This weekend, Jay Spencer became the first wrestler in his school’s history to win a state title. And even more impressively, he did so while being legally blind.
“[D]on’t let what anyone thinks about you change how you think,” Spencer told WZDX. “As long as you believe you can do something, then you can.”
Spencer, a senior at St. John Paul II in Huntsville, is wise beyond his years. However, the inspiration he is providing people comes from more than his words alone.
A multi-year starter as the football team’s center, Spencer has constantly lived out his own words after being diagnosed with an inherited retinal degenerative disease when he was only three years old. The state title is just the crowning achievement on a high school athletics career that anyone would be proud of.
“He’s probably the hardest working wrestler I’ve coached in 25 years,” St. John Paul II coach Duke Labasi told WZDX. “He puts in work on the mat, in practice, on his own personal time – his work ethic is really incomparable.”
The coach added, “Jay has never let any type of impairment that it may seem he has affect him on the mat.”
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Sean Ross is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
