A teenager who followed his dream to play U.S. college basketball is now faced with a life-changing event, after a car crash in Nebraska left him paralyzed.
Stephane Okenge, 19, has a passion for sports. He grew up in Ottawa, and at nine years old, his mother Trisha Okenge's job would take the family overseas to Rwanda and Uganda, where he fell in love with basketball.
"Since he was born, he excelled athletically," says Trisha. "His older brother was a very strong basketball player, so he sort of followed in his shoes."
Okenge, the second youngest of six siblings, would keep playing, eventually carrying the ball back to the capital. To pursue his dream of playing professionally, he joined Canada Top Flight Academy (CTA), based out of Notre Dame High School, to become a member of the National Championship Team.
"Steph is an amazing young man. I had the benefit and advantage of coaching him and getting to know him for two years. He was one of the hardest workers I've ever coached and I've been coaching for 35 years," says CTA founder and coach, Tony House. "I mean, no one outworked him in the weight room, or on the court, and the work he put in really separated him from the rest."
From here, Okenge was recruited to Oklahoma, where he spent three years before heading to York University in Nebraska to play on a varsity basketball team.
But on a Sunday morning in late October, while driving to practice, the car he was travelling in crashed off the interstate highway. Okenge was a passenger.
"It seems like his friend nodded off at the wheel," says Trisha. "They ran off the interstate, through an interstate sign and smashed into a culvert, so the sudden and abrupt stop against the culvert is what created the very strong whiplash that ended up smashing some of his vertebrae."
The driver suffered minor injuries, but Okenge has been left paralyzed from the shoulders down.
After more than a month in a U.S. intensive care unit, Okenge returned home to Ottawa. He is now in the hospital at the Civic campus, where his mother says he remains positive.
"He's completely breathing on his own. He's been doing that since Nov. 15. He's also been able to eat on his own, which is also a big win," she says. "He has really enjoyed connecting with his friends, although there's definitely a bittersweet element to it."
The focus now is on rehabilitation, but the cost of all the supplies is not necessarily covered.
"We will have to retrofit the entire house. He'll need specialized transportation, equipment, and all kinds of adaptive type of equipment," says Trisha. "I've had to leave my job I was working overseas. It's clearly not possible for me to continue to work overseas."
There has been an outpouring of support from friends and community members from across the world, donating to a GoFundMe campaign.
House is helping as well. Canada Topflight Academy will host a fundraiser, raffle and silent auction this Thursday, beginning at 6 p.m., at Notre Dame High School.
"Our national gold team are going to put on an exhibition. We're going to have a slam dunk contest, a three-point contest and then we're going to have a post reception in the cafeteria," says House. "It's going to be a display of basketball like he would have wanted from the CTA, his brotherhood at the CTA, and we want to try to raise as much money as we can for the family because they are going to need it and we're really excited to just do our part."
Trisha says she is grateful for the support, and for Stephane, with his friends and family by his side, the game plan now is recovery.
"Stephane has touched the lives of many people in so many different locations and we are really blessed to be able to have the support that we have seen," Trisha says. "He's a strong, strong, strong kid. He has a strong will. He has a very strong character, and a very strong work ethic ... I am very sure that he's going to continue to touch many lives and continue to be very productive."
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