Brody Wenger was fresh off his junior year and hanging with teammates on the way to Omaha to begin summer basketball camp, already dreaming of what his senior season could be. At a lunch stop, he hopped out of their van and collapsed.
Seven months later, Wenger’s senior season has looked nothing like he expected. He’s been battling a rare condition called transverse myelitis, a neurological disorder caused by inflammation along the spinal cord that disrupts nerve signals.
He lost feeling in his legs. His left side recovered quickly, but he still lacks feeling in his right leg.
“It was definitely one of the scariest moments of my life because I wasn’t able to walk,” he said. “It was scary. But the community, like that’s why Eudora is so great, because I had a lot of my friends and a lot of people from the community come to visit me. Everyone’s still supportive.”
He’s always been an athlete. He’s played alongside a familiar cast of Eudora athletes and coaches for years. Not getting to join them this year was hard, but he tried to find the bright side.
“Once I was told, like, in the hospital that I’m not able to play my senior season, that kind of hit me pretty hard,” Wenger said.
He’s had to completely reshape his connection to sports. Wenger said he was never a vocal leader. He preferred to focus on practicing hard and focusing on his game. But this year, he’s had to take on a new role, helping coaches spot things in practice and encouraging young players.
“I was thinking, like, I need to find a new role and be a vocal leader on the sidelines and on the bench, to show up for those younger teammates,” he said.
He’s still considering different recovery options, including a rare surgery that has only been done by one person.
“The unknown is the scariest part,” he said. “At the start, it was kind of rough, because I was like, ‘I don’t know what I’m gonna do,’”
Even without playing sports, Wenger has found ways to stay connected during his senior year.
He joined Student Council for the first time and, in the fall, he and a group of his friends were all in the musical, “Mamma Mia!”
“That’s something he would never have done before,” said Shannon Wenger, Brody’s mom. “So he has definitely tried new things to just be a part of all the activities, you know, for his last year in high school.”
She said it was hard to sit in the unknown for so long with such a rare condition that is especially unlikely in young, healthy people.
“He just thought his muscles were asleep,” she said. “He thought they would come back, and they just weren’t coming back.”
While it’s been a challenge, she was proud of the ways he’s adapted and made the most out of his senior year.
“He just loved being active and being a part of the teams and, you know, playing football, basketball, running track,” she said. “Those are his passions, and he had to quickly adjust to having a different role with those teams.
She said it wasn’t until six months after the initial hospital stay that a follow-up MRI finally showed spinal cord impact was likely what caused the transverse myelitis.
“Sometimes these challenges happen to us, and it teaches us new things and makes us learn new things about ourselves,” she said. “I think we’re pretty proud of how he’s handled it.”
Drew Steffen has coached Wenger for six years in track, basketball and football. Plus, he said, the whole Wenger family has been connected to the Eudora community. Wenger’s mom is part of the booster club and his dad coaches youth sports, including Steffen’s son.
Steffen said he’s seen Wenger work hard to recover in the weight room and with the trainer.
“His inclusion as part of the football team was different from his role as a player on the field. … He has great knowledge. He’s very intelligent. He understands the games, you know, which is very important,” Steffen said. “He’s a joy to be around. He’s a great kid.”
It wasn’t how Wenger imagined his senior year going. But, it’s taught him a lot about life off the field and away from the court.
“It’s kind of made me come back and see that sports aren’t everything,” he said. “Because that was my whole life: sports. I was at practice every single day doing all these activities and workouts and stuff. But there’s so much more to life than just sports and competition. I’ve never thought I was gonna do the musical or anything like that. So it’s kind of fun. I mean, it sucks missing sports, but, you know, I’ve met lots of new people too. In the hospital, there were so many kids there without their parents and I would just talk to them. So, yes, it sucks, but there’s some positives that come from it, too.”
Reach reporter Cuyler Dunn at [email protected]
