory.
"There are bodies all over the place. You talk about big-boy senior effort out of Patric Young. …. Winning and defense. That play by Patric Young is a winning play."
On-site color analyst Jimmy Dykes called the moment for the ESPN audience. That Florida team amassed a program-record 30-game winning streak and went on to finish unbeaten in Southeastern Conference regular-season and tournament play and advance to the Final Four. Young garnered All-America, All-SEC and Defensive Player of the Year honors.
That was 2014.
Today, the view from the street is that of a mostly empty garage belonging to a family in the process of getting settled in its new home. The driveway is crowded with a pair of vans for handymen doing retrofit work inside the house. In the middle of the garage sits Young, now 30.
Young, one of the brightest, most accomplished and beloved UF athletes in a generation, is in a wheelchair.
It is, at first, a sobering sight, until his face — and that unmistakable, infectious smile — comes into focus, and he extends his massive arms. The visitor bends over for a hug, and Young reaches up.
As they go inside, assistance with the wheelchair is offered.
"No, no, I got this," Young says as he cranks on the wheels. "I'll just back in."
As it turns out, backing in and out of doorways is the only looking backward Young intends to do in facing the greatest challenge of his life. A June 29 single-car accident on a two-lane Nebraska back road left Young paralyzed from the waist down. Now, his every waking second is about the here and the now; about taking on this newfound adversity and his goal to walk again with every ounce of will and might his functioning body parts will allow.
For now, his legs don't work, but Young's heart has never been bigger, his mind never clearer, his calling never more focused. He is convinced this challenge — this wheelchair — is for a reason.
"I refuse to believe this opportunity will be wasted. I will be the one who defines this chapter of my life," Young declared. "This is a not a tragedy, a pity party or a woe-is-me thing. I have the power to control this narrative, to control what this is going to become, and how it is going to impact my family and all those around me. Whether that's one person or one million, I'm going to be authentic in this daily battle and give it all to God."
The new Young Family: Patric, wife Whitney and 10-year-old Kyla.
He'll do so surrounded by a team encouraging him and pushing him forward (always forward), starting with his new bride Whitney and her 10-year-old daughter Kyla, his mother Bennita, father Robert and sister Sara, all backed by the long-distance emotional support of everyone whose life Young has touched over his three decades.
"Words have power," Whitney said. "We're going to speak and breathe healthy and healing light into this situation."
From Bennita: "This is a circumstance, nothing more. Patric has his life, and his brain is intact. It's a paradigm shift and it's what you do in the moment that matters."
Being in the moment.
It's a phrase Young heard over and over during his four years playing basketball for Billy Donovan. Now, it's as if the former Gators coach is back in his ear, extolling him to flush the past and move on.
"Next play!" Donovan used to tell his players.
For Young, this is the ultimate next-play environment. Permanent or not, he will soldier on.
"When Patric was a player, and things weren't going well, he really struggled at times and that's what makes me so inspired by his disposition and attitude right now," Donovan said. "He's always been great at dealing with people and giving them his time. Now he's going to be able to talk about this challenge, but also his faith, his mental approach and view on life. With his personality, he has a chance to bring some clarity and spirituality to a lot of people."
That mission is underway.
THE ACCIDENT
After fighting injuries during most of his professional basketball career overseas, Young retired in 2020 and began chasing his dream to be on television, a talent he groomed himself for splendidly as a broadcasting major at the UF College of Journalism and Communications. He was the first three-time recipient of the SEC's Scholar Athlete of the Year in the award's history.
The 2021-22 college basketball season was Young's first in the SEC Network and ESPN studios, and he absolutely crushed it with his analysis, but also his presence and pedigree. A rising star, that was the buzz.
After the season, Young hung around his hometown of Jacksonville a few weeks before joining Whitney, then his fiancé, and her family in O'Neill, Nebraska, about three hours from Omaha. They'd been engaged for about a year and the July 9 wedding date was closing in. To bide time, Young took a job with a friend's irrigation company, helping move and install large sprinkler pivots for farms.
The truck
On the morning of June 29, Young and his partner, in separate trucks, were set to head to their last stop before calling it a day. Young left first. He didn't have far to go. He didn't put on his seat belt.
About a half-mile up the bending road, and traveling around 35 miles per hour, Young came over a slope that — with no warning signs — led into a perpendicular highway intersection. He slammed on the brakes and the truck veered sideways, rolling through the intersection and flipping into a ditch on the other side of the road. The vehicle settled on its wheels, but during the roll Young's body was crushed and contorted. He did not lose consciousness.
"I felt the pop in my back," he said. "And I couldn't feel my legs."
Thankfully, however, Young was able to reach his cell phone. He called his co-worker and told him to dial 911. He called Jacksonville to talk to his mother, who has three decades of nursing and intensive care experience, and she kept her son calm while she made plans to travel.
It took paramedics about 20 minutes to arrive. In the ditch, the truck could not be seen from the road. Who knows how long Young might have been there had he not been able to grab his phone?
Paramedics on the scene of Patric Young's accident in Verdigre, Neb. [Source: News Channel Nebraska]
Young was air-lifted to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, about 160 miles away, where doctors wasted no time. Young's spine had been compressed, fracturing his T-7 and T-8 vertebrae, plus a couple ribs. The surgery lasted eight and a half hours, with a rod inserted in Young's T-5 and running all the way to his T-11, all of it held in place by 12 screws.
The prognosis: Walking again was very much in doubt.
Having Whitney, along with his mother and sister, constantly by his side, plus the attending doctors, nurses and aides, carried Young through those first few ultra-surreal and life-altering days.
"Was I tested with the why? Absolutely," Young said. "Why before I got married? I didn't get to see my wife in a wedding dress. No honeymoon. I didn't get to dance with my mother. Why? All these things, really hard stuff, were racing through my head. … You go to church. You've said these things about how God is good and there is a purpose and a plan. So do you believe it? Do you believe that He can use any situation we face, whether because of our choices or because we live in a broken and fallen world? Christians aren't protected from anything. The rain falls and the sun shines on the righteous and the unrighteous equally. Anyone of us can face anything."
So, why?
It did not take long for Young to find an answer. In those dark moments he says he found a "weird type of peace" that everything was going to be all right. His mother sensed as much, even to the point of thinking Patric was there to comfort them, rather than the other way around.
"We laughed together and we cried to together," Bennita said, all the while feeling her son's impatience to get started on the long road back to whatever his new normal would be. "One time he said, 'Mom, how 'bout we just get up and walk out of this place?' "
They left Sioux Falls when a spot opened at the Craig Institute in Denver. Craig is a world-renowned neurorehabilitation center that specializes in spinal cord and brain injuries. Young was enrolled in a 90-day program designed to put patients on a path to independence. Dressing, showering, transferring, cleaning, hygiene, cooking, etc. He'd learn to do it all.
The wedding.
But not before the wedding.
They were supposed to be married in Omaha on July 9, with a grand ceremony of 200-plus. Instead, Patric and Whitney took their vows on July 7 — a Thursday, and just eight days after the accident — in the hospital atrium, with the bride and groom's families and a small contingent of nurses and attendants looking on.
"This has all been a test of our spirituality, but never of our love," Whitney said. "Life has its highs and lows, so sometimes you just have to duck your head and get on with it."
That's exactly what Young did at Craig. He immersed himself in the rehab process with a type of uncompromising passion that, looking back, he wishes he'd given during his time on the basketball court. In a phone conversation from Colorado, Young even told Donovan that a similar effort during his Gator days just might have made him an NBA lottery pick.
He also had a significant breakthrough with a counselor who helped crystalize that a rehabilitation path rooted in optimism was the only one to take. Young's mind, she warned him, would be cluttered at times with thoughts of the past and uncertainty of the future.
"I couldn't allow those thoughts to have control over the present," Young said.
He didn't.
The Craig program was supposed to last 90 days. He was out in 42, and even ventured out to restaurants, parks, a museum and even a Denver Broncos' preseason game. During a trip with his mother to a shopping mall, they couldn't find an elevator, so Young wheeled himself — get this — onto an escalator, backing himself in, much to his mother's surprise. Yeah, he was ready to go home.
"They told him at Craig, 'You're independent now, so our work is done,' " Bennita said. "They needed the bed."
Clockwise from top: Patric Young with his mother, Bennita, at a Denver Broncos preseason game; with family (all wearing "Super Human" T-shirts) in Colorado; with sister Sara during an outing.
Late in Young's stay, Donovan spoke to a doctor at the facility who explained how athletes, especially elite ones, dealing with these types of injuries have an edge about them because they often had to overcome serious injury before. This particular doctor saw something brewing with Young. Something different. Something special.
"He just said Patric was going to have an opportunity to inspire so many people," Donovan said. "The thing is, he's always wanted to do that. He's always wanted a platform to impact and help people."
It was a calling, and it was time to attack that episode, as well.
A CHANCE TO TELL HIS STORY
On Aug. 25, ESPN's Paul Finebaum came to the SEC Network studios in Charlotte to begin preparing for his popular daily simulcast call-in show. The producers told him he'd have a live interview with Young for that afternoon.
Finebaum had known Young for a couple years, dating to the former UF's star's audition with the network in 2020. As the Zoom call approached, Finebaum wasn't sure what to expect. What he got was vintage Patric Young.
"I wouldn't have expected that kind of optimism had I been talking to Pope Francis," he said.
Faith and family provide the inspiration for colleague @PatricYoung4, who is rehabbing after losing the use of his legs in a car crash this summer. Incredible message here. Patric, we'll see you back in studio this fall, can't wait. pic.twitter.com/yIw1XjcwhO
Young put on a show. Finebaum, his producers, cameramen and everyone in the studio were spellbound by the seven-minute chat that included an adorable cameo from Kyla.
"I was gobsmacked with the way he took the story over," Finebaum said, "It was one of those moments where you take on the mantra of a broadcaster in one of those games of the century where you just get out of the way. I pushed him a little bit on his optimism, just to make sure the audience understood that this was not just some motivational talk-speak, but a guy living a horrific nightmare and turning it into some positive. It was both the most difficult and satisfying interview we'd ever had on that show. Nothing compares."
Their talk went viral on Twitter, with Young's ESPN family soaking it all in.
Alyssa Lang, a co-host of SEC Network studio shows during basketball season, reached out via text to check in on her colleague. She was floored when Young, mere seconds into their exchange, asked of her, 'So how are you doing?"
Knowing now the direction Young wants to go, the question doesn't seem that surprising.
"He has something massive that has happened in his life, and now he's using textbook positivity to try to turn something tragic into something great," Lang said. "The fact he wants to make it something to help others tells you everything you need to know about Patric."
The 2014 SEC Defensive Player of the Year
Long before Dykes had that front-row seat for Young's aerial act at Tennessee, the veteran color commentator had come to respect the Gators' center as a player. Young played in all 150 games (one shy of the school record) over his four seasons and remains the program's No. 28 all-time scorer with 1,307 points. In his final three seasons as a starter he was an elite defender, rim protector and traffic cop in the paint.
But Dykes, to this day, numbers Young among his top-five favorite players because of Young, the person, the Christian, the servant.
When the two spoke in the aftermath of the accident, Dykes sensed all the things he loved about Young were still there.
"His relationship with Jesus changed his life," Dykes said. "It's a faith that is authentic, deep and meaningful. For those people, no accident or bad break pulls them away."
The Finebaum minutes were just a preview of things to come.
"We wanted to give him a chance to tell his story," Finebaum said. "In the end, he gave a gift to the thousands of people who may not have known him or known that story. Talk about unintended consequences. I did not expect to walk into the studio that day and walk out absolutely mesmerized."
Young says his dream of a career in TV is not over. It's merely pivoted in a different direction. This time, with a cause.
NEXT PLAY
Young and his new family moved into their one-story home on Aug. 20. His father makes regular visits, armed with tools, and does handiwork to make the place more wheelchair accessible. He has an office that will double as a gym, with an automated cycle that forces his legs to pedal, and — coming soon — a StrapStand device that Young can climb in and be lifted and locked into a standing position.
It is in that room, along with the many visits ahead to the Brooks Rehabilitation Center in downtown Jacksonville, that Young will fight the fight to walk again. That goal may be out of his hands, but no one can say so definitively. Not even the expert physicians.
In fact, on at least three occasions, Young has been able to consciously move his toes in both feet, while also experiencing occasional sensation below his level of injury. That's not necessarily unusual with spinal cord injuries, but it's something.
His telephone is bombarded with messages of support daily. You got this, they all say.
"I think I've got this. I'm trying, but it's not that simple," Young said. "Their overlying message — and I don't know if this is a testament to me — is that if anyone can overcome something like this, they say it's me. That means something personally. I'm not going to say it's unfounded belief because those people know me and know what I'm about."
A selfie to cap a visit last week from Billy Donovan and wife Christine.
Back in the day, Donovan constantly talked about the need to embrace the process to achieve the ultimate goal. This too is a process — one difficult beyond comprehension — with a goal that very well could be unattainable. Young does not shy away from that reality.
"I know there was untapped potential that I left behind with basketball," Young said. "I will not leave this life without being able to say I did everything in my power to try and walk again."
Through it all, Whitney will be there to offer constant motivation, inspiring her husband in her own way, but constantly pushing him. "If you can do it, I'm not helping," she tells him, which is exactly what he wants to hear.
Most importantly, they have each other. They have the man of the house in the house. And that man is on a mission.
Last week, Young's mother stopped by. During her visit, Young got four calls about potential speaking opportunities.
"This whole adventure — yes, that's what I'll call it — has given Patric a purpose I've never seen before," Bennita said. "He had his SEC. He was doing Sirius Radio and some other things, but those were placeholders. Now what? What do you do next? What do you do in your time on Earth that will make a difference?"
That ball is in Young's court. He accepts there's a possibility he may not walk again. That, he says, would be a physical limitation. That's all. The rest of what makes Patric Young, the person, will be there and ready to do his life's work.
In time, the plan just might be for Young to stand before CEOs, Army Rangers, underprivileged children, name it — even basketball teams, as UF coach Todd Golden has invited him to speak to the Gators in the coming weeks — and be a vehicle for motivation.
"I'm not doing this for applause, and I'm definitely not doing this for 'likes.' This is my life," Young said. "I'm doing this for myself, but also to solidify my faith. Is it superficial or are you actually living it out?"
Remember what Dykes said back in 2014? About "big-boy" effort? About "winning plays?
