Photo by Lauren Olson, Photography Editor
By Grace Remington, Senior Staff Writer
When a chronic illness prevented Tyler Holliday from playing baseball, the Miami University baseball team stepped up to help carry his dream. Tyler, a West Chester resident, became the team's newest RedHawk after signing an official National Letter of Intent with the team Wednesday, his personal "Draft Day."
"This is really important for him," Jeanette Holliday, Tyler's mother, said. "It gives him a typical atmosphere to be included in. It keeps him from being on the outside looking in."
Tyler was 8 years old when his parents noticed some spots forming on his body. Doctors diagnosed him with chicken pox, but he lost mental function six days later. He was rushed to the hospital and diagnosed with Rocky Mountain spotted fever, an infectious disease transmitted by ticks.
The infection attacked all the organs in his body except his lungs, and Tyler fell into a coma for one month. He was treated in the intensive care unit for 1.5 months and in the hospital for 2.5 months. When Tyler first left the hospital, he needed a wheelchair and a feeding tube. Since then, he has relearned to walk and eat. His organs have recovered, but he is cognitively on par with a 3 to 5-year-old.
"He has seizures every day," Holliday said. "That's probably the hardest thing he has to deal with … they really set him back."
Tyler understands what is being said to him, but he has a hard time responding and often repeats what he hears others say. He has seizures daily; though most are the type where he gazes off into the distance, he occasionally does have convulsions. Tyler does occupational therapy, speech therapy and physical therapy.
"Being a 13-year-old and having to be so delayed and behind your peers, that's hard," Holliday said. "When a child is born with something, that's all they've ever known. But it's different for Tyler, who acquired this when he was eight. He was leading a very full life. He had a lot of friends, he was a very social kid, he played sports, he did all those things."
Team IMPACT, an organization that partners children facing life-threatening and chronic illnesses with local college athletic teams, partnered with Miami baseball to give Tyler this opportunity.
"It was important to us to find the right fit," Holliday said. "I feel like this is where Tyler was meant to be. This is a part of his journey and another step that we're supposed to take."
Tyler has eight team advocates: Nathan Williams, Ryan Elble, Gary Russo, Julian Flanary, Ryan Haynes, Kendall Johnson, Tyler Harris and Brooks Urich.
"We're very excited to have Tyler be a part of the team," Urich said. "It definitely puts everything in perspective for us as a team … especially for college baseball, where we can get wrapped up in making the game too big. But really we're out here to have fun and play baseball, and Tyler's here having fun because he wants to be here too. He's good for us because he reminds us of that, he reminds us that baseball isn't everything in life."
Holliday is excited to have a support group that relates to Tyler's favorite sport.
"It's so cool to see this bunch of guys who treat him like anyone else," Holliday said. "As sad as it is, that's not been the norm that I've found in the last five years … but there's times where he just needs to be allowed to be a kid and do the things that other people do."
At a ceremony Wednesday evening, Tyler was greeted with a cake and applause and received his very own jersey, glove and apparel.
"We've told Tyler and his mom that we want him around as much as possible," Urich said. "He's invited to be in our dugout and batting practices … we got him the gear so he should be ready to go."
Manager Danny Hayden is eager to begin a strong relationship with Tyler and his family.
"We're cognizant of what we can do for him moving forward, in trying to make his days a little better," Hayden said. "He seems to be in a pretty good mood all the time anyway, but if there's something we can do to make his day better and his life easier, I'm here to do it."
Hayden believes that the team will be as impacted by Tyler as Tyler is by the team.
"I think it'll have a huge impact on us," Hayden said. "We certainly hope that we can have a big, positive impact on Tyler's life. It hopefully makes things easier for him and his family, but I think if we do this thing the right way it will have every bit as much of an impact on us and our guys … there's people out there who would kill to have our bad days, I think this is a good example of that. Here's a kid who was a perfectly normal 8-year-old kid, and he had a bad day and it changed the rest of his life. I think that's a tough message, but it's something I would think would have an impact on our guys."
Tyler and his family plan on attending as many practices and games as possible. Their current goal is to be present for the team's first home game March 18.
"I can't even put into words how much it means to me that for the first time in five years, he has something to look forward to," Holliday said. "A lot has been taken away from him. For him to have something good, it's just beyond words."