I have no regrets joining the military.
Hit by IEDs, they acquired a traumatic brain injury.
My freshman year of high school, I had my stroke.
I was in a pretty severe helicopter crash, took many lives.
My car accident was four years ago, it was a blur.
Waking up and just moving around and kicking a ball, it's my escape from reality.
The team is comprised of 14 players who have either been born with cerebral palsy,
have acquired a stroke or a traumatic brain injury, including veterans who may have acquired that overseas.
You will never tell the Paralympic because of no scars or you don't really understand their history.
Their ability to stop, their fluency of motion when they run is all clearly affected when they play the game.
I finally woke up out of the coma and decided that I wanted to get back into playing soccer.
I had to relearn to tie my shoes, had to relearn to walk, run.
I had never got all of the paralysis out of my body.
I still have a paralyzed left ankle.
I was born with cerebral palsy which qualifies me for the team.
It affects me on my right side with my arm and my leg.
Growing up I was always around sports and it was a good thing to play soccer.
Out there I didn't feel like a kid with CP, I just felt like a kid playing soccer.
Each of us on the Paralympic team have our own battles and our own struggles that we've had to overcome.
My parents raised me with the attitude don't use my disability as an excuse not to do something or not to try something.
It's really remarkable seeing how some of these guys with some remarkable injuries, how they cope, how they adapt,
how they thrive and perform at a high level on the field.
To hear words like you're never going to walk again or you don't know when you're going to leave the hospital
has always been a big motivation for me.
This is what I do. I'm not going to let anything pull me down and I'm just going to go straight forward.
Thank you.
