Beyond the X: Ponderosa High's Zach Pickett is more than America's only paraplegic high school water polo player

By Mitch Stephens Nov 1, 2013, 12:00am

Just 15 months after a horrific diving accident, Zach Pickett inspires with a quiet and unassuming spirit, a courageous and harrowing story, and a positive and straightforward attitude.

Zach Pickett, 17, is believed to be the only paraplegic high school water polo player in the country. The Ponderosa senior shattered his seventh vertebra and spinal cord in a 2012 diving accident but it hasn't shattered his dreams of living a full and athletic life.
Zach Pickett, 17, is believed to be the only paraplegic high school water polo player in the country. The Ponderosa senior shattered his seventh vertebra and spinal cord in a 2012 diving accident but it hasn't shattered his dreams of living a full and athletic life.
Photo by Todd Shurtleff
SHINGLE SPRINGS, Calif. — It had been only a couple weeks since a diving accident left Zach Pickett paralyzed from the chest down when he was asked if he still planned to serve as junior class president at Ponderosa (Shingle Springs, Calif.).

Pickett, always quick with the wit and historical knowledge, pondered for a moment and nodded.

"Why not?" he asked rhetorically. "I could be like FDR. He did pretty good for himself in a wheelchair."

Indeed Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the country's only four-term president, got a lot done.



But he never played water polo.

Pickett did play the sport — quite well in fact — before the Aug. 5, 2012 mishap at Cameron Park Lake that crushed his seventh vertebra and compressed it into his spinal cord. Somehow, it didn't crush his spirit or his desire to play a sport that is largely powered by legs.

The 17-year-old is believed to be the only paraplegic high school water polo player in the country, and Tuesday he concludes his senior season with a match at Laguna Creek (Elk Grove, Calif.).

"It's been a blast," Pickett said. "I didn't want to play to set some precedent. I just wanted to play because it's what I've always done. I wanted a sense of normalcy. And mostly I just wanted to be around my friends."

His best pal and starting player Hayden Cooksy describes Pickett's courage as anything but normal. It's just that Pickett makes it seem that way, which couldn't be farther from the truth. The challenge of water polo is not just treading water, but gaining height above it in able to shoot through a vigorous leg pedaling motion called "egg-beating."

Zach Pickett has scored two goals in 2013.
Zach Pickett has scored two goals in 2013.
Photo by Todd Shurtleff
It's a vital tool stolen away from Pickett, who shows no outward sign of remorse or anger from his accident. He simply displays a quiet and unassuming fighting spirit.



"We'll be at the pool at practice and Zach just rolls up in his wheelchair," Cooksy said. "He climbs out and sits down and just starts going. Talk about upper body strength? It's mind-blowing."

If the Bruins are blown away, imagine their opponents. Pickett usually lowers himself into the water well before the match, so it's not until afterward, when he leads the team from his wheelchair to shake hands, do they notice. Second and third quizzical looks often follow. Some opponents are flat-out apologetic, Ponderosa coach Matt Jaehn said.

"I've seen kids go, ‘Wait, you're in a wheelchair?'" Jaehn said. "They'll be, ‘Sorry man, I didn't mean to. …'"

Pickett usually just wheels on by. No apologies are necessary. He appreciates the compassion, but he's never been comfortable being in the spotlight. He's much too modest and unselfish, his teammates and family say.

Besides, he's not the star player anymore. He started as a gangly 6-foot-1 sophomore and as one of the fastest swimmers in the area — likely to follow the strokes of his older brother Ryan, a scholarship swimmer at the University of Hawaii — he scored approximately 20 goals that season, mostly on fast breaks.

This season, he has played in more than half the matches, often in lopsided ones, with the result not nearly in jeopardy. The transition from standout to reserve at times was tough for Pickett, but certainly not any more difficult than going from athletic, academic teen to permanently disabled.



The psychological challenge to overcome that sudden and cruel reality has been as tough as the physical one. But Pickett has transitioned smoothly, like a streamlined freestyle crawl through the water, with barely a ripple. He's been steered by a remarkably positive attitude influenced significantly by his parents Judy and Tod Pickett, a relentlessly supportive community and a strong core of aquatic friends.

"I don't know if I'd be able to do what he's done," Cooksy said. "But it's great. Simply great."

Pickett doesn't quite see it that way. He's just living his new life and understandably flashes occasionally back to his former self.

"It's hard because I definitely want to contribute more to the team," he said. "But I do what I can."

Jaehn laughs at such a notion, stating that Pickett's contributions go well past goals, assists or saves.

"We want to be a hard-fighting, scrappy team and Zach is the epitome of that," he said. "He's the heart and soul of this team. And he keeps it fun, too."



That seems highly improbable considering what happened to him 15 months ago.


Video shot and edited by Scott Hargrove/Cover photo by Todd Shurtleff{PAGEBREAK}
The accident
Zach Pickett is shown during the early morning hours of Aug. 6, 2012, following surgery.
Zach Pickett is shown during the early morning hours of Aug. 6, 2012, following surgery.
Photo courtesy of the Pickett family
Pickett said he doesn't think much about the accident. He doesn't talk about it either.

"Only unless someone else brings it up. What happened, happened. I wake up every day and get in my wheelchair. I guess that reminds me."

It was hot that August afternoon. It was closing in on 4 p.m. and 100 degrees.

Pickett and his longtime friends Cooksy and Frankie Kennedy were on break from their lifeguard duties at Cameron Park Lake and dove into shallow water to simply cool off.

"Just like they and hundred of kids have done 100 times before," Tod Pickett said. 



Kennedy and Cooksy pretty much belly-flopped in. But Zach lowered his head into a diving motion and the crown struck a sandbar submerged in the shallow murky water. It took little force to crush his seventh vertebra and damage his spinal cord forever. 

"I don't remember much of it," Zach said. "I lost all movement, I know that. I remember being face down and then getting moved sideways so I could breathe. From there, it was all a blur."

Zach Pickett with his mother, Judy, and father, Tod.
Zach Pickett with his mother, Judy, and father, Tod.
Photo by Todd Shurtleff
For his parents, it was a vivid nightmare. Cooksy, who helped stabilize Zach along with Kennedy (some say they saved his life), called Judy, who rode in the ambulance with her son to UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, a 35-minute haul.

Tod, who was working at his sports memorabilia store in Placerville at the time, got the call from Judy and took the longest hour drive of his life to Sacramento.

"It was horrible," he said. "I had little information. I tried to think positive thoughts. I cried a lot. I remember thinking ‘This can't be happening.'"

Not to Zach. Not at 16. He'd just got his driver's license and the day before had earned his Eagle Scout award. He was closing in on all of Brian's swim times. He was a straight-A student with his whole life in front of him.



But the Pickett family had faced adversity before. Plenty of it. When Zach was 6 months old, Judy was diagnosed with breast cancer. She fought through it, but it came back twice more by the time Zach was 6. She fought it off twice more and the Rolling Hills Middle School physical education and life fitness teacher has been cancer free for 12 years.

"It's all he's known his whole life, that his mom had cancer," Judy said. "Maybe it's given him some extra strength."
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Hitting bottom
Zach Pickett wheels down the ramp of a donated custom van that is retrofitted to accommodate his disability.
Zach Pickett wheels down the ramp of a donated custom van that is retrofitted to accommodate his disability.
Photo by Todd Shurtleff
He needed all that strength, physically and mentally.

The scene at the hospital was hectic, chaotic and a blur to Tod.

"It was a room just filled with doctors," he recalled. "Zach had 11 or 12 IVs in him. The medicine made him sick at first. There were steroids in his neck and spinal cord. It was not a pretty week. It was the longest week of our lives. Couldn't sleep. You don't know what to do in that spot. There's no manual to read. You just have to go through it."

Over the next three months, Zach and his parents stayed between the medical center, Shriners Hospital and the Sacramento Ronald McDonald House. Judy and Tod never went home.

"I think it may have been harder on them than me," said Zach, who endured hours upon hours of physical therapy.



Said Tod: "Frankly, I don't know how he kept such a great attitude. At his age, I don't think I could have. ... The kid definitely has heart."

Zach Pickett on his sixth day in the hospital.
Zach Pickett on his sixth day in the hospital.
Photo courtesy of the Pickett family
His parents prepared him well for the moment, Zach said. Judy not only endured the cancer, she is a national spokesperson for the cause. She's also raised cancer awareness through running, having completed 119 races in 38 states.

Tod got Zach involved with the Special Olympics six years previously.

That, combined with humbling experiences at the Shriners Hospital — seeing young burn victims and infants with leukemia, for instance — gave Zach much-needed perspective.

"I don't know if I was ever really angry," Zach said. "I remember wondering, 'Why did it have to happen?' But I also remember people in my condition telling me you can't always be angry. It's not going to change anything. Besides that, I knew other people had it worse than I did.

"At a certain point I knew I had hit bottom. Literally. I just had to come back up."



It helped to have a tremendously supportive community behind the Pickett family. The local Mountain Democrat newspaper regularly ran stories promoting countless fundraisers to help defray medical costs for the Picketts.

Contractors, unbeknownst to the family, built wheelchair ramps and remodeled their home. A custom van to aid in loading and unloading a wheelchair was also donated, one that Zach started driving last month.

"Amazing," Tod said. "We are indebted forever to the phenomenal people of our community."

Said Judy: "Blessed. Truly blessed."

Zach soaked it all in and rather than crumble, he paid back the people who loved and supported him by living a full life.

"I think he learned that tough times don't last, but tough people do," Judy said. "We can get through anything together as a family and an incredible community."
In this photo taken the day before he was paralyzed, Zach Pickett poses by the finished school sign that was his Eagle Scout project.
In this photo taken the day before he was paralyzed, Zach Pickett poses by the finished school sign that was his Eagle Scout project.
Photo courtesy of the Pickett family
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Back in action
Zach Pickett prepares to get into the pool at Union Mine High School before Ponderosa's game against Monterey Trail on Oct. 16.
Zach Pickett prepares to get into the pool at Union Mine High School before Ponderosa's game against Monterey Trail on Oct. 16.
Photo by Todd Shurtleff
When Zach returned to school in the winter of his junior year, it surprised many that he attempted to swim. But not those who knew him well.



Swimming was already part of his physical therapy, so he competed in two meets for the Bruins in the spring. He swam the 50-yard backstroke.

"I didn't care about my times," he said. "I just wanted to finish and be part of the team. I think people started accepting me as an athlete."

That spring he also participated in the U.S. Paralympics Spring Swimming Nationals at the University of Minnesota, taking home first- and second-place honors in the 50 back and breaststrokes, respectively.

Zach Pickett with best friend and teammate, Hayden
Cooksy, this past spring at the U.S. Paralympics Spring
Swimming Nationals in Minnesota.
Zach Pickett with best friend and teammate, Hayden Cooksy, this past spring at the U.S. Paralympics Spring Swimming Nationals in Minnesota.
Photo courtesy of the Pickett family
It was there that Zach met many kids who had suffered similar injuries and experienced common journeys. He also witnessed many athletes who sustained even more traumatic injuries than he.

All of it helped to inspire him to continue his water polo career. He was welcomed with wet, open arms by the Bruins.

"If he wanted to come back, by all means, a spot was always open for him," Jaehn said. "He had earned that. But it was a little hard to imagine how he was going to get it done. It wasn't going to be easy."



Few great things in life are, and Zach's impact on the Bruins, opponents and spectators has truly been that — great.

That includes the impact upon his childhood friend Cooksy, who not only helped save his life that fateful day, but earned his own Eagle Scout badge with Zach. Cooksy used the phrase "mind-blowing" again while watching his friend actually score a 5-meter (penalty shot) for his first goal early in the season. He added another goal later on.

"He's always been a strong person," Cooksy said. "I believe since the accident, he's been trying even harder things and putting forward a bigger effort at things he enjoys. … To see him conquering these things, it gets to you."

And changes you, Cooksy said.

"Take my swimming, for instance," he said. "I've been doing it a long time. I never thought it would be anything special to me. But after watching Zach and seeing how hard you can go for things, it told me I have something special and that I should try to keep at it too.

"I thank him for that every day."
Zack Pickett looks to pass the ball while guarded by a Monterey Trail player.
Zack Pickett looks to pass the ball while guarded by a Monterey Trail player.
Photo by Todd Shurtleff
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Scoring goals
Zach Pickett scored his second goal of the season on this shot against Monterey Trail.
Zach Pickett scored his second goal of the season on this shot against Monterey Trail.
Photo by Todd Shurtleff
So does Jaehn.



"He's such a great kid, so nice, so smart and he's still an athlete," he said. "He's still in the pool every day and every day you see some sort of improvement from him.

"Never once have I heard him have a bad attitude about his injury. Not one day. And that's the most impressive thing to me."

It has made Jaehn's life easier when trying to motivate the Bruins. He doesn't need to say a word.

"To think last year at this time, Zach was in a hospital bed and not walking and unable to use his legs or do anything. And to think all that he's done since then: He's been on the swim team, done the Paralympics, maintained his grades and now this — be on the water polo team.

"For the kids who grew up with him, to see Zach in the pool, giving it his all, they know they can't slack off. They know if Zach is in here doing the work, then they can do it. If Zach's not complaining, then I'm not complaining. If Zach can score a goal, then I can score a goal."

Zach scored his second goal in an Oct. 16 match at Union Mine (El Dorado), the location that Ponderosa uses as its home pool. In a 16-5 win over Monterey Trail (Elk Grove), Zach played most of the match and the Bruins constantly set him up for point-blank shots.



Only one of six got through — a shot to the top left corner — and it sent the sparse but enthusiastic crowd into a frenzy.

Zach Pickett (center) leads his team in a cheer before its game.
Zach Pickett (center) leads his team in a cheer before its game.
Photo by Todd Shurtleff
"It's very nice to score a goal," Zach said. "It's fun to do that. It's weirder when everyone is cheering for you every time you get the ball."

It was odd for the Monterey Trail players to watch Zach maneuver into a wheelchair after the match. When his condition was explained to Monterey Trail's Andrew Schiele, the senior shook his head.

"Wow, that's amazing," he said. "I mean, he's a really good player. He's got an excellent shot and he was aggressive. That's inspiring."

Schiele noted Zach was also a great sport.

"After I made a goal he told me ‘Great shot,'" Schiele said. "You don't hear that often from an opponent in a water polo match."



But Zach has a different perspective on sports and competition since the accident. He smiled often during the match, even when he missed shots or lost the ball. Winning and losing, scoring and failing, they're all relative terms. 

"There were a couple of other shots I probably should have scored on," Zach said. "Before (the accident) I probably would have got benched," he said, smiling. "That's all right. It doesn't matter too much anymore. It's just about being out here and being with everyone. And being a part of a team."

But clearly, Zach stands out, even if he has to sit much of the time.

Like FDR, he has a much to accomplish in his lifetime.

He raised his 3.95 grade point average to a 4.17 showing last semester. He'll continue swimming for the school and Paralympics and he'll certainly attend college.

His college major?



"I have no idea," he said. "Maybe marketing."

Whatever Zach is selling, people will no doubt buy it because it will be real, earned and something of substance.

"With what he's done in the last 14 months, in my eyes, the sky's the limit," Tod said. "As long as he sees it and wants it and puts his mind to it, he can do anything."
Zach Pickett shakes hands with Monterey Trail players following the game.
Zach Pickett shakes hands with Monterey Trail players following the game.
Photo by Todd Shurtleff