Created: 11/24/2008 10:26:29 PM 
ATLANTA, GA -- Milton Oshay Johnson was a championship weight lifter. He brags about once bench-pressing 305 lbs. After a traumatic injury left him paralyzed, he'd be elated if he could lift his own fingers.
The 16-year-old most people call 'Oshay' was an instant star on the Baker County High School Junior Varsity Wildcats, as a freshman.
"He's just a guy who could do it all," said Head Football Coach Bobby Johns.
"I think football was his life," Johns added.
Johns watched Oshay develop as a safety, a linebacker, a corner and a tailback.
"He became a kid that was a leader on our team, he was a leader in our school," said Johns.
After a rough start in his early teens, Adruim Jefferson heard her son talk about life in a new way because of football.
"He got attached to Coach Johns and he decided, 'I want to get myself together. I want to play football. I want to go to college,'" said Jefferson.
Oshay wanted to play for Louisiana State University and maybe one day go to the NFL.
People in Macclenny say he was that good.
"He was going to be a phenomenal football player," Johns said.
However, Oshay will probably never play traditional football again.
Instead of running the ball for a touchdown, Oshay now uses a mouth control to drive his motorized wheelchair into the end zone. He can't carry the ball. It sits in his lap.
[MORE: COMMUNITY SUPPORTS OSHAY]
For the first time, Oshay is talking about the freak accident that stole his mobility.
August 19, 2008. Oshay had just been promoted to varsity and it was the last practice before the first game of his sophomore year. He volunteered to run a defensive play.
"I came up and made a good hit. That was my first good hit at my safety position," Oshay whispered over the hiss of his ventilator.
"I was just getting a starting spot and I just had did it right," Oshay added.
Johns says Oshay fell limp after the hit. Players and coaches discovered that he had no pulse and was not breathing. Someone called an ambulance.
"A friend came by the house...and said, 'y'all need to get to the school because...Oshay is down on the field and they're doing CPR on him,'" said Jefferson.
Jefferson woke Oshay's dad and they drove to the school. Before they got there, Johns called and told them to go straight to Shands Jacksonville instead.
"[I] still figure he got the wind knocked out, he got a bone broken, he's okay - you know," said Jefferson.
When she arrived at the Shands intensive care unit and saw the coaches and teammates crying and pacing Jefferson knew her boy was not okay.
"When I walked in that room, all I seen was Oshay swollen in the bed and the machine was breathing for him," said Jefferson.
The damage to Oshay's spinal cord left him paralyzed from the neck down. It also interrupted the connection between his brain and his diaphragm.
Surgeons performed a tracheotomy and connected Oshay to a ventilator.
They told her Oshay was near death. The next 72 hours would be critical.
Oshay's father stayed at his bedside all night. It was too much for his mother.
"I gave him to God and I went home and I said I would make the next day a better day," said Jefferson.
All night, she prayed that her son would survive.
He did.
"I believe my prayers and everybody else's prayers were answered that night," said Jefferson.
Days later, Oshay woke up.
He was flat on his back. His head was in a metal frame, called a halo, to stabilize his spine. He couldn't move. He couldn't feel. He couldn't speak.
"I was scared. I didn't know what happened," said Oshay.
Oshay was at Shands for seven weeks.
Still highly medicated and unsure of the details of what happened, Oshay was flown to Atlanta's world-renowned Shepherd Center for spinal cord injury on October 12.
Slowly, he was able to understand conversation. It was time for Mom to tell him about the injury.
"All I said was, 'Oshay, you had an accident at school at football practice and you're paralyzed right now, but it's going to get better. We're at this place to get better,'" said Jefferson.
Dr. Brock Bowman is the associate medical director at Shepherd Center.
"He probably struck in the flex position, in terms of his head being down, his head came forward and he tore ligaments and broke the C3 bone, cervical bone number three," said Dr. Bowman.
"The more important thing is that he tore the ligaments and such around those bones and as a result, his spine was not working as a unit anymore. So instead of everything moving together, you had the upper section working independently of the lower section," Dr. Bowman added.
Surgeons used wire to tie parts if his cervical vertebrae together to stop any further damage to his spine.
Doctors were working to heal his body but his spirit was broken, too.
"Oshay didn't want to leave the room. He didn't want to do anything. He didn't want to eat - nothing. All he wanted to do was sit in [his] room," said Adrium.
That is until Jacob Brooks, 18, rolled into his room. The teenager from Millington, Michigan, had arrived at Shepherd just a few days before Oshay. Jacob didn't know much about him.
Oshay's mom remembers the day the two found something they had in common - a love of junk food.
"He seen Jacob eating, Jacob's got a [tracheotomy], too. So [Jacob's] mom asked him, 'Oshay do you want some chips?' and Oshay said, 'yes,' and I guess he realized he could eat and he's been eating ever since."
On an average morning, Oshay eats eggs, grits and bacon. Before lunch his mom walks to McDonald's to buy a couple of sausage biscuits to hold him over. After lunch, he usually drinks a cookies-n-cream milkshake.
Jacob taught Oshay how to eat and how to speak over his ventilator.
The football star and the free spirit outsider are an unlikely pair but they've become inseparable.
"He's the coolest guy I've ever met. He's laid-back. He's funny," said Jacob.
"I'll go to his room, eat some popcorn and watch a movie," Oshay chimed in.
"Oh, I think it's wonderful," said Jacob's mother Linda Brooks.
"When you have an injury like this, you go through a lot of changes...so just for them to buddy up like this has been great," Brooks added.
"We can relate somewhat; we still can't relate all the way and that's where these friendships get bonded because they know what each other are going through and they can pick each other up," said therapist Cathi Dugger.
Now, with a healing body thanks to his medical team, energy from a renewed appetite and strong support from his new friend - Oshay is back in training.
Every day, Oshay's physical therapy team stimulates his muscles and teaches his family how to stretch and stimulate his extremities.
When Oshay arrived at the Shepherd Center, doctors say he could not move and had no feeling below his neck. Now, Oshay uses head and neck to operate specialized computer programs and when placed in the proper position, can hold himself up.
Oshay says after therapy, his entire upper body tingles. He still has no feeling below his waist.
Oshay also sees Occupational Therapist Cindy Hartley.
"We make a difference in his daily things to make him feel like he can go back and really be (a) productive member (of society or go back to) school. Being able to access the internet, being able to get on his cell phone and text with his friends again - to have normal teenaged activities," said Hartley.
Oshay has learned to play card games, turn pages and write using his mouth.
He also uses his mouth to drive his motorized chair using a sip and puff system.
Counselor Cheryl Linden helps Oshay adjust to the mental and emotional changes he's going through.
"Your physical self, your mental self and your emotional self are all tied in together. So anytime any one of those areas improves, it's gonna help the other areas improve as well," Linden told Oshay.
Oshay also watches and reads the news coverage of his accident. A few weeks ago, watching his friends and family was a little too much. Now, he looks forward to seeing them.
He looks forward to meeting JT Townsend.
Townsend was paralyzed after a football injury at Episcopal High School, in 2004. His mother and aunt have already offered some advice and encouragement to Oshay's mother. The two are planning a meeting.
The next hurdle for Oshay is to breathe on his own. He's been on a ventilator all day, every day since the accident. Doctors say he'll need a diaphragmatic pacer. It will be implanted to stimulate his diaphragm and allow him to have a normal breathing pattern, without a ventilator.
The Food and Drug Administration has approved the device for patients older than 18. His doctors are waiting for special approval for Oshay. They expect an answer to come within the next six months. If they do not receive a response, Oshay will be back at his home in Sanderson on December 10.
Doctors say the family's mobile home is insufficient to handle all of Oshay's medical equipment. The community and Jacksonville-based Builders Care say they will build the family a new home.
Oshay would have been a junior next year. He would have likely been the Wildcats starting safety. Although he knows he will likely never play again, he hopes to rejoin the team in some capacity.
"My teammates are still thinking about me and I'll still be with them every day," Oshay said.
"I think it's something that can continue to keep him focused. It's gonna be a huge emotional lift to have him back with us," Coach Johns said.
Oshay says he's good for one more hail mary, off the field.
"I'll be able to walk again," Oshay said, quite convincingly.
"We hope that in the future, he'll either have a miracle or a medical breakthrough that will help to repair that area. Right now, the odds aren't good," said Dr. Brockman.
"I know today that Oshay's not walking...I have a pretty good sense that in the next few days, that's not going to change. What I don't know is what it's going to look like down here - but then we never knew what it was going to look like down here, anyway. So if I can help keep more present, then that makes this less overwhelming and that makes this - for today, 'I can deal with this.' I don't know if I can deal with this long term, but today I can," said Linden.
Oshay says he's come a long way since the night doctors weren't sure he'd survive. Although the odds are against him, Oshay says his journey is not over.
"You just got to keep believing in things and I believe I'll walk again," said Oshay.
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