photo by: Photo courtesy Scott Keltner

Brody Wenger

Brody Wenger was going into his senior year at Eudora with a lot to look forward to. A multisport athlete in football and basketball, Wenger had a lot of plans for how he and his teams were going to perform.

But that quickly changed when he woke up on a bus to a basketball camp at Creighton with his team and couldn’t feel his legs.

“I didn’t know what was going on,” Wenger said. “I took a nap on the floor on the bus there, and when I woke up, I couldn’t do anything. I was basically paralyzed. I tried to get out of the car, I just fell on the ground.”

Wenger and the others on the bus thought he was just cramping, but after rounds of fluids and IVs didn’t change anything. A trip to an emergency room that led to a visit to Children’s Mercy Hospital finally brought Wenger to the answer: transverse myelitis, a disorder affecting his spine.

“My mom said she remembers me getting hit at a basketball tournament, and I remember I was going on the ground, and that impact did something to my spine,” Wenger said. “The infection spread through my whole spine and cut off the nerves to my legs.”

Whatever the cause was exactly, it meant Wenger wasn’t going to be able to play football or basketball for his final year at Eudora. It took three weeks for Wenger to be discharged from the hospital, and even then, when he did regain the ability to walk, he had 70% feeling in one leg and 30% in the other.

It was hard to come to terms with his new reality, even with the support he had from his teammates and family. Luckily for Wenger, there was another option for him to continue playing sports.

“Instead of being a manager for track, I went out for golf, and I did pretty decent,” Wenger said. I was just trying something new.”

Wenger and some friends turned to golf, and he joined the Eudora boys golf team this spring. It took some time to hit straight, but eventually, Wenger turned in an impressive season. He competed in two scramble tournaments, winning one and finishing as a runner-up in the second. In his lone individual tournament of the season, Wenger placed in the top-20.

“Going out my first year and getting all those medals was awesome,” Wenger said. “I never thought I was going to be medaling at all the tournaments. I was just going to be there and golf, but it was great.”

Wenger had to develop his golf game while also rebuilding his body. Golf doesn’t have the violence of football or the impact on the back from jumping like in basketball, but the sport requires a lot of twisting. He had to strengthen his back and keep it loose enough to be able to golf.

Eventually he got good at both, and the improvement was noticeable through each practice. It was an encouraging sign and kept Wenger going through his recovery. And he did it all without using a medical exception to use a golf cart to get around.

“I didn’t feel the need to use it,” Wenger said. “I wanted to push myself. If it was a long, 18-hole course, I would still walk it just to push myself.”

It was a difficult process, but Wenger had a strong support group around him. He made new friends with the golf team, all of whom were welcoming and great teammates, and the sport has brought him closer to his family. He used to golf some with his dad, but that is more frequent now. Both of his grandfathers are avid golfers, and now Wenger spends a lot more time with them on the golf course.

Wenger’s injury still affects him, and he was even told at a recent visit to the doctor that his right leg could take at least two years to fully return to its pre-injury mobility, and that the chance remains that it never fully recovers. There’s still a lot of physical therapy ahead of Wenger to both strengthen his back and even out his legs after favoring his left leg when he walks.

“My left side of my lower back would hurt all the time, because like I was favoring that side,” Wenger said. “So I’d do a lot of physical therapy, getting my hips back to normal.”

Wenger will enroll at Wichita State University in the fall to study horticulture, but before he moves down there, Wenger will be on the golf course with his family over the summer. A year removed from his injury, a lot has changed, and he missed out on things he was excited for. But he’s got new relationships, a new perspective and a lot of golfing to do.

“I used to think that not being able to do any sports meant that I was going to not be able to relieve any stress or anything,” Wenger said. “But going out and playing golf, picking up a new hobby — that’s been awesome.”