1. The perseverance of Pickett
A tragic diving accident that left him paralyzed from the chest down didn't deter the nation's only paraplegic water polo player Zach Pickett.
Photo by Todd Shurtleff
was one of his region's top water polo and swim prospects after his freshman and sophomore years at
Ponderosa (Shingle Springs, Calif.). He looked destined to follow in his brother's footsteps as a college swimmer when tragedy hit. A diving accident in a local lake the summer before his junior year crushed his seventh vertebra and compressed it into his spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed from the chest down.
Pickett's perseverance brought him back to the water, not only to swim but also to lay claim as the nation's only paraplegic water polo player. His story reached many, and because of it he was honored last week in Boston at the annual NFHS convention. He received the nation's top
Spirit of Sport award for courage.
Pickett's story also made the "miraculous" rounds when he
walked with the use of a cane at his high school graduation.
